Young chef and a smoothie

  I am trying to eat healthier for a 30 day challenge and young chef is more than happy to help me with whatever task that requires in the kitchen.  Today she helped with a smoothie.  The even better news is she saw what went in it and still had a cup of it!!!

A peach and carrot smoothie was for breakfast today.  Some basic ingredients go in here and this smoothie went without yogurt as all my yogurts have been for the week.  This one did take water but a couple other smoothies from the week took almond milk.   I also haven't put yogurt in any of them.  Some may have called for Greek yogurt and at the moment I don't have any of that on hand either.

This smoothie just like all the rest called for a banana!

 Here comes the water!

Plus some carrots. Young chef is ok with carrots, she won't eat them but apparently can handle them.  She does however have this strange hatred towards broccoli. I told her I'm going to look that recipe up. I mean after all she just drank carrot and liked it maybe I can bring her and broccoli closer together.
 She is all of a sudden proficient in the blender.

I must admit she took the first sip before me but, only because I was still pouring my cup.  She approved it before I even took a drink.  I took a sip and decided to add the optional honey.  Umm, yeah. This smoothie was definitely strong in the carrot department in regards to flavor.  There were of course the shreds of it but, I didn't taste that poor yummy peach at all.  I will try this drink again and maybe reduce the carrots next time.

Recipe credit: peach-carrot-smoothie

Young chef is back

Today she made granola.  She did assist me in cooking soup as well but her real focus was on the granola.  She is gradually getting better.  You take advantage of your knowledge in the kitchen but teaching someone is entertaining.  We talked about pots and frying pans and cookie sheets.  I pointed out the different measuring utensils again and she nods her head as I go through everything.

We discussed what we were making.  She ran around the kitchen to get the items she could reach. Introduction to the cookie sheet.  I guess it looks different without cookies.
 

We always start with washing our hands and she gets her stool out to reach the counter and to turn the oven on.  I show her the degrees to set the oven and she has to punch the number so set the temperature.   She also needs to set the timer after I show her what that is.  I let her grease the pan. That will take some practicing.

This recipe needed two ingredients melted together which I watched on the stove.  She mixed and added her dry ingredients.

Squeezing wasn't too bad.  But I needed to remind her over the pan.

 She has stirring down.  Meaning everything stays in the bowl.

She tasted coconut and decided it was good enough to add to our granola.

She then dumped it onto the tray and leveled it out! Slowly is the key word.

We added chocolate chips to the granola after I took it out of the oven.  The granola was still warm so they melted into the mixture and we may add more to it along with craisins for some more texture.

She sampled it and declared it good.  I know she will eat it with some yogurt tomorrow.

You know I am about easy recipes, so don't be intimidated.  Give this a try and make a parfait.  Good with a bowl of milk too I'm sure.

Recipe credit: crunchy-peanut-butter-chocolate-coconut-granola

Chef in training with the oven

Granola bars today!  This is another recipe we have eaten before but this guarantees she will eat it, of course we know it's healthy because we know what's in it, and they are better than a packaged one! Making your own is easier than you think and you can choose to add nuts, chocolate  chips, raisins, cranberries or even flax or Chia seeds.

We followed the recipe but some of you will make it healthier.  You will skip the egg and oil and substitute it with applesauce and for you guys I give credit to.  I have to follow the recipe for fear one twist or turn will create disaster.

Young chef has been trained to wash her hands before she does anything in the kitchen and this time since we were using the oven we learned how to set the temperature and then later the timer.

She also got a lesson in leveling her flour.

She got to add her favorite spice cinnamon too!

She stirred her dry ingredients.

She then measured her wet ingredients and made a well for them to go in and stirred again.

We got another lesson in leveling the food out.  Why we need to and how we do it!

These granola bars cook for 30-35 minutes.  This means a whole different lesson in patience.  We set the timer and I instructed her that the food is not done until the timer goes off.  She asked exactly twice while it was cooking if they were ready yet.

Recipe credit goes to allrecipes.