Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Cooking Games and Knife Safety


If you’re going to play cooking games in your kitchen, one of the most important things you can do is learn how to handle a knife correctly. When possible, you should always handle a knife in the company of someone else who can help you remember to use the knife safely. Having someone else there is also great insurance against a mistake simply because that friend or family member might be the one to drive you to the emergency room if you do goof somehow.

When you’re using a knife you should follow a few simple rules:
Always use a sharp knife. A sharp knife will cut more cleanly and more quickly. A dull knife, however, will be harder to use and it is more likely to slip when you’re trying to cut and cut you instead.

Always cut away from yourself. Don’t leave your fingers in the way of the knife and push the knife away from you rather than pulling it toward you where it can slip and jump into your hand, arm or chest.

Point knives down in the dishwasher. If you’re washing knives by hand, don’t drop them into soapy water where you can’t feel what you’re grabbing. If you’re loading the knives into the dishwasher, put them into the racks with the blades facing downward for safe handling for the next cooking games.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Healthy Cooking Games


There are so many fun cooking games out there to play, but a huge number of them all seem to have health issues. The cooking games we enjoy most are the ones that include things like making cookies, adding sprinkles and frosting and baking cakes. It’s time for us to find more cooking games that can be considered healthy!
Fruit Salad – Fruit salads are one of the easiest cooking games for those looking to find a healthy alternative to the non-healthy cooking games. Cut up all sorts of pieces of fruit and combine them together. Make a berry salad or use skewers for the fruit to make it more exciting.

Muffins and Bread – If you make your muffins and bread from scratch, you can limit the amount of sugar you use by making healthy substitutions. Using applesauce instead of sugar, for example, or bananas and nuts to flavor a rich bread is absolutely delicious and healthy.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Cooking Games and Avoiding Sugar


There are too many sugary delicious items out there for me and my cooking games. I loved making cookies, brownies and cakes with my kids and I still do at times, but it’s starting to bother me how little there is that’s fun to make that is sugar free. Not only is sugar bad for all of us, but it’s been affecting my health and my energy levels lately. I’m bound and determined to find cooking games that require less sugar and healthier overall.

The one area where I’ve decided to start my new cooking games are the breads. Making bread is actually pretty fun, especially if you start mixing in different ingredients. Granted, there is still sugar in bread, but there is considerably less in the dark breads than the white breads, so I’ll be starting there. I’m going to play cooking games with my kids and we’ll all have fun with steaming, hot bread for snacks this winter.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Cooking Games and Cookies


Cookies are one of the first things kids learn to make that involves more than pushing a button on the microwave. If you’re working with your children to playing cooking games for cookies, always remember that the safety should be your first less. Your kids will likely be using scissors and almost certainly the oven as they cook.

Start with the place and bake style cookies. Simply grease a tray and then cut open a pack of dough. Your children can place the cookies on the tray on their own and once they have them arranged, it’s a simple matter to fire up the oven and bake them. The hardest part is teaching your children how to use the oven correctly – a full hand oven mitt will help protect their arms and hands from burns, but supervision for the first few cookie making experiences will certainly serve you well, too.