Hi everyone! How’s your Tuesday going? Kids going bonkers? Here’s a fun way to get them to sit still for a few minutes! Today’s Taste Testing Tuesday is all about crackers! So round the kids up for a quick silly snack and let’s get started! You can use whatever crackers you have on hand. Here are the 5 we taste tested.
#1.) Chicken in a Biskit
#2.) Almond Nut-Thins Cheddar Cheese
#3.) Honey Maid Graham
#4.) Cheez-It – there are many kinds of Cheez-It crackers but I love the Extra Toasty ones.
#5.) Ritz
For added fun, draw a quick chart…nothing fancy…with a place for each person’s name and across from their name a place to draw a face for each kind of cracker. Something like this maybe:
After they taste each cracker, let them draw in a face that describes what they think of it. A smile means yummy! A straight mouth means it’s ok, but not amazing. And a frown means no thank-you!
Did you notice that Rusty liked ALL of the crackers? Wow! Oh, yea, Rusty is a dog so that might explain it. Haha! 😉 I hope you have fun with our latest Taste Testing Tuesday and you find some crackers that you really like!
Does your family love eating pizza but its hard to buy one because everyone likes different toppings? I hear you! Enter English Muffin Individual Pizzas! This is the fastest way you will ever make pizza at home and everyone can have the toppings they want! Let’s take a look at what you need for today’s Taste Testing Tuesday: some English muffins, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and your favorite pizza toppings like pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, peppers, ham, pineapple, black olives, etc.
Start by cutting an English muffin in half.
Spread each half with pizza sauce. (Or some people use spaghetti or pasta sauce.)
Top with mozzarella cheese.
And now for the toppings! Let each person add whatever toppings they like to their personal little pizza. Here’s one with mini pepperoni slices…
One with pineapple tidbits…
One with pepperoni and mushrooms…
And one with extra cheese.
Now your pizzas are ready for the oven. Special tip: cover your cookie sheet or pan with aluminum foil and cleanup afterwards will be a breeze! 😉
Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes until the cheese melts and begins to brown just a little. Remember, ovens differ so keep an eye on your pizzas.
Don’t they look scrumptious?! They are! 🙂
Except for cutting the English muffins in half, this meal is a great one for even really young kids to make. Even teenagers can have fun making their own pizzas. Have fun and I hope your bellies are smiling when you finish! 🙂
What’s your favorite way to eat cornbread? It’s one of the most versatile dishes there is! Some people like cornbread with a little sweetener added in and some think it’s ruined if you add sugar! I like my cornbread a little on the sweet side. It can be added to other dishes for great combinations…like bean soup and cornbread or chili and cornbread or even vegetable soup and cornbread. Some people make their stuffing for Thanksgiving using cornbread. Whatever your favorite way is, maybe you can find another way to enjoy cornbread today. Let’s look at 6 different suggestions.
The first way we’ll look at is maybe the most popular way to eat cornbread…
#1.) Maple syrup…and milk. This is the way I usually eat cornbread. But I may find a new favorite today.
#2.) Topped with an egg. I actually hadn’t tried this way before but it’s very tasty together!
#3.) Butter and Jam. Pretty good together on cornbread!
#4.) Butter and Molasses. This is probably my hubby’s favorite way to eat cornbread. But not so much for me… 😉
#5.) With some cheese melted on top. Quite tasty!
#6.) Butter, Honey and Cinnamon. This is really good! It might be contending for first place in my book!
If you google ways to eat cornbread, you might see putting chipped beef gravy over it. That sounds wonderful! I also saw a recipe for cornbread pizza, using cornbread for the crust. I’m betting taco ingredients would go great too! However you try it, I hope you enjoy taste testing some cornbread! Let me know your favorite! 🙂
Let’s taste test some sandwiches! I’m guessing probably everyone likes at least one kind of sandwich. But there are SO MANY that I thought it might be a great thing to do a taste test on. 🙂 Have you heard the story of how the sandwich was invented? Let me share it with you here:
Shared from Quora.com.
“Elisa Perret, Student in English and German answered…
The Earl of Sandwich did create the concept of sandwich, and it’s actually a funny story.
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich was an 18th-century English aristocrat who was very fond of card plays, he could spend the day at a table playing with fellow aristocrats.
Once, he asked his valet to bring him a piece of meat tucked between two pieces of bread in order to play and eat without putting grease on his fingers and cards.
It is commonly said that Lord Sandwich was fond of this form of food because it allowed him to continue playing cards, particularly cribbage, while eating, without using a fork, and without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hand!”
