"Chop Chop" - Review of a Cooking Magazine for Kids

Even though the school year has ended, it doesn't mean kids can't learn over the summer holidays more about cooking and the food they eat. "Chop Chop" is a food magazine for the "chickaDee/Owl magazine set that focuses on nutrition and easy to make recipes, along with games and puzzles, food facts, and interviews with celebrities, and both child and professional chefs. Published quarterly, it is both critically acclaimed and trendy enough for young elementary school foodies (few recipients of the James Beard Foundation Award for Publication of the Year have recipes for avocado toast AND a recipe featured in "Bon Appétit" (yes, this basic children's recipe was featured in an adult cooking magazine as a thing)). If you're looking for a cool addition to a child's summer reading list, check to see if your local public library carries it.

March Break Meals: Dinner

Parents often scramble to find activities for their children to do during the annual week long spring break in the school year. If registering them into a day camp is not an option, this can be a good time to show how to cook some meals. Letting children help with meal preparation is a great way to spend time with them, and it also shows the effort involved in making what is put on the table everyday. Here is a dinner recipe that is easy to make and is something that kids like to eat:

Ingredients: Pizza  

420 g flour
240 mL water
10 g baking powder
5 g salt
1 jar of tomato sauce
sliced or grated mozzarella cheese
your favourite pizza toppings

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Whisk the flour with the salt and the baking powder. Add the water and let your child knead the dough into a ball, adding more flour a little at a time if the dough is too sticky. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
2. Spread the dough onto a generously floured baking tray, and have your child roll it into the appropriate shape.
3. Spread tomato sauce over the shaped dough, then add the mozzarella cheese and your pizza toppings (for toppings such as onions and sausage, sauté them first to avoid dealing with getting everything to cook at the same time; this would apply to bacon as well).
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the pizza base is puffed and golden, about 15 minutes.
   
   This yeast-free dough recipe can be found in my all-time favourite cookbook, "Cooking for Geeks".

March Break Meals: Lunch

Parents often scramble to find activities for their children to do during the annual week long spring break in the school year. If registering them into a day camp is not an option, this can be a good time to show how to cook some meals. Letting children help with meal preparation is a great way to spend time with them, and it also shows the effort involved in making what is put on the table everyday. Here is a lunch recipe that is easy to make and is something that kids like to eat:

Ingredients: Tacos

115 g corn kernels
6 small corn tortillas
5 g ground cumin + pinch for the salsa
3 ripe tomatoes
1 can black beans
1 small onion
1 lime
1/2 red chili pepper
1/2 jalapeno pepper
Handful of torn cilantro (optional)
salt, pepper

1. Finely chop the tomatoes, onion, both peppers and the cilantro. Cut the lime in half and have your child squeeze out the juice.
2. Put all chopped up items in a bowl, add the lime juice, salt, pepper, and a pinch of the cumin, and have you child mix everything together.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
3. Open up the can of beans and drain them. Saute them in a skillet together with corn. After few minutes, season it with the remaining cumin, and some salt and pepper.
4. Heat the tortillas according to the directions on the package. When they are ready, spread a layer of beans and corn on a tortilla followed by some shredded cheese and the fresh salsa.

March Break Meals: Breakfast

Parents often scramble to find activities for their children to do during the annual week-long spring break in the school year. If registering them into a day camp is not an option, this can be a good time to show how to cook some meals. Letting children help with meal preparation is a great way to spend time with them, and it also shows the effort involved in making what is put on the table every day. Here is a breakfast recipe that is easy to make and is something that kids like to eat:

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Ingredients: C-3PO's Pineapple Pancakes

237 mL milk
75 g unsalted butter
30 g brown sugar
30 g baking powder
7.5 g salt
2 cans of pineapple rings
2 large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 120° C. Open up the cans of pineapple and drain off the juice. Set the pineapples aside.
2. Put the butter in a small saucepan and put it on a burner at low heat in order for the butter to melt. Once the butter has melted, turn off the heat and let the butter cool for a bit.
3.  Pour the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl, and allow your child to stir everything up until it is well mixed.
4. Break the eggs in another mixing bowl (you know better than me if this is something your kid is capable of doing). Add the milk and about 60 mL of the melted butter and whisk everything until it is well mixed. Slowly mix in the flour mixture until everything is blended - what part(s) you want your child to do here is up to you.
5. Pour the remaining melted butter in a frying pan and spread it around to coat the cooking surface. Put the pan on the stove and switch the heat to medium-high. When the pan is hot after about a minute or so, pour in some of the batter. Cook the pancake until golden underneath and bubbles burst on the top, about three minutes.
6. Have your child place a pineapple ring in the middle of the pancake. With a spatula, carefully flip the pancake. Cook until the pancake is golden brown on the second side, about two minutes. Transfer the pancake to a baking sheet, and put the sheet in the oven.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6, adding butter to the skillet as needed. Serve the pancakes warm and butter and syrup.

This and other kid-friendly recipes can be found in "The Star Wars Cookbook".