Sparkle Kitchen
Explore a world of culinary delight with our Sparkle Kitchen category. Discover mouthwatering recipes, cooking tips, and kitchen adventures to satisfy your appetite and spark your creativity in the kitchen.
Sparkle Kitchen: Airplane Snack Boxes
Beyond keeping everyone's blood glucose on an even keel, a well put together airplane snack box can also be a great way to pass some time as you're soaring through the air.
Nine Healthy Sparkle Recipes
Meryl, our Sparkle Kitchen chef, and Lisabeth, our CEO, have been creating wonderful recipes to go along with David's stories and today we are sharing 9 of the healthiest ones with you.
Sparkle Kitchen: Strawberry Team Snacks
In our part of the world, it's strawberry season, so here are three different ways you could serve strawberries to a team. Feel free to extrapolate these to include other fruit as the seasons change where you live.
Sparkle Ideas for Encouraging Healthy Eating
Nutrition expert Margaret Connor shares some suggestions from her own home, where her kids eat a spectacularly broad range of foods.
Sparkle Kitchen: Nori Handrolls
While making proper sushi rolls with nori takes a bit of specialist equipment, you can make more casual nori hand rolls with nothing but, well, your own two hands!
Sparkle Kitchen: Skirlie
On a chilly, damp spring day, there's nothing that makes me want to say “thanks” more than a pipping hot bowl of oatmeal. And if you make it like the Scots do, there's no need to limit it to breakfast time.
“Skirlie”, or savory Scottish oatmeal, makes a stick-to-your-ribs meal for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Eight Sparkle Inspired Gifts for Mother's Day
We've e got you covered for Mother's Day with EIGHT Sparkle - inspired gift ideas for mom. All of these recipes and crafts are easy to do with children and their grown-ups.
Sparkle Kitchen: 1,2,3 Cupcakes
One of my favorite places to use math with kids is in the kitchen. “Bring me two eggs, please.” Boom—we're counting! “I need ½ a cup of sugar.” Yay—fractions! “Pizza dough is two parts flour to one part liquid.” Ratios, galore!
Sparkle Kitchen: Australian Sausage Rolls
Since we're talking about Australia and being friendly, this would be a perfect time to make up a batch of sausage rolls. Similar to American “pigs in a blanket” sausage rolls are often served up as an appetizer or easy picnic food when Aussies are welcoming a big group of friends.
Sparkle Kitchen: Spring Pesto
I can't blame Martin and Sylvia for wanting to take too many ramps. After a long winter of starches and stews, even the tiniest bits of green food look and sound amazing. But if, like Martin and Sylvia, you're craving fresh pesto, you needn't rob your local leek trove. You can make a very tasty pesto using the leftover tops of spring carrots.
Sparkle Kitchen: Banana "Mud" Boats
While these are commonly thought of as camping food, there's no reason you need an open fire to enjoy them. Plus, with just a few, commonly on-hand ingredients, they can be pulled out when cabin fever sets in, without too much advance planning.
Sparkle Kitchen: Smokey Mountain Chicken Sandwiches
Follow this easy, kid-friedly recipe from the Sparkle Kitchen for making your own Smokey Mountain Chicken Sandwiches. This entry is inspired by the Willowbee Tree story, “The Clay Pot”, in the Willow tree takes Piper to the Smoky Mountains to hear an old Buzzard's story, and she learns the importance of listening to one's elders.
Sparkle Kitchen: Flower Petal Pancakes
A clever junkyard animal—or regular mom or dad—can make basic breakfast pancakes into beautiful spring flowers, worthy of a first day of spring breakfast.
Sparkle Kitchen: Monarch Smoothie
Inspired by the bright orange color of Ty's Monarch butterflies, the following smoothie uses citrus-y clementines as a fruit base, but feel free to sub in whatever fruit will tempt your children long enough to sit at the table.
Sparkle Kitchen: Maple Syrup Candy
Even if you don’t have a maple tree to tap or, like me, your climate isn’t right for the sap to really flow, you can still get in on the fun of sugaring season by making maple syrup candy. You’ll only need three ingredients: pure maple syrup, butter, and a patch of clean snow.
Sparkle Kitchen: Mediterranean Skewers
As frequent “Sparkle Kitchen” readers will know, I'm a big proponent of sitting down to a meal as a way to bring people together and help solve differences. And what better kind of meal to have than a delicious Mediterranean cook-out.
Sparkle Kitchen: Firefighter Hash
The following recipe is a healthy twist on a classic, firehouse hash. It meets the criteria of being quick and economical, and — while the sweet potatoes and kale add nutrition — it's still hearty enough for heroes.
Sparkle Kitchen: Tiny Fig Tarts
You know, maybe we should write a law? Tarts and pies for everyone!
But, while we wait for some enterprising politician to think of that, you should try these adorable, tiny fig tarts instead.
Sparkle Kitchen: "Quick" Pho
Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup made of rice noodles, beef or chicken, and a long simmering broth filled with spices like cinnamon and anise. While there are regional variations, the broth is always the key.
Sparkle Kitchen: Citrus Tea
In this Junk Yard Tales: All Together Now story, “Conquest of the Junkyard Pond”, it's freezing cold in the Junkyard. When Mr. Flinch runs out of water for tea, he asks his Junkyard friends for help.