And now you know! Haha! No more losing sleep over not knowing where the sandwich originated! 😉 Let’s get on with our taste test! Here are 6 sandwich suggestions you might try on your kids: (or for yourself!)
#1.) Peanut Butter and Jelly, of course! Most kids love this one already! Though many don’t care for the crust on the bread. You can vary the kind of jam or jelly, honey, apple butter, etc that you use.
#2.) Grilled Cheese. Another favorite that can be switched up by using different types of cheese together. I like Swiss and American cheeses in my grilled cheese sandwich.
#3.) Bacon, Egg and Cheese. Mmm! I add a little mayo to this tasty combo.
#4.) Peanut Butter and Banana slices. A little sweet with the sticky. 😉
#5.) Grilled Lunchmeat and Cheese. I like to add mayonnaise and honey mustard to mine and use 2 kinds of cheese with turkey or ham. Scrumptious!
#6.) Egg Salad. This is one of my favorites! Hardboiled eggs, peeled and chopped up with some mayo and salt added…mmmm!
I wonder how many of these sandwiches you’ve had before? And how many have your kids tried? Which ones get a smiley face beside them? Thanks for stopping by for another Taste Testing Tuesday! I hope you found something that will make your kids say “Yummy! May I have some more please?” 🙂
This week we’re bringing you ways to taste test toast! First of all, there are MANY kinds of bread you can use for toast – white, wheat, rye, oatmeal, raisin, cinnamon, Italian, French, etc, etc. And then there are bagels…but today we’re going to talk about what you can put on your toast so pick your favorite bread and let’s get started! I toasted 2 slices of bread.
Then I spread them with butter…which is a great way to eat toast! Just butter!
I cut each slice into 4 pieces so each sample will be fairly small.
Here are the 8 things I put on my samples of toast:
#1.) Butter and Honey.
#2.) Butter and Peanut Butter
#3.) Butter and jam or jelly. I used my favorite – strawberry! But of course, there are many kinds of jam/jelly.
#4.) Butter and Yogurt. This is Coconut Greek Yogurt but you can use whatever type and flavor you like.
#5.) Butter and Apple Butter. Apple Butter is great on toast and so is applesauce. Try both!
#6.) Butter, Sugar and Cinnamon. I know this version isn’t as healthy as some of the other suggestions, but it is very tasty! I loved having this when I was growing up. 🙂
#7.) Butter and Cheese. Use your favorite cheese or whatever cheese you have on hand. I used Co-Jack or Marble cheese.
#8.) Butter and a Fried Egg. Or whatever is your favorite way to cook an egg. Scrambled eggs could be cooked like an omelette and folded over to fit the toast. A hard-boiled egg could be sliced and placed on the toast.
And there you go! Those are my suggestions for our Taste Testing Tuesday #23! What do you think? Make a chart for each person doing that taste testing and make a box for each type of toast. What’s your favorite way to eat toast? Which one would you rather feed to your dog? haha! 😉
Hope you found some ideas that taste yummy to you! Have a great Taste Testing Tuesday! 🙂
Here we are again with another Taste Testing Tuesday! Today we’ll look at yummy things to add to baked potatoes. Do you bake yours in the oven wrapped in aluminum foil? That’s how I’ve always done mine and I learned it from my mom who learned it from her mom… 🙂
After baking your potatoes, remove the peel (unless you like to eat it) and mash the potato with a fork. Separate it into small sections for however many different toppings you will be trying.
Add your toppings while the potato is still warm (or reheat in the microwave). Here’s what my plateful looked like:
Let’s look at each topping I used:
#1.) Butter, salt and pepper. This is an old stand-by but still very tasty.
#2.) Butter and cheese. Mmm! I used cheddar cheese but feel free to use whatever type of cheese you have on hand.
#3.) Butter and sour cream. This is another old favorite but very popular!
#4.) Sour cream and bits of bacon.
#5.) Ranch dressing. A family-favorite! Some of the grandkids love baked potatoes with Ranch dressing and it’s probably my favorite too.
#6.) Gravy. Of course, right?! I often think about gravy going with mashed potatoes but my son suggested gravy for baked potatoes when I asked him his favorite way to eat baked potatoes. (Thanks, Josh!)
Of course, there are many more ways to enjoy a baked potato. Like adding chili on top. Do you have a child that loves ketchup? Yep, put it on a baked potato! After all, it’s not much different than putting salt and ketchup on French fries, right? 😉 How about broccoli and cheese?
I hope you’ve gotten some good tips to try on your kid’s baked potatoes! Make a chart and draw a face showing what you think of each topping you try. Have a great day! 🙂
We’re back for the latest episode of Taste Testing Tuesday! Are you ready to see what we’re taste testing this time? It’s oatmeal! Ok, ok, I know oatmeal can be REALLY bland and boring, but it doesn’t have to be! There are many, many ways to liven it up and please your taste buds! We’re going to look at 5 toppings you can try adding to your cooked oatmeal and I’ll mention several other ways you might try it.
Mmmm! Now don’t those look worthy of a taste test?! 😉
#1.) Oatmeal with butter and maple syrup. Those are two of the best ingredients ever, right? I’m guessing you’ve eaten them on pancakes or French toast, so why not on oatmeal?
#2.) Oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon. These are two more top ranking foods, am I right?? They are scrumptious on oatmeal!
#3.) Oatmeal with raisins and honey. This is probably my husband’s favorite way to eat oatmeal. If you don’t care too much for raisins, try some other kind of fruit. Think about other dried fruit like blueberries, cranberries, cherries, etc. Or even fresh, frozen or canned fruit. Do your kids have a favorite fruit? Try adding it to oatmeal.
#4.) Oatmeal with your favorite type of jam. This is strawberry jam and it was very tasty!
Do your kids love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Add some peanut butter to the jam on the oatmeal. 🙂
#5.) Oatmeal with a dollop of yogurt on top. Try your kids favorite yogurt flavor. This one is greek yogurt with peaches. (Though you can’t even see the peaches.)
There you have the taste tests that we did at our house to find some yummy ways to liven up oatmeal. Some other things you can add to oatmeal are nuts or seeds, applesauce, apple butter, chai tea, granola, etc. I read some suggestions to add vegetables to your oatmeal, like pumpkin, butternut squash and carrots. I was surprised to see some suggestions that I’ve never thought of using before like salmon, a fried egg or a soft-boiled egg, avocado, feta cheese or sausage and onions. Oatmeal is so versatile that I hope you’ll give some of these ideas a try and find something new to go in/on your oatmeal. 🙂 Happy Taste Testing!
It’s time to rev up your taste buds! Yep, it’s Taste Testing Tuesday once again. And I’m betting today’s taste test will be your all time favorite! What are we testing? Christmas Cookies!!! A special thank you goes out to my daughter, Megan, for sharing some pictures with me of some of the Christmas cookies they made at their house this week. 🙂 Here are some suggestions for yummy cookies you can make and test out:
#1.) Peanut Butter Blossoms. Oohh these are soooo yummy! A peanut butter cookie with a chocolate kiss added on top. Drooooooling…
#2.) Rice Krispies Treats Christmas Trees. These are made just like the original Rice Krispies Treats recipe on the cereal box plus some green sugar and sprinkles added. Then cut them into triangles and you’re done!
#3.) Molasses Crinkles – This is one of my favorite cookies. I remember making them with my mom when I was a little girl. 🙂
#4.) Sour Cream Cookies – I was looking for the recipe that my Grandma used to make for us and these are similar but not quite the same. The recipe calls for adding a frosting glaze to these while they are still hot but I went with sprinkles instead to cut down on the amount of sugar.
#5.) Cut-Out Butter Cookies – Ok, this has to be my all-time favorite cookie! (Molasses Crinkles are a close 2nd.) This is another recipe I made with my mom when I was little. Well, and even after I got “big”. And then I made them with our kids and now our daughter made this batch with her kids. 🙂
I have to admit that decorated cut-out cookies get my vote for at least LOOKING the best! 😉
#6.) Russian Teacakes – This cookie is one of my hubby’s favorite cookies. They rank pretty high with me too. I make them with finely ground pecans but you can use other nuts instead. They are rolled in powdered sugar which helps to make them especially tasty.
#7.) Peanut Butter Cookies – Another one of our favorites! Ok, yes, there seems to be a pattern developing here, doesn’t there? I have a lot of favorite cookies! Haha! One of my jobs when I was little and helping my mom make these was to make the criss-cross pattern on each cookie. I always thought that was pretty cool. 😉
So what is your favorite Christmas cookie? Do you make Christmas cookies at your house? Maybe you buy some from a store? What is your all-time favorite cookie that you would ask for if you could have any cookie in the world? I hope you have a Christmas cookie Taste Testing Tuesday at your house!
