Kids in the Kitchen: Meatloaf and Mashed Potato Cupcakes

September 5, 2015 by Chandra Leave a Comment

My children LOVE to be in the kitchen helping me with whatever I make, especially desserts! I’ve had them helping me since they were really little. Today I’m going to start a series of post titled Kids in the Kitchen where I show you all of the amazing things that kids can do in the kitchen! I hope that this will inspire you to get your children into the kitchen. Today we are baking cupcakes…meatloaf mashed potato cupcakes!

This summer my girls enjoyed watching the TV show MasterChef Junior and now they are even more excited than ever to be in the kitchen helping with my every move. They are training to be their own MasterChefs.

My daughter recently went to a sleepover where they made their own version of meatloaf cupcakes. I knew we had to make them at home when she individually told everyone in our family about them. This is a great way to get kids in the kitchen helping and then eating the food they made!

For this meal you can use your favorite meatloaf and mashed potatoes and turn it into savory cupcakes!

I have learned with my girls that the mess is exponential when the kids help out! Be prepared for a mess. Today I pre-measured all of the ingredients. I knew the fun would be in making the meatloaf and then the mashed potato icing.

First we mixed the meatloaf mixture. Clara thought it was great that she got to use her hands to mix the meatloaf.

Kids were shocked and thrilled to use their hands to mix the meatloaf!
We used a measuring scoop to make the cupcakes as even as possible.
We baked the meatloaf before putting on the mashed potatoes. (If you want your mashed potatoes crispy like Shepard’s Pie you could pipe before baking the meatloaf).
Next we piped the icing (mashed potatoes). We used some food coloring to make the icing more fun. You definitely don’t have to pipe the icing but I think it’s easier for kids to pipe icing than to spread it with a knife.
Finally we added toppings as the sprinkles. You can’t have cupcakes without sprinkles! Our sprinkles were bacon bits, shredded cheese and green onions.

The girls loved not only making their dinner but they also enjoyed eating! They ate their meatloaf just like you would any other cupcake-with your hands!

You can eat a meatloaf cupcake the same way as any other cupcake!

You can’t have a kids in the kitchen series without sharing the outtakes! My 1 year old had to get into the action and the girls had plenty of fun silly moments. That’s part of the fun.

It’s never to early to start helping in the kitchen

Barbecue Buns (Inspired by Siopao (Asian Filled Buns))

March 3, 2015 by Chandra Leave a Comment

It’s been awhile since I last checked in! I have several posts in the works but just haven’t wrapped them up so hopefully there will be a few more post coming soon! I joined The Daring Kitchen late last year and have yet to actually post one of the monthly challenges! This month I’m late in getting the post but I’m going to go ahead an post about the challenge.

One of the reasons that I joined The Daring Kitchen was to try new things and broaden my baking repertoire. This month’s challenge was Siopao or Asian filled buns. As first I was nervous simply because of the recipe name…I’ve never made much Asian food but as I read the recipe it became clear that this was a filled bun and my children would LOVE to participate and devour the food.

The bun is a simple recipe; it is basically a pizza dough and doesn’t require kneading. I’d recently made our favorite slow cooker barbecue (I hope to tell you about this shortly-seriously a favorite slow cooker recipe) and we had leftover barbecue and we were out of sandwich buns! I realized this would be the perfect opportunity to try out these filled buns.

I made the basic dough and rolled out each piece of dough into a flat circle and then I got my children involved. Take a look at the ingredients…this couldn’t be any simpler and chances are that you have everything to make this right now! The girls helped scoop out the filling, close up the buns and then put on an egg wash before baking.

My girls had fun making dinner, the stuffed buns were delicious and we’ll definitely make this again! Thanks Julie (from One-Wall Kitchen) for the monthly challenge. I can see us stuffing all kinds of things into these buns…it’s the perfect portable dinner for weeknights on the go.

Here’s the recipe for the bun. I hope you enjoy.

