Kids Fun Food Week – Spaghetti Pie

Do you ever have leftover spaghetti?

We do!

Want to know a great way to use that leftover spaghetti and have the kids enjoy creating in the kitchen?

Bake up a Spaghetti Pie!

dinner   Kids Fun Food Week   Spaghetti Pie

WHAT YOU NEED:

Leftover spaghetti, at least 8 ounces (1/2 a box) whole wheat if you have it

1 lb. ground turkey

1 onion, chopped fine

1 clove garlic, chopped fine

1 sweet red pepper, diced

1 small zucchini, diced

S&P

16 ounces Healthy Veggie Marinara Sauce (if you don’t have time to make your own Francesco Rinaldi has a wonderful line of heart healthy sauces like ToBe Healthy Tomato Basil you can use to save time.)

3 cups low fat shredded mozzarella cheese

fresh basil, for garnish

WHAT TO DO:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Heat a large sauce pan over medium high heat.  When it’s hot, add in your turkey and let it get nice and browned.

Once it’s brown, toss in your onion, garlic, pepper and zucchini and let them cook down a bit, til they’re soft, about 5-7 minutes.  Season it all up with some S&P.

Add in your pasta sauce and bring it up to a boil then knock it back to simmer for a few minutes on low.

Take it off the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Add in your cooked spaghetti and 1 cup of cheese then transfer the mixture to a pie dish.

Top off with remaining 2 cups of cheese and place it into the oven.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Voila…

Leftover spaghetti like you’ve never seen it!

Everyone loves pie…especially spaghetti pie!

Kids Fun Food Week – Chicken Surprise Bundles

I say it all the time…

The easiest way to get a kid to eat,

Is to involve them in the process.

These little bad boys are so much fun to make…

And even better to eat.

Check out our Chicken Surprise Bundles…

baking with kids   Kids Fun Food Week   Chicken Surprise Bundles

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 tube Pillsbury refrigerated dough

1 cup grilled chicken, diced

1 cup shredded swiss, cheddar or mozzarella cheese

8 sliced cooked chopped bacon

1 cup baby spinach

WHAT TO DO:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Spread out your dough on a cutting board.

Cut it into 8 equal squares

Place the rest of your ingredients in an assembly line and call the kids into help.

baking with kids   Kids Fun Food Week   Chicken Surprise Bundles

Let them decide what goes into the center of each of their bundles.

Keegan built his with bacon and cheese and chicken.

Brady and Cooper loaded up on the spinach.

You can get creative and add whatever you think your kids will like!

Next wrap up your bundles.

Take each corner and pull it up towards the center.

Pinch together at the top and place on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes.

baking with kids   Kids Fun Food Week   Chicken Surprise Bundles

Serve with a side salad or soup or veggie sticks.  Make a bunch, these bundles go fast!

Kids Fun Food Week – Meatloaf Cupcakes

Want to get your kids to eat?

Grab them and get in the kitchen and make these fun recipes together!

Back by popular demand…

Here is the recipe that started it all!

I couldn’t get the boys to eat meatloaf and mashed potatoes!

So foolish considering that they like everything in that dish.

But they wouldn’t actually put it in their mouth sooooo….

We came up with a fun way to make them together.

Meatloaf Cupcakes were born!

crafts   Kids Fun Food Week   Meatloaf Cupcakes

Here’s a lighter turkey meatloaf version…we’re slimming down for summer!

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 ½ lbs ground turkey

1 egg, beaten

1 clove garlic, chopped

½ c bread crumbs

2 T Worcestershire sauce

¾ c chili sauce (you can use ketchup too)

½ c onions, finely chopped

½ c carrots, finely chopped

½ c mushrooms, finely chopped

½ c red pepper, finely chopped

½ c canned fried onion strips

S&P

1 lb russet potatoes peeled and cubed

½ c milk

3 T sour  cream

2 T butter

S&P

WHAT TO DO:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Place your peeled cubed potatoes in large pot of cold water over high heat.  Bring to a boil and cook until fork tender (about 8-10 minutes after water boils depending on the size of your cubes).

In a large bowl combine ground turkey, egg, bread crumbs, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, chili sauce, onions, carrots, mushrooms, red pepper, fried onions and S&P.  Mix together with your hands until combined.  Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray.  Mold your meatloaf mixture into cupcake sized balls and place in muffin pan.  You’ll get about 8-10 cupcakes.  Place in oven and cook at 375 for about 25-30 minutes.

