Here’s some we prepared earlier!

Preparation Time
45 mins (including 30 mins resting time for the gingerbread)

Cooking Time
10 minutes

Gingerbread Ingredients
125g Butter at room temperature
100g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) Brown Sugar
125ml (1/2 cup) Golden Syrup
375g (2 ½ cups) Plain Flour
1tbs Ground Ginger
½ tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Nutmeg
½ tsp Salt
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 Egg Yolk

Icing
1 Egg White
150g (1 cup) Pure Icing Sugar, sifted

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
Mix butter and sugar in bowl until pale and creamy. Add egg yolk, golden syrup and mix until combined.
Stir in flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.
Press dough into a disc, cover with plastic and place in fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

Meanwhile, place egg white in a clean, dry bowl. Use and electric beater to beat until soft peaks form.
Gradually add icing sugar and beat until still peaks form. Cover with plastic and store in the fridge.

Put the dough between two sheets of baking paper and roll out until about 4mm thick.Use a 9 cm gingerbread man cutter to cut out shapes. You could also use a Christmas tree shape, or any other festive cutter. Place on trays approx 3cm apart.

Bake in oven for 10 mins until brown. Remove from over and transfer to a rack to cool.

Place prepared icing in small plastic zip lock bags. Snip a small hole in the corner of each bag.
Pipe icing over ginger bread to decorate.

You’re done! All that’s left to do is enjoy them!

This post is from the Blog of Wholesome Productions Kids Cooking. Subscribe to our Newsletter now for a 5% Off Voucher, plus easy kids recipes and great ideas for little chefs!

He uses a fancy bread-making machine and pizza stone, but you can just as easily use the ordinary kitchen benchtop kneading method.

It’s great to get the kids to help!

Dough-tastic!

Makes 1 large pizza.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup of warm water

2 cups flour

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 tsp salt

2 tsps yeast (active)

Directions:

Add all the ingredients in the bowl of a bread-making machine (or just knead together!)

Mix according to the machine’s instructions for a dough setting or get your knuckles into it! (Now is the time to get your little chefs helping!)

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 230 C (450 F) for 30 mins

Prepare your most loved toppings!

When the bread machine (or kneading!) is done, take out the dough and put on a lightly oiled surface.

Then knead the dough several times and make the dough into an oval.

Place a clean tea-towel over it and let rest for 10 mins.

Roll and stretch the dough into a couple of circles.

Place the dough on the prepared (lightly oiled) metal pizza trays – you can get pizza trays here.

Brush the dough with some olive oil and layer on your fave ingredients!

Bake for approx 15 mins or until brown on the bottom and the top is bubbling.

Too easy and tasty cheesy!

This post is from the Blog of Wholesome Productions Kids Cooking. Subscribe to our Newsletter now for a 5% Off Voucher, plus easy kids recipes and great ideas for little chefs!

1. Cook with your kids. We have found that fussy eaters are much more likely to try food they have played a part in making, which gives you a great opportunity to introduce them to new healthy ingredients.

2. Visit a farmers market. While taking the kids to the supermarket can be a daunting experience with all that colourful pre-packaged ingredients, a trip to a farmer’s market can be fun.
There are plenty of foods to sample and it is interesting talking to the people who grow the food that’s for sale. They often have tasty tips on how to prepare the food too.
The kids get the opportunity to see the freshest seasonal fruit and vegetables, some of which they won’t have seen before. This is also a good time to get the kids to help choose new ingredients to try at home.

3. Plan a trip to the fish markets. Kids (and adults) will be amazed at the variety of fish and shellfish on display. Show them where the boats come in from the sea and if possible let them see someone preparing and scaling the fish.
The kids will be amazed by the colours, shapes and the smell of the ocean.
This is another great opportunity to get the kids involved in choosing something to take home and cook.

4. Play the taste testing game! This is a great opportunity to get kids to try foods they otherwise would not go near. Make it fun and get them to guess what they are tasting.
Make sure you include plenty of tastes and textures eg: crunchy (apples), soft (banana), wobbly (jelly), hard (ice), smooth (soybeans), gelatanious (tofu), chewy (sourdough).
This works really well as a play date. Just put the different foods in plastic bowls and give each taster a spoon. If they don’t like something they can always spit it out.

5. Does your child have a favourite colour? For example, girls who love pink can be enticed to try beetroot soup – just don’t call it beetroot soup, make up a fun name like ‘Pink Potion’ and away you go!

6. Get kids used to being in the kitchen. They can help while you cook by stirring, washing vegetables and fruit, passing ingredients and chatting.
They can get more involved as they get older chopping ingredients and reading recipes etc.

7. Get them involved at every stage of food preparation. Setting the table, picking flowers to put on the table, clearing the table and wiping down after you eat.

8. Try cooking foods in different ways. For example asparagus – if they don’t like it steamed, try roasting or BBQing it!

