We’re kicking off our Cooking with Kids A-Z today with two recipes to cook with the kids, this one a savoury recipe made with apple and pork sausages and also a sweet and delicious apple and cinnamon loaf cake. Every other week we will be sharing a recipe based on a key ingredient starting with the next letter of the alphabet as well as joining with a fantastic selection of bloggers from around the world to bring alternative recipes with that key ingredient – go to the end of the post to find this weeks A is for Apple recipes to cook and bake with your kids.

Working through the recipes it’s amazing the skills that a simple recipe includes as well as the other areas that we were able to involve in the making of the recipes. In this recipe we worked on using a knife, peeling, a can opener and safety awareness with using a hob. T who is almost 4 cooked this recipe with me, you will see in the pictures that she used a knife – we have safety knives that the children use which will cut through most fruit and vegetables but they don’t cut skin.

What You'll Find on This Page

Ingredients

Apple and Pork Sausages
2 tbsp of olive oil
Medium Onion
Red sweet Pepper
2 Cloves of Garlic
400g Tin of Tomatoes
400g Tin of Cannellini beans
2 tbsp of tomato puree
2 tbsp of sun dried tomato paste

Serve with pasta, rice or potatoes

A is for Apple and Pork Sausage and Bean Casserole

One of the things that I have found helps when cooking with young children – mine are almost 4 and 5 is to be prepared and this includes giving yourself extra time to cook as well as having everything ready to go. Before mentioning to the kids that we are cooking I prepare all the ingredients ready and gather the equipment that I would need, especially when like this recipe we will be using sharp knives and heat.

Part of the cooking with kids is teaching them about safety and hygiene so a reminder about hand washing was important – a few weeks ago for our playful preschool we focused on Healthy Habits and one of the co-hosts posted a fabulous hand washing song which we use when ever we cook now. With hands washed the first job was pricking the sausages followed of course by hand washing after handling meat.

Into a heavy bottom frying pan we added the oil, talking about measures in this case tablespoons – we have a set of child friendly cups and spoons that I use with the kids when we are cooking and it makes it easier for them to recognise the different sizes as they are different colours. With the oil in the pan we switched the hob on and heated up the oil and then added in the sausages.

Whilst the sausages fried T peeled the onion – a tip that we have found helps is to chop off the top and bottom of the onion and then score down the skin this helps little fingers start to peel and they find it easier.

Once the onion is peeled time to chop – I find it much easier to halve the onions to provide a flat surface for T to cut into and then I help by positioning her hands before she starts to cut. We’ve had lots of practice with cutting – in the autumn we used windfall apples to teach cutting skills which was a great use for them as they were beyond use in cooking by the time we picked them up. She then chopped up the red pepper and used a garlic crusher to crush the two cloves of garlic.

With the sausages browned (around 10 – 12 minutes) we removed them from the pan and then added in the onion, garlic and peppers to brown. I add in the ingredients to the hot pan as I know that it can spit sometimes.

We have a small step that is the perfect height for T to work in the kitchen and it’s very stable, standing on the step she is able to stir and see over into the pans – when they were younger I used a chair for them to stand on as again it was stable and unlikely to rock.

As soon as the vegetables were browned we got to open the tinned tomatoes – from many years of camping, student accommodation and travelling I’ve discovered that can openers are not all the same, and we have a variety in the kitchen, picking one for young children to use it needs to have a sturdy grip and be easy to turn, although electric can openers are good, it’s one thing that I have avoided using with the kids as they will come across needing to open cans like when camping and need to have the skills to use a variety of different tools to do it.

Again I added the tinned tomatoes to the pan and then we measured out the tomato puree and sun dried tomato paste into the mix and stirred it around. The pan was then left to simmer and thicken up for 5 minutes before adding the sausages back in.

T drained the cannellini beans and added them to the pan and then she stirred the mix whilst I prepared the pasta for the dish. Once the beans are added you need around 10 – 15 minutes of cooking time and then serve.

Printable Apple and Pork Sausage Casserole Recipe

To make it easier for you to cook with kids, we’re providing each of the recipes in a printable format – on our posts you have two options you can download our Apple and Pork Sausage Casserole Recipe save to your computer and print out – or if you look at the bottom of the post you can print out the recipe file there.

Cooking with kids A is for Apple

Each cooking with kids post I will be sharing other ideas from bloggers around the world who are joining me cooking through the alphabet – pop along and check out the other cooking with kids A is for Apple posts to find delicious recipes that are Kid friendly and you can cook with them at home.

Apple Muffins from Mum in the Madhouse

Apple Cinnamon Slices from Peakle Pie

Apple Peanut butter balls from Smiling like Sunshine

Apple Dumplings from Sugar Aunts

Apple Harvest Cake from Still Playing School

Apple Oaty Crumble from Witty Hoots

Apple Muffins from Thinly Spread

Apple and Cinnamon Loaf cake also from us at Rainy Day Mum