Kids Cook Meals

With all of the major holiday feasts we undertake this time of year, it may seem easiest just to make the kitchen “off limits” to kids during meal prep. Much more fun is to assign a special dish that kids can do themselves as a contribution to the table.

This year my young daughter and son were my official “potato mashers,” and did a great job with both regular and sweet spuds. Not only did they free up my hands for other tasks (should have made the pie crust earlier – drats!), but they enjoyed a sense of pride, ownership, and accomplishment as we presented our family’s offerings to the communal table at Thanksgiving.

Making dinner together is one of our favorite things to do. While they are still too young to be left unsupervised at five and seven, they both beg to help out in the kitchen. Even though it often stretches my prep time for dinner, I encourage this because I find they can be more interested in eating things they have participated in making than if it were just set on the table.

I designed this recipe in particular so that they could assemble and cook an entire meal as a surprise for Daddy, and do so safely and easily. Since there are no knives needed, it’s easy for them to put this whole meal together for me to pop in the oven.

Feel free to use your favorite steak sauce, teriyaki sauce, bbq sauce, or Worcestershire sauce for a variation on flavors. It works great with hamburger or veggie burger patties instead of steak, too!

Dinner for Dad

3 cups frozen hash browns (shredded potatoes)

sea salt & pepper to taste

12-15 frozen pearl onions

1/2-3/4lb. boneless steak, well trimmed

2 Tbsp. steak sauce (A-1 or other brand)

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 1/2 cups baby carrots (halved, if desired)

2 1/2 cups frozen green beans

1-2 sprigs rosemary

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray inside of cast iron 2-quart Dutch oven and lid with canola oil. Shake hash browns loosely into pot and lightly season with salt. Scatter pearl onions and set steak atop. Spread steak sauce on meat and sprinkle with mushrooms. Distribute baby carrots around the pot and fill rest of the way with green beans. Tuck rosemary sprig into crevices.

Cover and bake for about 28-35 minutes or until about 3 minutes after the aroma of a fully-cooked meal escapes the oven.

Find this recipe and more than 100 others that use my patented infusion cooking technique in Glorious One-Pot Meals: A Revolutionary New Quick and Healthy Approach to Dutch Oven Cooking.