9. Start your own garden and get the kids involved. Strawberries are easy to grow and most kids (and adults) love them.
Tomatoes, beans, herbs, pumpkins and lettuce are also fun and easy to grow. It just depends on how much space you have and what time of year you want to start your garden.

10. If your kids don’t like the taste of something don’t stress! Kids’ little taste buds will develop as they get older. So they may hate something one year and love it in years to come. Just make sure you keep it fun and keep giving them different things to try!

This post is from the Blog of Wholesome Productions Kids Cooking. Subscribe to our Newsletter now for a 5% Off Voucher, plus easy kids recipes and great ideas for little chefs!

It seems that the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) is having an impact on everything!

Beat the Global Financial Crisis!

With the household budget being increasingly challenged, Wholesome Productions has the answer to make sure all the doom and gloom does not extend to your children’s fun!

There is no doubt that kids birthday parties and group activities can be expensive. The cost of hiring clowns, a mobile petting zoo or bouncy castles can be prohibitive for many.

But now there’s no need for your children to miss out, in fact there is a simple answer to throwing a memorable and fun kids party for a very reasonable cost.

You can host your own DIY Kids Cooking Party using one of the specially designed kits designed by Wholesome Productions.

If you look at the cost per child, our kits can work out from under AUD $13 per child.

And here’s the bonus, each child gets to take home items such as a Chef’s Hat, Apron or other cooking utensils (depending on kit selected) – so the price basically includes the party bag goodies too!

Plus, all the children get to bake tasty treats such as Pizza or Cookies while learning kitchen skills and about good health and nutrition.

Check out our DIY Kids Cooking Party Kits here and all of the other kids cooking kits, party decorations and cookware on our online store.

Forget the GFC and ensure children can still have fun!

This post is from the Blog of Wholesome Productions Kids Cooking. Subscribe to our Newsletter now for a 5% Off Voucher, plus easy kids recipes and great ideas for little chefs!

This week Wholesome Productions visited Crown Street Public School to see their Organic Garden.

The purpose of the garden is to teach children about healthy lifestyle choices, plant cycles and the value of nutrition through hands-on experience in the garden.

The garden was established with the assistance of Slow Foods Sydney and a lot of hard work from students and parents.

Planting started in late 2008 and the garden has just had its first harvest, which included tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, sunflower, basil, parseley and silverbeet.

The quality has been so good that they have been able to sell some produce through Hudsons on Crown Street – all proceeds go toward purchasing more seeds for the garden.

The students are now starting to cook with the produce – check them out in their Wholesome Productions aprons!

This post is from the Blog of Wholesome Productions Kids Cooking. Subscribe to our Newsletter now for a 5% Off Voucher, plus easy kids recipes and great ideas for little chefs!

Worlds Cutest Little Chef Photo Competition

$450 in PRIZE VOUCHERS to be won!

Simply email a photo of your little chef (or chefs!) at work in the kitchen for your chance to win!

The entry deadline is now 31 May 2009 when Wholesome Productions founder, Sam Skinner, will select the top three photos.

1st Prize: $250 VOUCHER
2nd Prize: $150 VOUCHER
3rd Prize: $50 VOUCHER

Entering is easy!

If you’re not a member of our website already, register first using the link above and then email your photo as a jpeg attachment to:

cutestlittlechef@wholesomeproductions.com.au

Please ensure your email contains the name of the adult Wholesome Productions account holder who is entering the competition.
Also include your hometown and country.

The names of little chefs will not be published without the permission of the adult entrant.

Good luck!

Sam, Wholesome Productions.

This post is from the Blog of Wholesome Productions Kids Cooking. Subscribe to our Newsletter now for a 5% Off Voucher, plus easy kids recipes and great ideas for little chefs!

After requests from customers, we’ve added Kid’s Cooking Party Kits to our range.

They’re a great way to celebrate birthdays, sleepovers or a fun school holiday activity.  The range currently includes Pizza Party Kits and Cookie Baking Party Kits for groups of 6 to 18 little chefs!

Premium Cookie Baking Kit for 12 Children

The sets include everything you need to host your own cooking party, all you need to do is send out the invites and buy a few basic ingredients!

Wholesome Productions Kids’ Cooking Parties come with triple-tested recipes, a shopping list, plus chef’s hats, aprons and utensils – depending on which kit you buy.  There’s even a ‘How to host a Kids Cooking Party’ guide in the box, so everyone has fun – including the grown ups!

Premium Pizza Baking Kit for 12 Children

Check out the range here at our online store. Whatever you party size we have a kit to suit, plus we have great little treat bags also available that make organising a party too easy!

This post is from the Blog of Wholesome Productions Kids Cooking. Subscribe to our Newsletter now for a 5% Off Voucher, plus easy kids recipes and great ideas for little chefs!

This post is from the Blog of Wholesome Productions Kids Cooking. Subscribe to our Newsletter now for a 5% Off Voucher, plus easy kids recipes and great ideas for little chefs!