I had the fun privilage to speak to a group of moms with young children yesterday at Mountainview MOPS (shout-out!).  We talked about some of the challenges of feeding a family (ya know, now that you’re the mom and all).  Something that I didn’t get a chance to cover was the joy of cooking when you have little people clutching your knees.  Here are some tips and tricks on how to cook dinner with babies and toddlers underfoot:

1)      Start meal prep EARLY if you can.  Chop, measure out ingredients, set out the stuff you’ll need.  Even putting the pot of water on the stove with the lid on it to start for pasta later is so much easier to do at naptime then with a baby clutching your leg.  Also, crockpot cooking is fabulous.

2)      Have a baby-safe cabinet that is only available when you are in the kitchen.  A collection of pots, plastic bowls and wooden spoons make a great toy box.  If it is only available (unlocked) during meal prep or cleanup, it will likely last longer as a distraction.  Alternately, a box full of safe kitchen tools and such that you can pull out of a cabinet or closet works, too.

3)      Put your toddler’s play kitchen in or near the kitchen.  Narrate what you are doing and ask them questions about what they are doing.  Taste their creations and have them taste yours.  This is also a great idea if you have a kid who is cautious about new foods.  It gives them some input to the meal when mom says, ‘Do you think this needs more seasoning?’

4)      This may be the time of day you bribe, er—ask–an older child to play with the baby.  It helps if they play in the baby’s room and not in a room right off the kitchen.  My older kids were always afraid they would be on ‘baby duty’ forever, so I’d set the timer for 10-20 minutes, depending on the age of my older kid.  A neighborhood kid can do the same job.  When my oldest was a toddler, I had a tween in the neighborhood who loved kids and showed up on my doorstep many evenings to take my little one to her house to play for half an hour.  God bless her mom who remembered what dinner prep was like and let her daughter do that!

5)      Let them help cook!  Even little toddlers can get the veggies out of the veggie drawer (one by one).  Have them change into their chef hat and apron first and wash their hands and you’ll have a couple extra minutes.  They can stir, count stuff out, be your errand boy or girl (hint: any errand that takes them out of the kitchen for a few minutes is a good errand, like checking on the fish or looking out the window to check the weather).

6)      Fill up the kitchen sink and have them ‘wash dishes’.  I found it helpful to put a towel on the edge of the sink so they didn’t drench themselves.

7)      This is a great time for a special activity or toy in their high chair—painting with water, Playdoh™, squishing shaving cream and a drop of food coloring around in a Ziploc™ bag, stirring ice cubes, etc.

8)      I am a big fan of a healthy pre-dinner ‘snack’.  I serve veggies (my kids love frozen peas or mixed veggies) or a small portion of yogurt.  As kids get older, a small portion of veggies with dip in their own bowl is great, too.  This is a terrific time to try out a food your child is not familiar with, too, as they are hungry but they don’t have the pressure of being at the table.  So put a piece of zucchini in with the carrot sticks.

9)       Stick a playpen or pack-n-play in the corner of your kitchen and plunk your little one in with a selection of toys.  Learning to entertain themselves is a skill and takes some time.  Start when they are infants if you can.  If not, start with just a few minutes and increase a minute a day until they can sit and play for a solid stretch (15 mins or more).  If your baby or toddler does ‘crib time’ or ‘room time’, this is a good time of day to do that, too, if they’re not too cranky.

10)      Judicious use of a DVD or TV.   Really.

11)       This is what take-out is for.  If it’s a really difficult day, shake out the piggy bank and call for pizza.

What works for you?

© 2010, melissa caddell. All rights reserved. If you steal my stuff, I will also be really, really mad.

Thanks to musings of a mommy for her original version of this recipe. After fiddling with it for a few years, here’s my rendition. It’s a pretty easy recipe to put together, so don’t freak out over the seemingly long list of ingredients and steps.

(Note: make the cream cheese filling first and let it freeze while you work through the rest of the recipe.)
Cream filling:
8 oz package cream cheese
¼ cup of powdered sugar
–Use a hand mixer to blend this together,
(Or, use cheesecake flavored cream cheese filling instead)
Freeze this mix until slightly hard. I found it easiest to scoop the cream cheese out into 1-2 tsp sized balls right after mixing it, then set them on a cookie sheet in the freezer for a half hour or longer. When they are ready, just push them down into the muffin mix in the muffin tins before you put them in the oven.

Then:
3 cups flour (I use 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of regular flour)
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 ¼ cups vegetable oil (I use about 3/4 cup of oil and 1/2 a cup applesauce instead)

Topping:
Shelled pumpkin seeds or other chopped nuts
To make these like Starbucks, you need to find shelled pumpkin seeds to top the muffins with. An employee at my local store said they thought the seeds were toasted with cinnamon and sugar. I think you could get a similar effect by taking roasted seeds and cooking them with a little butter, cinnamon and sugar. I usually don’t go to this much trouble.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix the dry ingredients together, than add everything else except the cream cheese filling mix, and nuts. Fill muffin tins (greased or paper cups) half full. Put 1-2 tsp cream cheese in the middle, pressing down. Sprinkle with 1 tsp chopped nuts. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the muffin part (do not touch the cream cheese!). Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to racks to cool completely. Do not touch the cream cheese until it cools, as it is very very hot. Makes 24 muffins. These also work nicely in mini-muffin pans, just decrease the cream cheese mix to 1 tsp and baking time to 15-20 min.

© 2009, melissa caddell. All rights reserved. If you steal my stuff, I will also be really, really mad.