Beefy Cheesy Pasta

Cooking with Kids All kids love mac n’ cheese but here’s a great recipe I found years ago at allrecipes.com that adds ground beef or ground turkey for a boost of protein. It’s a favorite dish of my charges and their friends who join us for lunches or dinners. Parents and nannies ask me for the recipe […]

Cranberry Orange Mini Muffins

Cooking With Kids Cranberries are North America’s most historically significant native berry. Kids love cranberries and mini muffins. These cranberry orange mini muffins from food.com make a great snack or after dinner treat. Make a double batch and stick some in the freezer to throw into school lunches. What You Need: 1 cup sugar 1 orange, juice […]

Best Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Soup Soothes Sore Throats There is nothing like warm soup to soothe a sore throat. The family I work for and I have had terribly sore throats this week. But, we have a viral infection that antibiotics cannot treat so we only have hot fluids and rest to ease the suffering. I served the sick […]

Making Soft Pretzels

Cooking with Kids Recipe from Taste of Home, photos by Stephanie Felzenberg Baking encourages children to be creative using all of their senses. Seeing their friends and family eat what they helped to bake improves their sense of achievement and self-esteem. These soft pretzels from Taste of Home can be made salty or sweet — […]

Meatloaf Patties, Smashed Potatoes, and Pan Gravy

Cooking for Kids: Rachael Ray I cook dinner for my employers four days per week. By far their favorite meal is the meatloaf recipe pictured to the left and described below by Rachael Ray in her cookbook Kid Food: Rachael Ray’s Top 30: 30-Minute Meals. The gravy is the key to making this the best meatloaf the family […]

1, 2, 3 Peanut Butter Cookies

Easiest Cookie Recipe Ever The International Nanny Association (INA) published a great cookbook in 2000 entitled,  Beyond Peanut Butter and Jelly. The cookbook includes recipes to make with kids, crafts, creative holiday parties, and birthday theme parties. The cookbook has my favorite cookie recipe ever that I have made many dozens of times over the years. The peanut […]

Making “Egg Pie”

Easy Recipe for Quiche Lorraine The children I care for love anything that they can call pie. So as a yummy lunch, dinner, or treat I often make them Quiche Lorraine, but I tell the kids I am serving them “Egg Pie.” Here’s an easy recipe for Quiche Lorraine / Egg Pie I found at […]

Making Pizza Bagels with Kids

Cooking for Kids What kid doesn’t love pizza? Who doesn’t love bagels? Kids love making pizza bagels as much as eating them. Below we describe how to make a basic pizza bagel but nannies can mix it up and use other ingredients to make other types of pizza bagels as well. For example, to make a barbecue chicken […]

Easy Banana “Cupcakes”

Cooking With Kids Call anything a “cupcake” and my three-year-old charge will eat it. Instead of throwing out a few over ripe bananas, use the extra sweet fruit to make banana muffins. Over ripe bananas are extra sweet so there is no need to add much sugar to our simple banana muffin recipe below. Just make […]

Mini Lasagnas Made in Cupcake Tins

Cooking With Kids Kids love anything that comes in the shape of a cupcake. The Grandmother of the kids I care for visited and made these adorable mini lasagnas in cupcake tins. They are easy to make and even easier to eat. I even pack mini lasagnas in school lunch boxes, which I never did with lasagna […]