Tag: For children

Bake with Kids: Fun Dog Cookies Recipe

A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one?
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Ingredients

  • 100g grated butter
  • 150g sour cream
  • 150g sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 560g all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • optional ingredients: poppy seeds, sugar powder, raisins

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
  2. Whisk eggs with sugar, add grated butter, sour cream and baking soda: mix until smooth.
  3. Gradually add flour and knead the dough.
  4. Roll out dough to 0.6-0.8cm height and cut the cookies with your favorite cookies cutter. My preschooler adores dogs.
  5. Optionally dip the cookie-to-be in poppy seeds or sugar powder
  6. Transfer the cut cookies-to-be on the baking paper and bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes until slightly golden.
  7. Enjoy soft and crumbly cookies. My preschooler loved them.

Quick Soup with Chicken Meatballs. Approved by toddler.

Green was the silence, wet was the light,
the month of June trembled like a butterfly.
– Pablo Neruda

Meatballs ingredients:
– 500g minced chicken meat
– 3 eggs
– 5-6 tbsp wheat flour
– 2/3 tsp salt

Other soup ingredients (for the large pot of soup):
– 7 medium potatoes
– 6 medium carrots
– 100g soup noodles
– 1 tsp salt

Method:
1 Boil water in a large pot, add 1 tsp salt
2 While water is boiling, mix minced chicken meat, eggs, flour and salt: form meatballs – 1 tbsp for a meatball, dip the meatball in flour and put in the boiling water
3 Cut potatoes and carrots and add to the pot
4 Cook the soup for 25 minutes, then add soup noodles and cook until soup noodles are ready.

Lazy Khachapuri for a quick yet delicious breakfast or lunch

We had our breakfasts – whatever happens in a house, robbery or murder, it doesn’t matter, you must have your breakfast.

Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone.

Khachapuri batter ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 eggs
– 100g grated Ciacotta (or Suluguni or butter cheese)
– 100ml Kefir
– 100g wheat flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 1 bunch of chopped parsley
– 20g butter for frying

Directions:
1 Combine all Khachapuri batter ingredients in a bowl and mix well
2 Preheat a non-sticking skillet at the medium heat: melt 20 g butter
3 Pour the batter uniformly on the skillet, cook for about 4 min one side (until golden), then flip (I flipped with two spatulas), cook for another 2 min
4 Serve lazy Khachapuri with fresh tomatoes

Healthy Banana Pancakes

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

Anton Chekhov


Ingredients:
– 350-370g flour
– 400ml buttermilk
– 2 eggs
– 3 ripe bananas
– 50g butter
– 1/3 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar

Method:
1 Mix eggs, milk and salt until smooth
2 Add grated butter, grated bananas, floor, baking soda
3 Add vinegar in the same tsp and mix everything until smooth with a blender
4 Preheat the skillet
5 Put 1 tbsp of butter for each pancake (no oil!) on the skillet and fry until golden both sides, middle heat
6 Serve with honey and fresh fruits!

Simple and Healthy Banana Oatmeal Cookies !

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
Healthy Banana Oatmeal Cookies


Ingredients:
– 150g ripe banana
– 100g oat flakes
– 50g all-purpose flour
– 30g butter
– optional: 1 tbsp cane sugar
– 30g almond flour

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Combine oat flakes, flour, sugar, almond flour with grated butter and bananas: mix everything until smooth
3 Form dough with a cookie cutter (1 tbsp dough for 1 cookie)
4 Bake the cookies at 180C for 20 minutes, serve with black tea or milk 🙂

Goulash with Knedlíky

Bez práce nejsou koláče.

Czech proverb

Goulash ingredients:
– 400g beef
– 5 onions
– 1.5 tbsp paprika
– salt and pepper to taste
– sunflower oil for frying onion
– 3 tbsp flour for the sauce

Knedlíky ingredients:
– 500g potatoes
– 150g flour
– 50g semolina
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1 Goulash
1.1 Cut beef in 2-3cm pieces
1.2 Chop onion and fry for 4 min in sunflower oil
1.3 Add beef and cook for 1.5 hours, add water when needed
1.4 Add 3 tbsp flour, mix well and cook for another 30 minutes, add water when needed
2 Knedlíky
2.1 Mix boiled potatoes, flour, semolina and salt: mix well
2.2 Form two sausages 5cm diameter
2.3 Put the sausages in the boiling water, covering the sausages, boil for 20 minutes at medium heat
3 Serve Goulash with Knedlíky and dill!

Simple and Healthy Soup with Broccoli and Meatballs !

Courage is found in unlikely places.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Soup with broccoli and meatballs

Vegetables etc. ingredients (4-6 servings):
– 12 small (8 medium) potatoes
– 10 carrots
– 1 broccoli head
– 1 tsp salt
– chopped parsley for serving

Meatballs ingredients:
– 400g minced beef
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 4-6 tbsp millet powder
– 2 tbsp floor for dipping meatballs

Method:
1 Peel and cut vegetables and put aside
2 Mix meatballs ingredients and form meatballs with hands, dip each meatball in flour and put on the plate
3 Boil 1.5-2l water, add 1 tsp salt and meatballs: cook for 20min, medium heat
4 Add vegetables to the soup and cook for another 20min, medium heat
5 Serve with chopped parsley !

Syrnyky for the perfect breakfast !

Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.

