Pumpkins
With Halloween, Thanksgiving and fall upon us pumpkins are a popular item for baking and decorating.
If you didn’t plant a garden this year I’m sure you and your kids are looking for some pumpkins to pick elsewhere. In the Berry Picking story posted this summer at Nature For Kids Rebecca Renfroe shared a great website with everyone, pickyourown.org. At pickyourown.org you can find pumpkin patches near you. It also includes a list of holiday corn mazes!
So take your kids outside to hunt for pumpkins and breathe in that fall air!
Today at Nature For Kids I also wanted to share with you my favorite pumpkin carving and pumpkin recipe. Take a look…
I love Sunset Magazine. It’s full of gardening, cooking and decorating ideas that are just my style. I collect pictures and articles that inspire me. One of the pictures I collected was of this pumpkin owl carving. Have a hoot doing this one!
Now for my favorite pumpkin recipe…
Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Cranberries
(now that’s a mouthful)
Mmmmm Yummo! My kids love helping bake in the kitchen, especially if it involves frosting!
Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
15 oz. prepared pumpkin
4 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside. In a mixing bowl combine all other ingredients. After it’s mixed well add the dry ingredients slowly. Spoon into muffin cups 3/4 full. I use a mini muffin pan lined with paper cups for easy cleanup. My kids like the smaller cupcakes more and they’re great for parties. Bake at 350 degrees for 13 minutes (plus or minus). They’re done when you touch the center of the cupcake and it springs back.
Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
4 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1tsp vanilla
1 lb or 4 cups powdered sugar
Mix ingredients slowly then add evaporated milk until it’s a fluffy consistency. Place inside a decorating bag with a star tip. Start on the outer edge of the cupcake and spiral inward.
Candied Cranberry Recipe
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup cranberries
Prick each cranberry twice with a needle. Boil the sugar in water until it spins a thread. Put in the cranberries and cook them gently until syrup jellies. Remove berries one at a time and place on wax paper. Let stand until dry. Dip the berries in granulated sugar. Different from the picture above, I only place one berry on each mini cupcake.
pumpkins, pumpkin patch, nature for kids, nature, kids, halloween, Thanksgiving, fall, corn maze, pumpkin carving, pumpkin recipe, cupcake
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Filed under Camping Food, Crafts For Kids, Education | Comments (5)Dutch Oven Apple Dump Cake
For one of our final camping trips this summer we decided to go out with a bang when it came to camping food. We decided to make a dutch oven apple dump cake and share the recipe here at Nature For Kids. It was easy for the kids to make and of course tasted better than when we make it at home….everything tastes better when you’re camping!
Dutch Oven Apple Dump Cake
Items Needed:
12 inch dutch oven
Charcoal
Pliers or tongs (to take off lid and move charcoal around)
2 boxes of yellow cake mix
2 large cans of apple pie filling (you can use fresh apples but you’ll have to add more liquid and let it cook longer)
1 cube butter
1/2 can of lemon-lime soda
Directions: Get your charcoal going. While their heating up dump apple pie filling in dutch oven. Dump cake mixes over apples. Slice cube of butter and spread over top of cake mix. Pour soda over mixture. Put the lid on the dutch oven and place over about a dozen hot briquettes. Place about 8 more on top of dutch oven. Cook for 1 hour checking periodically. It’s done when the top layer is slightly brown and puffy. No more wet cake mix should be seen.
Hope you enjoy the dutch oven apple dump cake as much as we did! What’s your favorite camping dessert? Share it with us here at Nature For Kids!
camping food, dutch oven, nature, kids, cooking with kids
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Filed under Camping Food | Comment (1)Snack Attack
If your kids are prone to having snack attacks on the trail or whenever you’re outside, try tiding them over with dried apricots!
Apricots are on and ready to be eaten but it seems they usually come on all at once, leaving you with more than you can handle. Nature For Kids encourages you to take your kids to pick the apricots and then bring them home and dry them to take with you on your next outdoor adventure.
We have a dehydrator like this
It does a great job with apples, bananas, apricots and a variety of other things. My kids love it!
If you don’t want to dry the apricots whole try making fruit leather. It’s just a matter of pureeing the fruit and pouring it out flat.
I got this recipe from EasyFunSchool.com. You can do this recipe with a dehydrator or your oven.
Homemade Fruit Roll Ups
SUPPLIES:
Fresh, canned, or frozen fruit
Blender
Non-stick baking sheets*
Non-stick baking spray (e.g. PAM is a commercial brand)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Wash and prepare fruit.
2. Puree fruit in blender until it is very smooth. To make a leather that is 18 inches x 14 inches x ¼ inches, you will need about two and a half cups of puree.
3. Add as little water or juice as possible when pureeing.
4. You may now add any sweetening or spices … but beware, the more liquid in your puree, the longer it will take to dry. You don’t have to use processed sugar for sweetening; try honey, cane syrup, molasses, maple syrup, brown sugar, etc. (See below for more ideas on flavorings and spices).
5. Lightly spray the baking sheet with non-stick spray.
6. Pour the puree onto the prepared sheet.. Slightly tilt the tray to spread the puree around evenly. You could also make 4 to 6 inch size pancake shapes instead of one huge sheet.
7. At this point, you make garnish your leather if you desire (see below for variations).
8. Preheat your oven to about 150 degrees (no higher as you will cook the fruit rather than dry it). Note: below is an option if your fruit leather dries too long that is really good.
9. Put your baking sheet in the oven and prop the oven door open. The drying is going to take a long while … the time depends on how much moisture is in your puree.
