Quick and Easy Pizza

Here is a recipe for the easiest pizza EVER!!!!!! First get a large bowl. Then measure out:  

                              1c            flour

                              1/2tsp      salt

                              1tsp         yeast

                              1/4tsp      sugar

Put all the ingredients into the bowl and give it a little stir with you hands. 

Now slowly add 1/2c of warm tap water and about 1tsp of olive oil.  Stir it around with your hands. If it starts to form a ball (like play dough) you have enough water, if it doesn't just keep adding a little water at a time until it does. If you add too much water just sprinkle on a little more flour. 

Now sprinkle a little flour on the counter and place the dough ball on it.  Knead the dough for a few minutes. 

Put the dough back in the same bowl and cover your bowl with plastic wrap and place in the oven with the light on. DO NOT TURN THE OVEN ON!!!!! Let it sit in there until the ball of dough is twice as big as it was when you first made it. It usually takes about an hour or so.

Take the bowl out of the oven and take off the plastic wrap.  

Now for the fun part, punch the ball of dough with your fist! 

Next, sprinkle a little flour on the counter and place the dough ball on it. Take a rolling pin and roll the dough out into a circle big enough to fit your pizza pan. You can stretch it a bit with your hands too.

You've done all the hard stuff, time for the creative part...the toppings! Tomato sauce, pesto sauce, garlic and olive oil, what ever you think will taste good. You can add sliced veggies, meat and cheese if you'd like. When you're finished adding your toppings, put the pizza back in the oven with the light on and wait until the crust looks like it has puffed up. 

Once it has, take it out of the oven, turn off the light and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. That is VERY, VERY hot so now is a good time to get your parents to help you. 

Cook your pizza until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is golden brown usually about 10 minutes or so. If you like your crust crispy, get an adult to take it out of the oven and slide the pizza off the pan and onto a cooling rack.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! You just made the best homemade pizza ever!!!!!

This recipe makes one pizza crust, if you want to make more use your math skills and multiply the measurements by 2!

What are your favourite toppings? Leave a comment so I can try them too :-) 

Local Food Kids

This blog is meant to inspire kids to cook. Every week I'll post a new recipe with easy to follow instructions.  My goal is to teach your kids how to healthfully nourish themselves and also inspire a love of cooking. It's so empowering for a child to be able to not only follow a recipe but  to use their imagination and make the recipe their own! That is when the real passion and learning begins. Your kids will be eager to cook any chance they can because they'll take pride in what they have created using their own imaginations.

My recipes are very different than most because they'll teach them how to think outside of the box. Your child will learn how to make substitutions and in many cases how to take one base recipe that they have mastered and tweak it just a little so they can make a multitude of different things. An example of this would be my "A MILLION MUFFINS" recipe.

I encourage the kids to email pictures of recipes they have made from this site. I'd be happy to post them for all their friends and family to see. I hope this blog is the start of your kids having a healthy, enjoyable relationship with food.

I've always said the key to a happy life is learning how to turn necessity into an extravagance, cooking can be just that if you learn to enjoy it. We all have to eat so we may as well learn to enjoy the art of cooking!

Shall we begin?

Scented Playdough

I can think of no better way to get kids interested in cooking than teaching them how to make their own play dough. This recipe is particularly cool because it gets its color and scent from Kool- aide! I especially like homemade play dough because it’s not as messy as the store bought stuff and it’s so cheap to make.

1c flour
1c water
1/2c salt
2tbs cream of tartar (really cheap in the bulk section!)
1 pack Kool- aide (unsweetened) 2tbs vegetable oil


Mix all the ingredients together in a medium sized pot and cook over medium low heat until mixture becomes gummy. Store in an airtight container or a resealable plastic bag.

*The Play dough will be whatever color the Kool- aid crystals are.

A Million Muffins

This is the only muffin recipe you'll ever need. I've written the recipe in a way that will allow you choose a million different flavours to make, all using the same healthy recipe! So what are you waiting for? GET BAKING!!!


2c           flour

1/2c        healthy dry stuff

1/2c        yummy bits

1/2c        sugar (can replace with 2tsp stevia)

2tsp        baking powder

1tsp        baking soda

1/2tsp     salt

2            eggs

1/4c       oil or melted butter

1c          wet gooey stuff

???        enough milk or juice to make everything wet

              (I start with 1/2c and add more if I need it)

Definitions:

Healthy dry stuff- oats, whole-wheat flour, bran and ground flax ect.

Yummy bits- chocolate chips, dried cranberries, nuts, raisins, dates, diced up fruit like oranges or apples. Use your imagination…that’s the fun part of cooking!

Wet gooey stuff- mashed banana, apple sauce, shredded carrot, shredded zucchini or pumpkin puree. Use anything you want that is wet, gooey and YUMMY.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Set out your muffin tin and place one liner in each hole.

In a large bowl add your dry ingredients and stir with a whisk.

In another large bowl add all your wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula.

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir with a rubber spatula. Don’t stir too much, just until everything looks wet and gooey. If it looks too dry add more milk or juice. It should look wet and gooey NOT RUNNY so only add a little liquid at a time.

Scoop out the mix with an ice cream scoop and place one scoop in each lined muffin tin. Put the filled tin in the oven. Set your timer for 25 minutes.

When the timer goes off peek inside the oven to see if the muffins look done. You can check them with a tooth- pick or carefully touch the top like I showed you. You may want mom or dad to help you with this part.

Remove from the oven and let cool for a bit. Then gobble them up!

Pancakes

2c               flour

2tbsp          baking powder

1/2tsp         salt

2                 eggs

2 1/2c         milk

Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl and stir with a whisk.

In a separate medium sized bowl crack the eggs and stir with the whisk. Now add the milk to the eggs and whisk again.

Pour the milk and eggs mixture over the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon. JUST MIX UNTIL EVERYTHING LOOKS WET. It is okay for it to be lumpy still.

Now rub a little butter in your pan and place it on the stove (make sure the handle is in) Turn the heat to medium.

Put one ice cream scooper of pancake batter in the pan and then a second one if you have room beside the fist one.

When you see little bubbles pop on the top of the pancake you know its time to flip it. Flip the pancake.

When the edges of the pancake look cooked take your pancakes out of the pan and place on a plate. Keep adding pancakes to the pan in the same way until you have no batter left.

Congratulations! You just made delicious pancakes.

Why not try making snowman pancakes this Christmas? Just pour batter in a snowman shape and decorate with icing sugar, raisons, chocolate chips ect. Here's one that Kaity made: