Cooking With Kids - Uglies, Salad and Banana Boats

This week in co-op, I had the kids make Uglies.   I split them up into three different groups to make the BBQ Uglies, Gravy Uglies, and Italian Uglies.

They loved making them.  It was super easy and they were ALL delicious! 

(we doubled the amounts as we made 16 of each flavor and had  almost a full quart sized baggie of the filling left! I will share what we used to make the 16)

You can get the printable version of these recipes here. 

What you need to  make 16 of each:

2 lb of hamburger

1 chopped onion

1 tsp of garlic powder

some flour for rolling out the biscuits

2 - cans of canned biscuits (there are  GF and Corn-Free ones)

cooking spray

muffin tins 

BBQ

3- cups of BBQ sauce( there are GF and Corn-Free ones)

Shredded Cheddar Cheese for topping

Gravy

3 - cups of any kind of brown/beef gravy

Shredded Sharp Cheese for topping

Italian

3 - cups of favorite spaghetti sauce (Newman's Own is corn-free)

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese for topping

Let's Cook!

Make sure you have ready:  1 chopped onion/per Uglies' recipe (We usually have an adult cut the onions due to the "tear making" fumes they sometimes have.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease 16 muffin cups.

Step 1: 

 In a frying pan, sprinkle some salt on the bottom and add in the meat, crumbling it as you put it in. (make sure hands are always washed after touching raw meat!) Turn the heat to medium.  Cook for about 1 -2 minutes and then add in the onions. Add in the garlic powder. Continuing cooking until the meat is all brown and the onions are very soft.   Line a bowl with paper towels or some napkins.   Pour the meat mixture into the bowl.  The paper towels/napkins will absorb the grease! Now put the meat mixture back into the pan.

Step 2:

Time to add in the sauce.   Pour the sauce into the meat mixture and bring to a simmer.   Continue simmering for 3 minutes.

Step 3:

Open your biscuits.   Sprinkle a little flour on the counter and take one biscuit , using a rolling pin, roll it out to about 6 inches.  Put one rolled out biscuit in each muffin "cup/hole". (If you find the biscuit to be too big, you can make them a little smaller.  Just make sure that you are pressing them into the muffin tin and you can "pinch"up the sides if there is extra.)

Step 4:

Fill each biscuit fill almost to the top with the meat mixture; top with the cheese.

Step 5:

Bake in preheated oven until biscuits are baked, cheese is melted and tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes.

BBQ and Cheddar Cheese

(a couple of the kids didn't want the cheese on theirs)

Gravy and Sharp Cheese

Italian

Banana Boats

What you need:

1 unpeeled banana per kid (or 2 if they really like them!)

aluminum foil

favorite toppings: chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, mini marshmallows, caramel, coconut, etc. 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Step 1

Slit each banana lengthwise through the peel, making sure not to cut all the way through to the other side. 

Step 2

Stuff the bananas with marshmallows and chocolate chips or whatever you want to stuff it with.

Step 3

Wrap each banana in aluminum foil and put in the oven for 5 minutes, or until chocolate is melted. Eat with a spoon.

Salad

While you are waiting for your Uglies to cool; you can put your salad together!  Shred up your lettuce adding in your favorite vegetables.  Top it off with your dressing of choice and mix well. 

I hope you and your loves will enjoy it as much as all the kids at co-op did!