Make traveling fun and educational for youngsters by letting them help prepare snacks and meals during motorhome trips.
By Janet Groene, F47166
July 2013
With kids on board, safety comes first when working in the galley. After that, the sky’s the limit. Kids can help with planning, shopping, preparing, and eating campground meals. These recipes were chosen with youngsters in mind. Decide which steps are right for children and which are best left to adults.
A large selection of earth-friendly, kid-friendly cooking utensils, including nylon knives that really cut, is available from www.CuriousChef.com. The tools are said to be appropriate for ages 5 and older, but parental discretion is advised.
Monkey Jungle Breakfast Buns
1 8-ounce package refrigerated crescent rolls
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar
8 small, ripe bananas
2 8-ounce cartons caramel yogurt
Set the oven to 375 degrees. Separate the crescent rolls into triangles. Mix the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle lightly over the crescent dough. Place a banana on each wedge of dough, roll up, and place seam-side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet liner. Bake until the buns are golden brown. Spoon the yogurt over the warm buns prior to serving. This recipe makes eight buns.
Doublenut Breakfast Biscuits
2 cups biscuit mix
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon maple extract
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup finely chopped nuts
Nutty spread such as almond butter, Nutella, peanut butter, or cashew butter
Set the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the biscuit mix and sugar. Stir the maple flavoring into the milk and add to the dry ingredients just until a dough forms and no dry spots remain. Fold in the nuts. Do not beat the dough or it will become tough. Using two spoons, drop eight blobs of dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet liner. Keep the biscuits an inch apart to allow room for rising. Bake the biscuits for eight minutes or until they are golden brown. Serve with your choice of spread.
Cheese Wafflers
8 toaster waffles
8 slices American cheese
Half of an 8-ounce brick of cream cheese, cut into 8 slices
Italian seasoning
Mild salsa
Toast the waffles and top each with a slice of American cheese. Lay a slice of cream cheese across the middle of the hot waffles. Sprinkle lightly with the Italian seasoning blend. Cook each in the microwave oven for a few seconds until the cheese melts. Top with salsa and serve. This recipe makes eight child-size portions. Adults and teenagers may want two waffles.
Cook’s note: Wafflers can be cut in halves or quarters to eat with the fingers. Beware of the hot cheese.
Hot Doggin’ Potato Salad
1 cup bottled Italian dressing
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
3 15-ounce cans sliced potatoes, well-drained
6 hot dogs
1 small sweet onion (Vidalia, Texas sweet), finely diced
3 large ribs celery, diced
In a large bowl, whisk together the dressing, sugar, and mustard until the sugar dissolves. Fold in the potatoes to coat well. Cut the hot dogs in half, lengthwise, then in slices. Fold in the hot dogs, onion, and celery until everything is well blended. Eat at once or chill for later. This recipe makes six to eight servings.
Artist Palette Plate
A self-releasing ice cream scoop is an easy way to serve foods in a fancy way. Scoops come in many sizes. A 1/3-cup serving scoop is about right to be handled by middle-schoolers and older. You also will need an inexpensive plastic ketchup or mustard dispenser. No cooking is needed here, and arranging the plates gives the child creative control.
Shredded lettuce
1 pound assorted cold cuts
1 pound deli coleslaw
1 16-ounce carton small-curd cottage cheese
1 pound deli potato salad
1/4 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
Make a bed of shredded lettuce on each plate. Cut the deli meat into attractive shapes or roll them up. Arrange on the plates. On each plate, place 1/4- to 1/3-cup scoops of coleslaw, cottage cheese, and potato salad. Use a funnel to add the following to a plastic dispenser, in order: ketchup, sugar, prepared mustard, vegetable oil, and vinegar. Hold your finger over the hole of the container while shaking it vigorously to mix well. Drizzle your homemade dressing lightly over each plate in a zigzag pattern, shaking between each serving to keep the salad dressing well mixed. This recipe makes four to six servings.
Rice And Rooster Salad
Older children can learn to use a peeler, knife, and cutting board. Otherwise, adults can help.
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 10-ounce can chunk chicken, broken up
½ cup Italian dressing
3 cups ready-to-serve white or brown rice
1 small cucumber, peeled and diced
Approximately 10 small grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 15-ounce can whole green beans, drained
Put the cranberries in a large bowl and drain the chicken juice into them. Let them soak in the juice for 10 to 15 minutes. Fold in the dressing, rice, cucumber, tomatoes, and chicken in that order. Put the salad on serving plates and arrange green beans in a pretty pattern on top. This recipe makes four to six servings.
Ham-A-Lulu
Put a Hawaiian halo on ordinary coleslaw. Ham turns it into a complete, one-dish meal.
½ cup raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing
1 8-ounce carton vanilla yogurt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 12- to 16-ounce package angel hair (finely shredded) coleslaw mix
1 12-ounce package fully cooked diced ham
1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained
In a small container, whisk the salad dressing with the yogurt. In a large bowl, sprinkle the sugar over the coleslaw mix. Fold together the yogurt mixture, the coleslaw mix, the ham, and the pineapple. Use tongs to serve it in shallow bowls. This recipe makes four to six servings.
