Cowboy cookies have been a favorite around the Frontier for many years. We rotate putting them back on our gift-giving list. They are always a hit with family and friends and our boys feel like they made something special for them to enjoy. It is also a nice extra gift to have on hand when you need an emergency gift!
Involving your children in the process is a wonderful way for them to take ownership of the gift and learn measurements along the way. Children feel like the gift is more personal if they have had a hand in creating it too.
Cooking with children brings out so many essential life skills as well as fun. Be prepared ahead of time to make the most of the activity.
- Use a tablecloth to minimize clean up. Shake it out over a trash can when finished.
- Set up the ingredients on an assembly line.
- Have a spoon, scoop or measuring cup for each ingredient.
- Place a notecard with each ingredient to children know how much to add.
In our video, we met up with friends at a local park to accomplish a few goals. We wanted to play with friends and the moms wanted to socialize. So, we thought we would bring the ingredients to the park and let everyone participate and leave with jars ready for gifts.
This worked out very well and it would be easy to do with a few moms or a big group. Here are tips on how that can work:
- Have each mom be in charge of one ingredient and the measuring cup needed. This may mean two moms bring flour because there are two stations to add flour.
- One family can print and bring the jar tags and twine.
- Another family can be in charge of snacks.
There are many ways to accomplish a fun morning with friends. Often times charging per child works if you want to make sure all the ingredients arrive! Be sure to have moms pitch in for set up.
Print our ingredient list and how we layer the jars.
Print the gift tag with cooking instructions.
Pancakes in a Jar
I love having last-minute gifts ready to go! How about you? Gifts in a jar are thoughtful and budget-friendly and when children are at the age where they love to help, you can prepare several at one time and you are done.
Holiday spice pancakes are a quick fix and most families enjoy a good pancake breakfast. Tailoring each jar is simple by adding a package of dried fruit, chocolate chips or a small jar of maple syrup.
Here is what you will need for one jar of holiday spice pancake mix:
- 1-quart jar, wide mouth makes for easy scooping
- 1.5 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1,5 cups of whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tbsp ground cloves
Whisk all ingredients together and pour into the jar.
Add a topping if desired in s small plastic bag on the top of the mix and screw on the lid. Use Christmas ribbon, twine, and even a scoop to tie on the top of the jar.
Write a label with directions for making the pancakes:
Combine 1.5 cups of mix with 1 egg, 2 tbsp melted butter and 1 cup of milk or buttermilk. Add topping if desired. This jar will make 6-8 pancakes.
Print these tags and write on the back!