Barbecue Buns (Inspired by Siopao (Asian Filled Buns))

Prep time

2 hours

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

2 hours 20 mins

This is a simple yet delicious recipe for a filled bun. I made filled the bun with Barbecue.

Author: The Daily Dabble

Recipe type: Dinner

Cuisine: Asian Buns

Serves: 16

Ingredients

1 packet active dry yeast
1½ cups (360 ml) warm water
1 tablespoon (15 ml) sugar
2 tablespoons (30 ml) melted butter
1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
4 to 5 cups (20 oz to 25 oz) (560 gm to 700 gm) all-purpose (plain) flour
1 egg for egg-wash for the buns

Instructions

Mix yeast, water, sugar, melted butter, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Slowly mix in flour until it's fully incorporated. It will be a very tacky dough, but not wet and sticky.
Cover the bowl and let rise for up to an hour in warm place until doubled in size.
Punch down dough and turn out onto a floured surface. Fold the dough over several times and shape into a smooth ball, then divide into 16 equal pieces.
Roll each piece into a ball and flatten it into a disc about 5-6 inches wide.
Place 1-2 tablespoons of filling into the center of the disc, wrap the dough around the filling, and firmly pinch it closed over the top of the filling. Make sure the dough is fully closed and there are no holes.
Place filled buns on a baking sheet and loosely cover them. Let them rest for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to moderate 350°F.
Beat 1 egg in a small bowl for egg wash and brush on top of each bun.
Bake buns for about 20 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm. These also reheat well.

Friday Family Favorites: Chicken Pot Pie

April 11, 2014 by Chandra Leave a Comment

Today I’m going to start a new series called: Friday Family Favorites!

As the name states, this will be the place where I will share our families tried and true recipes that we love! I’m going to start off with Chicken Pot Pie. This recipe is great to double–keep one for yourself and take one to a friend! This is the perfect thing to make when you need to bring a meal to someone and that’s just what we did (I took the pie unbaked to a friend and they baked the finished product which is why you don’t see any finished pictures) today!

There are several reasons why I personally like to make chicken pot pie for my family:

You can make this totally from scratch or make it semi-homemade
Meat, vegetables and carbs are all in this recipe-you don’t have to make anything else to go with it if you don’t want to
You can make ahead and pop in the oven when ready to bake

Today I made a semi-homemade version…basically chicken pot pie is made up of:

Piecrust (today’s is homemade)
Chicken (t0day’s is rotisserie chicken)
Filling (today’s is frozen mixed veggies)
Sauce (today’s is a can of cream of chicken soup)

Any of the parts of this recipe can be made from scratch or store bought and put together…in my opinion, the more that’s homemade the better but sometimes you have to take into account how much time you have! I had enough time to make a piecrust (to me that’s the first thing make from scratch as there’s a major difference between store bought and homemade) but not much time to make anything else from scratch…I needed to drop off this meal during nap times so I was pushed for time!

Since I made the piecrust from scratch I’ll share a few of my tips and trick to making this crust turn out perfect every time you make it! There are many, many versions of homemade pie crust…use whatever one works for you! I have tried with butter, crisco, a combination of both and often use different version. However, if I want a quick version, that’s not fussy and I know is going to work for me, this is the version I use! This is adapted from The Pioneer Woman’s version and she shows you step by step if interested.

This recipe is not fussy. There is butter in this recipe but I pull it straight from the fridge and don’t do anything special with it.
Freeze the dough for at least 30 minutes before rolling out-it will make your life easier! During that 30 minutes, prep the rest of the pie.
When I roll out dough I place it between two sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper (wax paper works better but I was out so here I’ve used plastic wrap) and roll out the dough to the desired size. Then you can remove once piece of the plastic/wax paper and place in you dish. Once placed remove the other piece of plastic/wax paper and ta-da you have a perfectly places pie crust!
Use an egg wash! A simple egg wash will do wonders for the finished product. It helps to brown the crust and to make it shiny.