Combining two of my favorites

My dear children and my love of cooking. This last Christmas I bought the boys these fabulous little aprons. It was quite difficult finding fun, children’s sized, embellished and boy themed aprons. I’m sure all of my genius seamstress friends are thinking of how easy it would be to just whip one up. But alas I am not a genius seamstress (I kind of like the way that rolls off the tough genius seamstress). So when my Internet glued eyes grazed across these beauties I had to buy them. Now that the they are in my possession, I look for any opportunity to pull them out. I have many fond memories of the aprons my genius seamstress mother made for my brother and I, and my magic created in the kitchen while wearing them. On occasion my father would cook with me also, usually a big Saturday breakfast for everyone. Before we would start cooking it was our tradition, to put flour on our noses. I know he had some funny reason for this but I don’t remember it now. I just remember liking the idea of dusting my little nose with the white puffy powder. So as I carry all these precious memories into my own little family I try to recreate the magic in the kitchen. The boys get so excited when I include them in the creative process of cooking. I never include them in the “we need a meal out NOW” process of cooking. I only cook with them when I have a little extra time and we are looking for an activity. We usually don’t make anything complicated, just a few of our favorites. One of the best tricks is to take a box mix like muffins and go crazy with the add ins. I few of our most enjoyed are…

Bananas (they love using a potato mashed to mash these to almost liquid form, its helps release some pent up toddler rage)

Yogurt

Graded carrots

The squeeze of half a orange

Cinnamon

Vanilla

Applesauce

Pudding mix

Protein powder

Fibber sure

Frozen or fresh blueberries (any fruit for that matter)

Extra eggs

Oatmeal

And of course chocolate chips

I’ve learned that as long as you add a handful of chocolate chips you can get away with adding anything else. The only trick to remember is to make sure you keep the consistency about the same. I always just add oatmeal to make up the difference for the wet ingredients. In the end you have created quite an exciting cooking experience, cleaned out your fridge and some how the muffins magically always turn out to taste really good, not to mention have some redeeming healthy qualities.