There are several ways to use dried beans (soups, salads, tacos) but first, you must cook them! One of the key parts about cooking beans properly is to soak them in water overnight. This will allow the beans to start to soften so they don't take as long to cook. Fill a bowl or pot with the dried beans and add water until they are covered by a few inches of water. Let the beans soak overnight on the counter.  

When you are ready to cook your beans, drain them and transfer them to another pot, then cover them in a few inches of water. Bring them to a simmer, avoiding a boil (which will make them fall apart). Salt the liquid very lightly. You can also add onion, bay leaves, or other herbs to add flavor to the beans during this process. Simmer the beans for 80-120 minutes (depending on the type of bean) until they are tender. If they start to look dry, or the top layer of beans is not fully immersed in water during the cooking process, add more liquid. Once tender, drain the cooking liquid and the beans are ready to be added to a chili, salad, or a side dish (beans and rice). If you have extra beans, store them in the refrigerator for up to a week or you can freeze them and pull them out for later use.

--Tyler

Luckily there are a host of breakfast options that won’t break the bank, but also provide a nutritive and substantial platform for the day. 

With the high sugar content of most breakfast cereals on the market, children can enter a ‘crash and burn’ cycle each morning if they eat a high sugar cereal for breakfast, with dairy milk or alternative milks that also have a high sugar content of their own, due to either the naturally occurring lactose in cow’s milk, or the added sugar in many alternative milks (soy, coconut, almond, oat milks, etc). 

Cereals are a totally viable, and often necessary, breakfast choice, for busy families, and are easy for children to prepare. That said, here are a few other options to include in your weekly breakfast mix. 

*Quick or Old Fashioned Oatmeal with toppings. 

The nice thing about oatmeal is that it can be prepared equally well in either the microwave or the stovetop. While Old Fashioned Oatmeal takes a few more minutes, many people appreciate its heartier texture and mouthfeel, as it isn’t as ‘mushy’ and is harder to overcook than quick oats. It’s in the toppings to oatmeal is where you can really improvise! 

- Take those slightly overripe bananas and either cook them right into the oatmeal, or slice them as a topping. 

- Cut apples up finely, and present them as a crunchy/tart/sweet option to blend into the creamy oatmeal. 

- Dried fruits of all kinds do well in oatmeal, even if they are somewhat dry and desiccated from sitting in the back of your pantry for a while. Mixing them into a warm bowl of oatmeal, and letting them hydrate for a minute or two, can really bring them back to life. Raisins and  golden raisins are typically the cheapest and most available dried fruits, but dried blueberries, dried cranberries, dried cherries, and other dried fruits are also super delicious, high in fiber, and full of antioxidants and vitamins. 

- Nuts! I’ve seen children try nuts on top of oatmeal, even if they otherwise refuse to eat a handful of nuts on their own. Something about the warm comfort of oatmeal, in combination with other toppings, brings out the crunch and flavor of pecans and walnuts in particular. 

- As for sweeteners, brown sugar, white sugar, turbinado sugar, maple syrup, or honey can be added to the oatmeal. If your kids are anything like mine, their natural inclination is towards sweet things, so I don’t leave the sweeteners out on the table. I instead add them myself, before dropping the bowls of oatmeal in front of them. If they request more sweetener, I graciously add a bit extra, but if I leave the brown sugar on the table and turn my back, watch out. 

- Allow your children to pick out their own toppings. They may surprise you, and their choices may occasionally cause you to raise an eyebrow, but it also gives them a feeling of control over their own morning destiny. Chocolate chips, peanut butter, almond butter, vanilla extract, and other toppings have occasionally made it into the oatmeal at my own house, and have made for some nice ’variations on the theme’. 

*Basic Scrambled Eggs: 

One of the most basic, quick, and cheap breakfasts known is the humble cooked egg. From a hard-boiled egg dipped in salt and black pepper, to a high class fancy omelet, the humble egg can play many different roles in the family breakfast diet. 

Eggs also seem to inspire a special ability in people, including little people, to ask the cook to customize them.

I can’t recall how many times I am on my way to cooking a simple breakfast for the family, pull out a dozen eggs from the fridge, and before I know it, I’m preparing one ’over-medium on lightly browned buttered toast’, ‘three scrambled eggs with a little bit of cheese, not too much’, and an ’omelette with mushrooms, tomato, and spinach’.  

I start losing my mind pretty quickly in that scenario, and thus I believe that eggs are one of the best dishes to teach a child to cook from an early age. 

The very simplest way I know how to engage a child and cook eggs, is the basic scrambled egg. 

Basic Scrambled Eggs with Toast Method (with children): 

While you warm up a non-stick pan over a medium-low flame, have your kids pull up a chair or stool, and have them carefully crack the eggs, one at a time. 

Since a little bite of gritty eggshell can really ruin your day, have your child crack just one egg at a time into a clear bowl or glass dish, and inspect each egg for shell particles, before you allow them to add it to the pooled batch of eggs.  Once finished, have your child whisk the eggs until they are evenly uniform in color, and they can no longer differentiate between the yolk and white. 

Here’s where things get interesting, and the customization begins. You could add milk, half and half, heavy cream, or even a touch of water. A small pinch of salt usually is enough, as each person can always add more salt to their taste at the table. 

Cook eggs in a nonstick pan, unless you enjoy scrubbing your pan out vigorously later. 

As for a fat/oil to use for cooking the eggs, you can use butter, canola oil, olive oil, or any other fat you have in the pantry. Remember that every fat has a smoke point, and the smoke point of butter is quite low, so it’s super easy to inadvertently brown or even blacken the butter before adding the eggs. Your kids won’t let you live that one down easily. And do you really need one more thing they can hold over your head in this Age of Quarantine? 

