MOMMY'S LITTLE HELPER

From day one, Eden has been a Mommy's girl - for sure!! She is a little more independent these days, but still wants to do just about EVERYTHING I do. I love that she wants to help, but sometimes it's hard to get stuff done. Her thing lately is to help me in the kitchen. I can walk into the kitchen to get a glass of water and she will follow me asking if she can help. She has a stool that she pushes around the kitchen the whole time I am in there, using it to see what I am doing or to help. It's great having her in the kitchen, but it's also frustrating because she is at the age where she wants to touch everything - which is sometimes dangerous in the kitchen. She is also at the age where she doesn't always obey what I tell her to do which results in a very messy kitchen. God is really teaching me patience. Since the day we found out she was a girl, I couldn't wait to have her in the kitchen helping me. I absolutely love to cook and bake and thought it would be so fun to have a little helper. I know we will eventually get to the point where she is actually helping, but until then I am trying to be creative in the what I let her do and creative as I explain what we are making and how we cook food. My friend, Karen suggested to get some pasta, a bowl, and a spoon and let her do whatever she wants with it while I do my cooking. I tried that and it worked for a while, until she decided to eat the uncooked pasta. I was concerned she would get choked on it because it was so hard. I may try the pasta thing again and see what happens. Do you have any suggestions for how she can help me in the kitchen??? I would love some creative ideas.

As a way to keep her involved in cooking, I try to do some sort of baking each week because baking seems a little more toddler friendly than cooking. I measure out the ingredients and let her dump it in the bowl and stir it up. She loves that. Her favorite part though is eating the batter (which she gets from me - that's my favorite part too.) This week we baked Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies. (Recipe below pictures). Nick enjoys the weekly baking as well. :)Here are some pics from our baking fun!***Please excuse her crazy hair - she had just gotten up from a nap. :)

She liked dipping the beater in the batter to stir


And then, licking it...


It's my favorite part too...it's a little hard to resist!


Watching the cookies bake


She likes to smell them as they come out of the oven


Eating our creation - "Those are won-er-ful, Mommy!" she says.


Here is the recipe we used:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions: (pre-heat oven to 350)
1.)Cream butter, peanut butter & sugars until well combined
2.)Add egg and mix until fluffy
3.)In a different bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
4.)Mix flour mixture into butter mixture until well combined
5.)Stir in chocolate chips
6.)Roll into balls and place on cookie sheet
7.)Bake for 8-10 minutes
ENJOY!!