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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Kitchen Fun For The Holidays & Everyday!

By Michelle Ann Gelder


Believe it or not, you can actually have lots of fun in your kitchen. You don't need to always follow a recipe and standard items don't have to be standard. Even more so around holidays, your kitchen should be a fun place to be. Shed your kitchen inhibitions and take on a "no fear" persona as you try new and different things with the foods you eat everyday!

Rice is a staple, but it can be fun to cook as well. Here's one idea; make different colored rice. Divide uncooked rice into two equal portions and cook each portion separately. Add different food coloring to the water in each pot, just before you put in the rice. You can serve a plate of black and orange rice on Halloween, pink, yellow and purple rice for an Easter dinner or red and green rice for a Christmas meal. There are many other color themes to try all year round too.

Another way to have fun in the kitchen is to use non-traditional items to make things. For instance, you can use any of the wide variety of flavored yogurts now available to make frozen popsicles for your kids. Another idea is to pour juice in ice cube trays, freeze and use the cubes to flavor your tea. Instead of adding regular ice cubes to your iced tea, use iced tea cubes to prevent the tea from becoming too diluted. Use spearmint extract to flavor hot chocolate and make delicious peppermint patties to savor in the winter.

Adding a few drops of food coloring to plain water is a great way to get more water into your kids. You don't even need to add sugar because most kids are fascinated with the color! Mix a spoonful of strawberry ice cream to a glass of milk for a special bedtime snack for the kids. Another great snack idea that is packed with nutrition is frozen peanut butter buttons. Freeze them on waxed paper so that they release easier.

Make pancakes using cookie cutters to shape them into awesome shapes for your family one morning. Or better yet have pancakes for supper, just to throw them a curve. You can even throw in some chocolate chips or M&M's for added color and flavor. Cook eggs in metal cookie cutters for added fun at breakfast. Cut up fruits to make funny faces or animals on the kid's plates, it's just another way to add more fruit to their diet, but its fun. One more way to get more fruit in your kids is to use a juicer. Try different mixtures of fruits and fruit juices to create your own beverage. You and your kids can even give funny names to the creations you make.

Use your imagination and invent new, playful ways to use the staple food items in your kitchen to relieve the boredom and drudgery of cooking. Also remember that there really is no reason why certain foods should only be eaten at certain times. Why not have pancakes for dinner? There are countless simple ways of adding a note of fun to your kitchen chores. Freeze seedless grapes in summertime for a cool, nutrition-filled snack, or make banana chips at home using a dehydrator. These are delicious and much better than potato chips for your family. The next time you go into your kitchen, leave all your inhibitions behind; you're going to play and have fun!




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