Drain your potatoes and return to pan.  Pour in your milk, sour cream and butter, and season with S&P.  Using a hand mixer whip your potatoes until smooth and set aside to cool a bit.  Take a large plastic Ziploc bag (or a pastry bag if you have one) and cut a small hole in the bottom corner.  Spoon your mashed potatoes into the bag then pipe out the potato on top of the meatloaves to look like frosting on a cupcake.   Serve ‘em up hot, who doesn’t love cupcakes?  Especially for dinner!

Meaty Morsel:  Decorate the tops of your cupcakes with BBQ sauce, ketchup, mustard, cheese, shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, anything you or your kids can think of.  Let them have fun with this, they’ll have more fun eating it!

Pilgrim Roll Ups

Gather up all your Thanksgiving dinner leftovers and make a delicious and fun to eat wrap.

Pilgrim Rolls

featured   Pilgrim Roll Ups

Prep Time: 15 minutes

What you need:

Leftovers:

Spinach Sandwich Wrap

Turkey cut into bite sized chunks

Stuffing

Cranberry Sauce

Salad

Little bit of mayo or mustard for sticking

What to do:

featured   Pilgrim Roll Ups Lay out your wraps in the center of a cutting board.  Spread a bit of mayo or mustard to help your ingredients stick to the wrap.  In the center of your wrap lay out some turkey.  Top with stuffing, cranberry, and leftover salad.  Roll over your sandwhich and slice down the middle.  Perfect for lunch on the go when you take the kids to the mall to find all the shopping bargains on Black Friday.

If Myles Standish had a sandwich shop, this would be a best seller!

Edible Napkin Rings

Here’s a tip for your turkey day meal…

Search the net for coloring print outs, word searches, and worksheets to keep the kids occupied while you cook on Thanksgiving day or even at the table if they’re fast eaters and you’d like them to spend a little extra time at the table with the family…Our family sits and the Thanksgiving table FOREVER!!!

appetizers   Edible Napkin Rings

Craft:  Make an edible napkin rings for your Thanksgiving table.

Prep Time:  15 minutes

Cook Time:  20 minutes

What you need: appetizers   Edible Napkin Rings

1 tube refrigerated pizza dough

aluminum foil

garlic powder

melted butter

dried Italian herbs

appetizers   Edible Napkin RingsWhat to do:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Using your aluminum foil, form 2 long think tubes (a little larger than the size of a rolled napkin.)  Set aside.

Unroll your pizza dough on a floured surface.  Using a pizza cutter (or sharp knife) cut 8 strips.  Wrap 4 strips around each the foil tubes.

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with garlic and herbs.

Bake at 400 for 16-20 minutes.

Remove and allow to cool.  Carefully take each ring off the tube and replace with a napkin…set in the center of your plate for Thanksgiving Table.

appetizers   Edible Napkin Rings

Red White and Blue Jigglers

There’s a lot to be thankful for this season…

And this week, The Fitzpatrick Family is thankful that we get to live in the most incredible nation in the world.crafts   Red White and Blue Jigglers

And we’d like to take the first half of this week to focus on those who have made that possible.

Everyone who has served in the United States Military.

No matter what your politics may be, this week we should all pause to thank and reflect on those brave Veterans.

In their honor we’re getting a little patriotic.

The boys and I decided to show off some stars and stripes.

We made Red White and Blue Jello Jigglers…

crafts   Red White and Blue Jigglers

WHAT YOU NEED:

4 boxes of 3 ounce sugar free jello (we used 2 blueberry and 2 strawberry)crafts   Red White and Blue Jigglers

2 1/2 cups boiling water, divided

1 container sugar free cool whip topping

WHAT TO DO:

Separate your two jello flavors into two separate bowls, 2 red packages into one, 2 blue into the other.

Pour 1 1/4 cup boiling water into each of the bowls and stir until completely dissolved, about 3 minutes.

Pour each mixture into separate 13×9 pans.

Chill for 3-4 hours.  crafts   Red White and Blue Jigglers

When the jello has set up place each pan into warm water for 15 seconds to loosen up the jello.

crafts   Red White and Blue JigglersUsing a star cookie cutter cut stars from each color and set aside on a plate.

Set your kids up at the table with the Cool Whip and different colored stars.

Let them create some jiggler sandwiches with the cool whip in the middle.

Enjoy.

Happy Veterans Day!

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