Chicken In A Blanket
1 rotisserie chicken from the deli
1 8-ounce carton strawberry yogurt
2 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard
12 slices of boiled ham from the deli
12 6-inch corn or flour tortillas, warmed enough to be pliable
Using clean fingers, tear the chicken from the bones in large shreds. Set aside 12 meaty, thumb-size pieces. Save the rest of the chicken for another use. Whisk the yogurt and mustard together and lightly spread it on the sliced ham. Roll a chunk of chicken in each slice of ham, then roll the meat in a tortilla, and serve at once. This recipe makes 12 child-size or six adult-size portions.
Rocky Top Dessert
½ stick butter
1 cup crunchy wheat and barley cereal, e.g. Grape-Nuts
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons sugar
Instant pudding
Melt the butter in a medium skillet and stir in the remaining ingredients, except the pudding. Cook the mixture, stirring often, for approximately five minutes or until it becomes toasty. Cool. Make instant pudding according to package directions and pour it into serving dishes. Sprinkle with the Rocky Top crumbles and serve at once. This is enough for eight desserts. Use only as much topping as needed each time and keep the rest in the refrigerator for later.
More Recipe Ideas:
- Cut the tops off ripe tomatoes and let children hollow them out using a grapefruit spoon. Fill the hollowed tomatoes with cottage cheese, tuna or chicken salad, pimento cheese, or egg salad and serve cold. The scooped-out tomato juice and flesh can be saved for another use.
- Scrape seeds out of halved green peppers and fill them with corned beef hash from a can. Bake until the peppers are crisp-tender.
- Use clear plastic disposable cups to make pretty parfaits with layers of cookie crumbs, fruit, nuts, pie filling, instant pudding, etc.
- Get a sourdough starter kit to quick-start your family’s introduction to the living, breathing culture that becomes a family tradition. Make breads, sweets, biscuits, and much more using yeast that you replenish time and again. It’s also fun for kids to share some of their starter with others they meet in the campground.
- Favorite meals are always those that provide individual choices. Start with a square of foil, then add a burger patty, pork chop, or hot dog and pile on vegetables and seasonings. Bring up the corners, twist, and place meat-side down on the grill.
Motorhome Cooking Through The Ages
Here are some suggestions for age-appropriate activities to involve children or grandchildren in the cooking process.
Preschool: set the table, gather tinder, scrape plates, and learn recycling categories. As soon as children can wash their own hands, teach water conservation.
Elementary school: all of the above, plus learn the food pyramid, assemble simple salads, mix batters and salad dressings, learn the basics of safe food handling in the galley and outdoors, make microwave popcorn, use measuring cups and spoons, help with menus.
Middle school: all of the above, plus cleanup, including dish washing and drying; set the fire; prepare recipes; use a balloon whisk; some cooking with supervision; read and interpret recipes.
Junior high and older: by this time, many young people will have some sort of culinary skills and can participate in all cooking activities.
Safety Tips
- Most kids know how to use a microwave oven, but your RV’s unit may be different from the one they use at home. If your microwave oven is a touch-pad type, supervise children when they input the settings so they don’t select 60 minutes when they really want 60 seconds.
- If you cook with charcoal, keep children away from it even after it looks white and cold. Coals could still be extremely hot. Don’t burn charcoal in an enclosed space, including under an awning.
- Teach children not to lick the spoon that goes back into jars, mixing bowls, or prepared dips. In hot weather, extra precautions are needed.
- Steam is always a hazard, especially when children prepare individual meals in foil.
- Buy mayonnaise, jelly, and other condiments that come in squeeze bottles. It makes it easier for youngsters to serve and helps keep little fingers out of the jars.
Books For Kids, Books For Cooks
Award-winning author Carole P. Roman has published two children’s books that are brightly illustrated and ideal for bedtime reading. Each teaches children ages 3 to 7 a lesson about patience or getting along with others. Captain No Beard: An Imaginary Tale of a Pirate’s Life and Pepper Parrot’s Problem with Patience: A Captain No Beard Story ($9.99 each, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform) are available through online booksellers.
The only grilling cookbook you’ll ever need is Weber’s New Real Grilling by Jamie Purviance ($24.95, Oxmoor House). This heavily illustrated, 336-page encyclopedia covers all you need to know about grilling, recipes, rubs, sauces, brines, and marinades for every course of the meal, including dessert.
Raw Essence: 180 Delicious Recipes for Raw Living by David Cote and Mathieu Gallant ($24.95, Robert Rose) is an eye-opening cookbook that espouses the raw food lifestyle. This book will keep you so well fed, you won’t miss the stove. Picture fruits or vegetables in fruit leather “wraps,” ice cream, smoothies, and even a spaghetti look-alike made with raw foods. The recipes require planning and work, but a dedicated raw-dieter will love them all.
Also from Robert Rose is the quintessential RV cookbook for those who love finger foods. Titled 175 Best Mini Pie Recipes ($24.95), this lavishly illustrated book by Julie Anne Hession covers a wide variety of hand pies, from pasties to empanadas, fruit to nuts, meats to seafood. Many of the recipes adapt well for use with pie irons in the campfire. Others are perfect to pack for hikes, picnics, and eating on the go. Make entire menus that don’t require a knife and fork.
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