Lao Tzu
Syrnyky (Syrniki)

Batter ingredients (10-12 Syrniki):
– 500g cottage cheese
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 2 tsp Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 4 tbsp flour

Additional ingredients:
– 3-4 tbsp flour for dipping Syrniki
– sunflower oil for frying
– honey for serving

Method:
1 Mix batter ingredients until smooth.
2 For each Syrnik, dip 1 tbsp batter in flour, form a round with fingers and put it on the wooden board.
3 Pre-heat sunflower oil in the skillet: fry Syrniki 2-4 min each side until golden: transfer them on paper towels to absorb extra oil.
4 Serve warm with honey.

Pelmeni: Dumplings with Beef and Pork !

Patsuk opened his mouth, stared at the vareniki, and opened his mouth wider still. At that moment, a varenik jumped out of the bowl, splashed into the cream, flipped over and leapt straight up into his mouth. Patsuk opened his mouth again, and another varenik went through the same performance. The only trouble he took was to munch it up and swallow it.

Nikolai Gogol, Christmas Eve

We used to make Pelmeni on Christmas Eve, all the family was gathered together. One of Pelmeni was “lucky one”, made with a different filling from the others – the person who will get the “lucky” Pelemen’ is supposed to be lucky throughout the year!

Dough ingredients (~70 Pelmeni = 4-6 portions):
– 3 cups (1 cup = 250ml) wheat flour
– 170ml warm water
– 1 tbsp 9% vinegar
– 2 and 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients (~70 Pelmeni = 4-6 portions):
– 250g minced beef
– 250g minced pork
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 2-3 tsp grated butter

Serving ingredients (for 2 portions):
– 200g sour cream

Method:
1 Dough:
1.1 combine dough ingredients and knead the dough for 5-7 min
1.2 leave the dough under the cloth while making the filling
2 Filling: combine minced meat, spices, grated butter: mix well until smooth
3 Pelmeni
3.1 separate dough into 6 equal parts and form a 1.5cm diameter sausage from each part
3.2 cut each sausage into 1cm width pieces
3.3 roll out each piece into a ~7cm diameter round
3.4 put 1 tsp filling into each round
3.5 fold the round into a half-moon, pinch all the edges together strongly with fingers; then pull together two corners and pinch strongly with fingers
3.6 boil Pelmeni for 5 min after boiling and serve with sour cream
4 Enjoy !

Vareniki with Plums or Colțunași !

Iar când te văd zâmbind copilăreşte,
Se stinge-atunci o viaţă de durere,
Privirea-mi arde, sufletul îmi creşte.

Mihai Eminescu
Vareniki with Plums or Colțunași

Dough ingredients (all ingredients for 4 servings = ~30 Vareniki):
– 260g wheat flour
– 130ml water
– 30ml olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 15 middle plums
– 2 tbsp sugar

Serving ingredients:
– 200ml sour cream

Method:
1 Prepare dough:
1.1 Add olive oil in the middle of flour heap and mix oil with flour
1.2 Stir in boiled water into the oily flour and knead the dough
1.3 Let the dough rest for 15 minutes
1.4 Separate the dough into 4 equal parts with a knife. Form ~1.5cm diameter “sausage” out of each part with your hands
1.5 Cut each “sausage” into 1cm width pieces and roll out each piece into a ~5cm diameter round
2 Prepare the filling:
2.1 Wash and de-seed the plums. Separate the plums into halves.
2.2 Cut each plum half into ~6 thin slices
2.3 Combine plum slices with 2 tbsp sugar and mix well
3 Make Vareniki:
3.1 Put 3-5 plum slices into each round, fold the round into a half-moon and pinch all the edges together strongly with fingers. Be careful: these plum slices are very naughty…
3.2 Put Vareniki into boiling water and cook for 5 minutes at medium heat
3.3 Serve warm with sour cream and enjoy !

P.S. inspired by Romanian friends! 🙂

Red Bell Peppers Stuffed with Beef and Pearl Barley !

Numai daca vremea ar sta locului am putea vedea lamurit ce este etern

Mihai Eminescu
Red Bell Peppers Stuffed with Beef and Pearl Barley

Ingredients (for 4 stuffed peppers):
– 4 red bell peppers
– 450g minced beef
– 90g pearl barley
– 7 small tomatoes 🍅
– 1/3 bunch dill
– 1 small onion (to adda flavour to the broth!)
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
– 100g sour cream for serving

Directions:
1 Pre-cook pearl barley: boil for 12 minutes, then drain extra water
2 Mix minced beef with chopped dill & pre-cooked pearl barley & salt and black pepper
3 Wash red bell peppers, carefully remove the top part and de-seed
4 Stuff well red bell peppers with the meat mixture 🙂
5 Wash and cut tomatoes into 1cm cubes, peel small onion: put cut tomatoes and an onion into a large pot
6 Carefully put the stuffed peppers to the same large pot with the tops from bell peppers One can put them either horizontally or vertically, the main point is to be able to cover them with the water afterwards.
7 Add to the pot water to cover all the peppers: cook at medium heat for 40 minutes, but evacuate the onion from the pot after 10 minutes of cooking 🙂
8 Serve with sour cream and half a soup ladle of broth !

Healthy Banana Oatmeal Muffins !

“I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,” said Pooh.
“There there,” said Piglet. “I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.”

― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Ingredients (for 10-12 muffins):
– 90g oat flour
– 120g ripe bananas
– 75g quark or cottage cheese
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 1/2 tsp baking soda & 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon
– 1/4 tsp salt

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Dough: mix all ingredients in a bowl (baking soda+vinegar at the last step)
3 Pour the dough into a buttered muffin form
4 Decorate muffins with oat flakes and bake for 30-35 minutes at 180C
5 Serve with Kefir or black coffee