kid-friendly

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

Cornstarch-coated chicken cubes browned in a skillet, then baked an hour in a ketchup-vinegar-sugar sauce.

Belgian Waffles

Yeast-raised waffle batter with stiffly beaten egg whites folded in, left to rise an hour before it hits the iron.

Best Buttermilk Pancakes

Buttermilk and sour cream pancake batter, stirred only until lumpy and rested ten minutes before it goes on the griddle.

“I like to add cherries on top before turning the pancakes over.”

Blueberry Pancakes

Milk soured with lemon juice stands in for buttermilk, and the berries go on after the batter hits the skillet.

Caramel Rice Krispies Bars

Rice Krispie treats built in layers, with whole marshmallows and a melted caramel and condensed milk filling in the middle.

Chewy Sugar Cookies

Cream cheese and warm melted butter go into the dough; the balls are rolled in sugar and pressed flat with a drinking glass.

Chocolate Chip Bars

Shortbread-style dough pressed onto a sheet pan with chocolate chips worked in, then finished with a brown sugar meringue and nuts.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pie

Refrigerated cookie dough pressed into a pie plate as the crust, filled with sweetened cream cheese and chopped Heath bars.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sour cream in the dough and quarter-cup scoops make these oversized; chocolate chunks and pecans go in at the end.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Cake mix, butter and two eggs make a soft drop cookie flavored with mint; they puff, then fall and crack on top.

Chocolate Popcorn

A cocoa syrup boiled to the soft-ball stage, 235 degrees, and poured straight over popped corn.

Chocolate Scotcheroos

Rice Krispies bound with boiled sugar syrup and peanut butter, pressed into a pan and topped with melted chocolate and butterscotch chips.

“Deb notes she does both the sugar/syrup boil and the chip-melting step in the microwave.”

Chow Mein Noodles Cookies

Brown sugar oatmeal drop cookies loaded with chocolate chips and crisp chow mein noodles for crunch.

Corn Dogs

Wieners dipped in a cornmeal and flour batter and fried until golden, with an air fryer given as an option.

Crispy Oven Fries

Skin-on russet matchsticks tossed in canola oil and roasted at 450 in a single layer until golden.

Delicious Cookies

Butter-and-oil dough loaded with Rice Krispies, coconut, oatmeal, nuts and chocolate chips, pressed flat with a fork before baking.

Fudgsicles

Instant chocolate pudding and milk frozen into homemade pudding pops.

Hopscotch or Haystack Cookies

No-bake mounds of chow mein noodles and nuts bound in melted butterscotch chips, peanut butter and marshmallows.

Knox Blocks

Firm cut-and-eat gelatin squares made by dissolving four envelopes of unflavored gelatin along with flavored Jell-O in boiling water.

Mississippi Mud

A dense cocoa sheet cake with walnuts and coconut, spread with marshmallow cream while it's hot and finished with a cocoa frosting swirled through the marshmallow.

Monster Cookies

Flourless peanut butter and oatmeal cookies scaled to a dozen eggs and 18 cups of oats, loaded with chips, M&M's, coconut and nuts.

Mountain Dew Dumplings

Apple wedges rolled up in crescent dough, doused with cinnamon butter and a can of Mountain Dew, then baked 45 minutes.

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Soft cinnamon oatmeal cookies sandwiched in pairs around a long-whipped vanilla buttercream filling.

Orange Julius

Frozen orange juice concentrate, dry milk and ice blended thirty seconds into a frothy drink that fills three glasses.

Popsicles

Jell-O and Kool-Aid dissolved together with sugar and water, frozen in paper cups with a stick.

Puppy Chow

Crispix tossed in melted chocolate and peanut butter, then shaken with powdered sugar in a paper sack.

Recipe Number 2

An unnamed frozen pudding pop: instant chocolate pudding stirred with cream, milk and sugar, then frozen.

Recipe Number 3

Chocolate drink mix, beaten eggs and milk stirred together and frozen — another unnamed variation on the pudding pops.

Rice Krispies Bars

Butter and miniature marshmallows melted in the microwave, stirred into cereal, pressed flat and cut into squares.

Snickerdoodles (Soft Ones)

Butter cookies leavened with cream of tartar and soda, chilled, rolled in cinnamon sugar and flattened with a glass before baking.

Snickers Cupcakes

Dense flourless-style brownie batter baked in cupcake liners with a piece of candy bar hidden in the middle.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Three forms of chocolate — melted unsweetened, bittersweet chips and semisweet chips — in a barely floured batter that bakes crackled and fudgy.

Truly Different Cupcakes

Brownie-textured cupcakes made by folding melted chocolate chips, butter and nuts into a batter that is stirred, never beaten.