10. Remove the leather from the sheet while it is still warm and roll it up.
Just remember, whenever you get a snack attack and you’re eating dried fruit you need to be sure to drink a lot of water along with that. Enjoy!
recipe, outside, apricots, outdoor adventure
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Filed under Camping Food | Comments (3)Where Food Comes From
Day in and day out my kids come to the dinner table and are fortunate enough to have full plates and eventually tummies. At times I get frustrated that they aren’t more grateful. They seem to think the food will just appear, just as the sun rises. I constantly find myself urging them to eat all their food, similar to Ralphie’s little brother from A Christmas Story… “Show me how the piggies eat”
I don’t believe kids can actually appreciate what they have, whether it be a motorized scooter or a chicken taco, unless they gain knowledge about it, or even work for it. I decided to give my kids a hands-on experience with the food they eat and share it with Nature For Kids.
We recently took a trip to Idaho and on our way passed bold green fields of potatoes, sugar beets, corn, wheat and alfalfa. My kids had the opportunity to learn where food comes from and how exactly it grows. Their grandpa is a farmer of over 500 acres in south-central Idaho!
When they dug up the potato plants their eyes widened as they counted the golf ball sized potatoes, each plant having 12 or more.
Their grandpa explained that the potato plant grows from seed potato. It’s a very healthy potato cut in half and placed in the ground and then covered with dirt. He then pointed out the rows and rows of sprinkler pipe that keep the fields irrigated.
In the Fall I hope we can make another trip to show them the harvest process. They will surely be surprised to see how their golf ball sized potatoes have grown to become truckloads of large spuds filling huge potato cellars to the ceiling.
Later that same day, the kids helped plant corn in grandpa and grandma’s garden. Ideally I’d like them to be there to water and weed the corn and then a couple months later taste the fruits of their labor right off the cob.
Fortunately we’ve planted strawberries and a cherry tree at our house that they take care of willingly. Mostly because each time they water and weed there’s always a red juicy sweet treat to reward them!
For a family dinner, before we left Idaho, we cooked up loads and loads of french-fries from potatoes grown the previous year. The kids seemed pretty impressed with the results. Hopefully our dinner table conversation won’t be plagued with lecturing and persuasion any longer. Yeah right! I think their experience of learning where food comes from will help take the edge off though.
Everyone Needs To Read This!
I came across this interesting quote by way of Farm Aid, “Young farmers are becoming a rare breed: only six percent of American farmers are younger than 35, while the majority of today’s farmers are between the ages of 45 and 65.* Introducing children to farming and gardening at a young age may inspire a new generation of family farmers that will strengthen American agriculture and protect your food choices.” *United States Department of Agriculture, 2002.
ACTIVITIES -These are some really fun and educational food activities that you can do with your kids.
Where Food Comes From:
Here’s a fun idea I got from Kids and Cooking. After grocery shopping take your food and lay it out on the table. Have your kids read each label on the food products to find out where they came from. Then go to a world map and find the location of where your food came from. It’s a fun way to educate kids.
Fake vs. Real:
I came across this activity at USA Today. Ask your kids what they think cave men ate. Their response will probably be something like nuts, berries or meat. Explain to them that these types of foods are “real foods”. Then point out some “fake foods” or foods that cave men didn’t have like fruit snacks, cheetos, or jello.
*picture from USA Today
They’ll probably catch on pretty quick. Explaining that real foods have more nutritional value than fake ones can help your kids make better food choices. You take this activity further by having them keep a journal of what they’ve eaten in the past three days and then circlce the foods that are “fake”. This can help your kids and you as a parent realize where you’re getting your nutrition!
Pick Your Own:
Picking your own veggies or fruit is fun and rewarding. Check out the blueberry picking post submitted by Becca Renfroe of Northwest Arkansas. Have your kids decide what they want to pick and then go to pickyourown.org to find a farm near you.
Plant Your Own:
Planting a garden would always be ideal but if you’re lacking the space for a full-on garden consider follwoing these step by step instructions for container gardening. Making your own pop bottle terrarium is also a space saver. Planting chives inside it is a great way to add flavor to your kids’ day and your baked potato!
Besides teaching kids where food comes from, do you have any other ideas on how to get them to appreciate healthy food more? Leave a comment here at Nature For Kids.
gardening, farming, food, plants, healthy kids
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Filed under Camping Food, Education | Comments (4)Muddy Buddies
It’s time for another trail snack recipe! Today we have Muddy Buddies!
No, not this….
This…
It seems like I never keep the muddy buddies recipe available because I always think it will be printed on the Chex cereal box but it isn’t. So I’ll make a permanent copy of the recipe here on Nature For Kids for you and me!
Muddy Buddies
Melt in a large pot:
1 Cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 Cup peanut butter
1/4 Cup Margarine
1 tsp. vanilla extract
After it is melted and smooth remove from heat and pour in 9 cups of Chex cereal (corn or rice). Put 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar inside a large plastic bag. Once the cereal concoction is mixed nicely put it inside the bag with the powdered sugar and give it a good shake.
Place a couple hanfuls in a sandwich bag and throw it in your backpack!
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Filed under Camping Food, Hiking | Comments (3)Corn Flake Cookies
I thought every once in a while here at Nature For Kids I’d share some hiking snack recipes with you. To kick it off we have corn flake cookies! I got this recipe from my sister-in-law, Jinger. My kids love them! These are perfect portions and very packable for a great hike!
Corn Flake Cookies:
Melt in large pot:
- 1Cup Peanut Butter
- 1/2 Cub Corn Syrup
- 1/4 bag mini-marshmallows
- 1/2 Cup sugar
When sugar is dissolved add 3 cups corn flakes. Stir it up until the flakes are covered well with all that gooey yumminess and then spoon out heaping tablespoon fulls onto wax paper. Let cool and then place them in a container or plastic bag.
Do you have any kids’ treats to share that would compliment their outdoor fun?
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Filed under Camping Food, Hiking | Comment (0)
