Snack Time: Let's make pizza!

I don't know about you, but I always seem to have leftover pasta/pizza sauce after making pizza/spaghetti, and I don't know what to do with it. So it sits in my fridge, eventually gets moldy, and I throw it out. Very disappointing, and a waste of money. So I thought back to my childhood and decided to share this idea with you. Here is what you need:

Bread (just normal sandwich bread works well)
Pizza/pasta sauce
Shredded cheese (Mozzarella)
Pizza toppings (olives, pepperoni, etc)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

All you need to do is take a slice of bread, spoon a little sauce onto it, and then add you desired pizza toppings. Next, put it in your oven/toaster oven, and bake just until the cheese melts. At this point, you can leave it in longer for more golden/toasted cheese, or turn on the broiler, for just another 2-3 minutes, making sure to watch it closely.

This is a particularly great snack when you have multiple kids that are picky about what they want on their pizza.

Helping: Helping in the Kitchen

I love to cook, bake, decorate, create, and anything else you can think of in the kitchen (except for cleaning up. I don't think that I will ever enjoy that). Happily, we noticed early on that Mia was always wanting to know what was going on in the kitchen. Quickly, it became too much to hold her and try to prepare food, especially when trying to cut up vegetables or raw meat. So this past Christmas, we thought that we would get her her own little pretend food, pots and pans, and a little chef outfit. Oh, and a shopping cart to carry it all. Now when we cook, she can "cook" with us, but not be in our arms. Of course, this concept only worked for a few weeks, and we had to think of something else.

I thought that maybe if she could see what we were doing while sitting in a chair, then perhaps that would help. I was on the right track, except for the fact that I was using a sharp knife and Mia has small and curious fingers. But then I realized that I still had cilantro leaves that needed to be pulled off the stems. I gave some of the leaves with stems to Mia, and then showed her how to pull off the leaves. This was perfect! She understood it right away and had lots of fun. She was engaged in her task, and I was able to do everything else I needed without worrying about where her fingers were.

Now of course when you do this with your own children, you will need to decide what they can do based on age and skill. For example, I wouldn't give Mia a knife since she's not even two years old yet. But I can give her tasks like pulling grapes off the stems, tearing lettuce leaves for a salad, or adding pepperoni to the pizza. Mia is also learning to put plates and forks on the table. Have you tried something like this with your own children? How old are they and what task did you give them?