Back to the egg cooking process, I like to then bring the flame down to a very low heat while I move my child’s stool or chair over closer to the pan. I give them a heatproof rubber spatula and have them very slowly stir the eggs. This has a dual purpose: to keep them busy and focused for a couple of minutes, and to allow me to drink my first sip of coffee of the morning. Impress upon your child the importance of moving the eggs constantly and slowly, and also to not spill eggs onto the stovetop. 

As the eggs start to come together and cook, now is the time for the family debate to begin anew. Important questions like how long to cook the eggs, how dry or wet they should be, and how much cheese to add, may arise. Your partner or other children may come by and also have a comment to contribute. Ignore them and focus on the task at hand. 

Once cooked, timing is now critical. Corralling your entire family to the table is now urgent. Assign an official toast maker and butterer to handle those important and specialized tasks. Orange juice, or other fruit juice, is always a good option with eggs. Depending on your wont, hot sauce, ketchup, jelly, and other condiments may now start to pour out of the fridge and hit the table. 

Every child needs at least one dish they can feel confident in preparing from start to finish, and scrambled eggs can be the perfect dish for a child newly finding their confidence in the kitchen. Once they have mastered the basic scrambled egg, they can then progress on to omelets and other advanced egg applications, that require a bit more skill and technique. 

One more thing--check out the most recent Chop Chop kids newsletter--it's all about eggs!

--Stephen

Black Lentils or Beluga Lentils are one of the heartiest types of lentils. They hold their shape well and can be used in cold salads, as well as in soups or stews. They can also be prepared as a side dish. One-half cup of uncooked black lentils provides 26g protein, 18g fiber, 100mg calcium, 8mg iron, and 960mg potassium, according to the USDA.

The simplest way to cook black lentils is to simmer them in a vegetable stock. Add 3 cups of stock and one cup of lentils to a saucepan and simmer for 17-22 minutes, until the lentils are tender. You can add onions, shallots, or herbs to infuse more flavor during the cooking process. When the lentils finish cooking, add salt and pepper to taste. Here are some ways to use black lentils: Sweet Potato and Black Lentils (roast sweet potatoes to add with the lentils), Black Lentil Salad (black lentils with feta cheese, arugula, radishes, and vinaigrette dressing), Black Lentil and Rice (cook lentils and rice separately and combine after cooking), Black Lentil tacos (lentils can be used as a substitute for black beans in tacos), Black Lentil Chili (black lentils can be used as the beans in chili). 

--Tyler

I grew to love pasta as a foreign exchange student in Italy after high school, where I lived with three different families, one from Rome, one from Milan, and one from Naples. 

 

I will never forget, my Neapolitana host mother always used to say: 

 

‘Why would anyone ever cook less than a pound of pasta? You never know who might show up for dinner.”

 

Although most Americans connote pasta with Italy, pasta dishes can be a celebration of global cuisine, and due to their simple, muted flavors can be an excellent foil for a variety of sauces, spices, and flavor agents. 

 

From Japanese Ramen, to Thai & Vietnamese Rice Noodles, to Eastern European dumplings, and back to American Mac and Cheese, the world loves pasta.

 

Now that the weather is turning warmer, it also offers the opportunity for cold noodle dishes. And we aren’t talking about that overcooked rotini with canned black olives and a quart of Italian Dressing that invariably shows up at Midwestern summer potlucks. The main technique to consider with any cold pasta dish is that as soon as it is finished cooking to your taste, that it is quickly drained and then rinsed well with cold running water, then coated with a thin layer of oil to keep the pieces distinct and separate. 

 

Here’s an example of an elegant and sophisticated cold noodle salad that is very easy to prepare, and can be held in the fridge for several days. If you don't have on hand soba noodles or the vegetables recomended in the recipe, you could easily sub in regular spaghetti or linguine pasta and any vegetables you have on hand in your refirgerator.

 

https://www.chopchopfamily.org/recipe/cold-soba-noodle-salad/

 

On the warm pasta side, there are a slew of comforting and delicious pasta dishes from around the world, some brothier than others. 

 

Here’s a good array of options for one-pot pasta dishes. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/dining/one-pot-pasta-coronavirus.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

 

And here are some kid friendly pasta dishes that you can try with your children, from ChopChop Magazines archives. Pasta can be an excellent first dish for a child, but until my own children prove otherwise, I still step in to drain the massive boiling pot of water in the sink. 

https://www.chopchopfamily.org/recipe/pasta-with-peas/

 

https://www.chopchopfamily.org/recipe/greek-pasta-%ef%bf%bcsalad/

 

Make your own tomato sauce: https://www.chopchopfamily.org/recipe/classic-tomato-sauce/ 

--Stephen

You're right--it is brown rice. We like this tutorial from Chop Chop on how to cook brown rice. Let us know if you run into any questions about the cooking process at all.

We're glad your son is a fan of the salsa! Below is a scaled-down version of our classic pico de gallo salsa - we hope you enjoy it! We also rotate our salsas seasonally to feature seasonal items like strawberries, corn, etc, depending on the time of year. Let us know if there's a specific one he likes and we can get you that specific recipe too.

Ingredients

• 2.5 pounds tomatoes

• ½ bunch cilantro

• ½ of one medium onion

• ½ of one jalapeno, depending on spice preference (remove seeds for less spice)

• 4 Tbsp lime juice (typically two limes)

• ½ Tsp salt

Instructions

1. Slice tomatoes.

2. Dice all ingredients by hand.

3. Mix together in a bowl. Season to taste with salt or additional jalapenos if desired.

Happy cooking!