Cooking With Kids: Easter Recipes for Children

Holidays are a great time to add a special touch to cooking time with your kids. Easter is a fun holiday for children and a great opportunity for kids to get cooking in the kitchen once again. From bunnies to chicks to eggs, Easter recipes are a breeze with your children. So lets get started cooking!

What do you get when you put fruit, cookie cutters, and lollipop sticks together? A fun way to eat fruit during Easter! You will see in this cooking with kids hubs that I love to use cookie cutters to make cooking both fun and interesting for kids. When I thought about what would be healthy and easy recipes for kids to help out with, I knew fruit would have to be included.

We decided to make Easter shaped fruit cut outs. I cut fruit into slices that were about 1/2 inch in thickness. I used a variety of fruit- cantaloupe, watermelon, and honeydew, you can use fruit of your choice that will hold up to being cut out with the cookie cutters.

Once the fruit was cut into slices, I let my kids use the Easter shaped cookie cutters to cut out the fruit. Once all of the fruit was cut, then they put the lollipop sticks into the bottom of each piece of fruit. I used lollipop sticks instead of skewers for the safety concern. I did not want anyone to get hurt on the sharp point. Unfortunately I only had short sticks so they did not lift very high once they were placed in the vase. However, there are longer lollipop sticks available.

Once all of the fruit had sticks in them, we placed them in a vase to display our hard work. These would make a beautiful addition to your Easter table. You could even serve them for breakfast or as an appetizer before your meal. Add Easter grass or some jelly beans to the bottom of the vase to add some more visual appeal to your fruit bouquet.

Please play with your fruit! Here is a fun way to help children eat their daily quota of fruit. It is fun for children to help you create these fun bunny fruit faces and they will be so excited to eat the ears, eyes, mouth and all the rest of the parts of the face until there is nothing left!

To make these cute bunny fruit faces you will need a variety of fruit. We used watermelon, cantaloupe, apples, blueberries, honeydew and a fruit strip. You may choose what kind of fruit to use for your bunny face but the base should be something that can hold its shape.

Fruit Needed

• Slice of watermelon 1/2 inch thick
• blueberries
• small squares of honeydew
• a fruit strip (fruit leather) cut into thin strips
• cantaloupe cut into thin strips
• apple slices

Now that you have all of the fruit cut into the right shapes, place everything on a plate for your young chefs to reach. Allow them to use a round cookie cutter to cut the shape of the the bunny face. Younger children may need some help with this. Then let them at it! Allow them to create their faces with the fruit choices available and then sit back and watch them make the fruit vanish!

When we think of Easter, most people think of bunnies, baby chicks, and jelly beans. However, the reason for the celebration of Easter is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In honor of this important religious event, why not make some Easter bread crosses. This is a great cooking activity to do with your children a couple of days ahead of time and then serve them for breakfast on Easter.

This was great fun for us to make and very easy too. I will say that I am not a fan of processed foods. However, sometimes you need to make something that is quick, easy, and fun. If you have a favorite homemade bread recipe, you can simply apply the steps to make these crosses using your bread dough. You can easily add a different dried fruit if you do not like raisins or leave the fruit out all together.

Ingredients

• 1 package of refrigerated bread (I used Pilsbury's Simple brand to reduce the amount of additives.)
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/4 cup of raisins
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 egg white

Directions

1. Unroll the packaged dough. Then cut long slices of the dough into pieces about 2 inches wide. Then cut each of those strips into two pieces, about 1/3 and 2/3 in length. Then cut each of those in half. This will make two crosses.
2. Mix the cinnamon and brown sugar together.
3. Now have the kids spread some butter on each strip of dough. Follow this by adding a small amount of the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture. Top with raisins and fold over. Be sure to pinch the edges together tightly. If the bread is overfilled or it is not closed tight, the melted butter and sugar will run out of the holes as it cooks. Repeat this process with all of the pieces of dough.
4. Place a shorter filled piece of dough over the longer one to make the cross. Place on the cookie sheet. Repeat until the cookie sheet is full. Don't forget to leave space between the crosses.
5. Lightly brush the tops with egg whites. You could even sprinkle a little sugar on the top if you want! The egg whites will give it a bit of shine when it is finished cooking.
6. Cook according to the package directions (about 10 minutes on 350 degrees).

**Be sure to allow the bread to completely cool before eating them. Remember also that only an adult should put in a take out hot items from the oven.

The last recipe that I'm going to share with you is a simple tossed salad with a twist. Many people enjoy eating salad with their meal and it is so healthy for you. You can serve this alongside your Easter meal or make it for a fun addition to lunch or dinner in the days leading up to Easter.

Ingredients

• lettuce cut in small, long pieces like grass
• hard boiled eggs
• cherry or grape tomatoes
• shredded cheese
• slices of cucumbers
• 1-2 yellow peppers
• any other "toppings" that you like on your salad

Directions

1. Slice the lettuce into long strips. This should be done by an adult or older child that can use a sharp knife.
2. Slice the yellow pepper in half and give one half to each child. Have each child "cut out" a chick using a chick shaped cookie cutter.
3. Cook the hard boiled eggs and peel them.
4. That's it! Now let your sous chefs build the salad and then serve to your hungry guests.

We hope that you enjoyed these recipes and try some of them with your own children. Happy Easter everyone!