We’re back! This week’s Taste Testing Tuesday centers on pancakes! There are so many ways to make pancakes. My Betty Crocker cookbook lists 15 different ways to make pancakes with different ingredients mixed into the batter. While I’m sure many of these are great recipes with tasty results, today we are going to concentrate on what you can do with “plain” pancakes. Just use your regular pancake recipe or mix and then let the fun begin!
First, let’s look at ideas for making your pancakes in fun shapes. Of course, there is the usual way of making them in a nice sized round shape. One of my husband’s favorite memories is from times he spent the night at his grandparents and his grandma would make him a plate-sized buckwheat pancake for breakfast. 🙂 (Yes, he ate the whole thing!)
How about making some extra small pancakes? Kids can brag about how many pancakes they ate. 😉
Or you can make them into animal shapes. This could be a bear or Mickey Mouse or a dog…
Probably the most popular way to eat a pancake is with butter and maple syrup. Mmmm!
You can make a funny face by adding some pieces of banana, a few chocolate chips and a piece of bacon.
Now let’s add some toppings to the “bear” pancake. Add a couple of banana slices for his ears and chocolate chips for his eyes, nose and mouth.
Or maybe use a couple of blueberries for his eyes, miniature marshmallows in his ears, a chocolate chip nose and a cheese puff for his mouth.
You can flatten miniature marshmallows with your fingers and then put a chocolate chip in the center of them to make eyes. Apple slices for a mouth finishes him off.
A snowman is our next idea! Blueberry eyes, bacon for arms, mini chocolate chips for his mouth and buttons and then a piece of carrot or cheese for his nose makes a pretty cool pancake snowman.
You can use small pancakes like bread for a sandwich! How about adding a cooked egg, a piece of bacon and a piece of cheese for a tasty breakfast?
Do your kids love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but hate the crust? Use a couple of small pancakes to make an awesome peanut butter and jelly sandwich with no crusts!
Our last suggestion for today uses an ingredient that I say everyone loves! Can you guess what it is? Sprinkles!! Everything is better with sprinkles on it! 😉
I hope these ideas have gotten the wheels in your mind turning and you’ll come up with even more ideas on your own. What is YOUR favorite way to eat a pancake? Have fun and enjoy those pancakes however you make them!
Aaaaaand here we go with Taste Testing Tuesday #18! Let’s take a look at toppings you can put on scrambled eggs to make them more appealing. Plain scrambled eggs can be quite tasty, but you have to admit, to a kid, they look pretty boring. Here are some ideas of ways to snazz them up a bit! (Is ‘snazz’ a word? Another form of snazzy?) I started out making a batch of scrambled eggs and then dividing them into 6 small sections on a big plate.
See what I mean? Boorrrrriiiiiing! Add a few toppings and check out the difference!
NOW we’re talking! Remember to grab a piece of paper and make a fun chart of your preferences on each kind of scrambled egg. Add a smiley if you like it, a straight mouth if its just ok, and a frown if it’s a “no, thanks!”. Let’s take a look at what we have here…
#1.) Ketchup. This was my favorite way to eat scrambled eggs when I was a kid and even for a long time after I became an adult. Now some of our grandkids eat eggs this way.
#2.) A little sour cream and some herbs…I used our own homegrown and dried parsley.
#3.) Pieces of crumbled cooked bacon. Mmmm! Who doesn’t like eggs and bacon together? (Yea, I know there have to be some people that don’t like eggs and bacon, but that’s just…weird. 😉 )
#4.) Avocado. Did you know that avocados are actually fruit? Yep, that’s what Webster says.
#5.) Grated cheese. This is grated mild cheddar but there are lots of other kinds of cheese you could sprinkle on top. A cheese you already know your child likes might be a good place to start.
#6.) Salsa. Are you kids fans of Mexican type foods or do they love tacos? If so, a little salsa on their scrambled eggs might be a great way to go.
As usual with our taste tests, there are LOTS of others ways besides the ones I’ve mentioned. A few more suggestions would be browned onion and garlic pieces, fresh tomatoes, parmesan cheese, cooked up sweet pepper pieces or even adding 2 or more of the ingredients we’ve used here. For example, what if you used avocado, sour cream, cheese and salsa together? We have a grandson who LOVES adding Kansas City Rub spices to his scrambled eggs. (We buy that at a Cabelas store…not an affiliate.)
Are you still striking out getting your kids to eat scrambled eggs? Then it might be time to bring out the big guns…put some cookie/cake sprinkles on them! Haha! Sprinkles make everything taste better! 🙂 I hope these ideas have helped you and I wish you luck on your eating adventures!
The Kids Niche 