Kid Friendly Recipes

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Barbara J. Feldman

To paraphrase Charles Dickens, "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." The kids and I were in the kitchen cooking up a storm, making a mess, having fun, and getting in each other's way. To make your own kind of kitchen fun, here are five sites with new ideas about cooking with and for kids.

All Recipes: Kids

5 stars

With 1250 recipes, the kid section of All Recipes is huge. The layout is busy, but packed with features such as nutrition details, recipe scaling, recipe emailing, and printing in a variety of formats including 3"x5" and 4"x6" cards. If you sign up for a free membership, you'll be able to store your favorites in a personal recipe box. And to integrate writing into the kitchen experience, members can submit recipe reviews. For the very easiest recipes and articles about cooking with kids, look in Kids as Chefs.

Easy Kid Recipes

4 stars

"Mom chef" Clarissa shares her dual passions of kids and food with this easy-to-navigate recipe collection. In addition to the expected (such as sections devoted to Breakfast and Easy Lunches), Clarissa has four recipes for pet treats, and ten for play dough. Other great clicks are her free monthly newsletter, articles (especially the one on homemade baby food) and popsicle recipes. Homemade popsicles are a perennial favorite at our house. Like most homemade items, they are both healthier and cheaper than store bought.

Just Kid Recipes

4 stars

With headings like Gross, Fun, and Frozen Treats, kids are sure to find many recipes to delight them among the 410 at Just Kid Recipes. For example, berry blue Jello with suspended gummy fish is called a Jello Aquarium. Think of how cute this will look in individual clear plastic cups at a birthday party! Each recipe page has a link to a printable version (sans ads and menu items) at the bottom.

Kidnetic.com

5 stars

Designed for kids nine to twelve and their families, Kidenetic.com promotes a healthy lifestyle through "healthy eating and active living." The fastest way to the recipe section is through the link at the very center of the very top of the page. I was impressed with the new ideas in Breakfast Bonanza,and Brown Bag Specials, since these two meals are a recurring problem area for many of us. Other valuable clicks are those in Top Kitchen Tips: "How to Do Stuff Cooking Techniques," and "4Ways to Keep Your Food Safe."

Recipe Source: Kids

3 stars

The good news is that there are over 70,000 recipes at Recipe Source. The bad news is that within each category, the recipes are arranged alphabetically. This link will take you directly to the Kid section, which houses 174 recipes, but I recommend returning to the home page instead, and browsing Ethnic Cuisine by Region, or Recipes by Type of Dish. If you don't mind long pages with lots of recipes, there are some great categories to peruse (such as Camping , Diabetic, Baby Food, and Crafts.)