This one is for you, kids

Bex, Suzi and Scraps from Little Cooks show you how to cook up a storm these holidays and have a blast in the kitchen.

Of course we all know how much fun cooking is but did you know you are helping with your school learning too? Following instructions, reading a recipe and maths - ½ cup of this, ¼ cup of that -they’re fractions you know. But the most humungous benefit of all is that when you are the cook you get to decide what ingredients to use, and as a result, make healthier food choices. Solar soup and fruit hog will help your 5+ a day and for a holiday snack, Milo bears which are almost too cute to eat and great for the lunchbox when you go back to school too.

Milo bears

Makes 12-16

For the cookie dough

½ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 ¾ cup self-raising flour
100g Milo
125g butter, melted
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence

For Milo Bears faces

For the nose, ½ cup white chocolate melts
For the eyes and tip of bear's nose, ½ cup choc drops
For the ears, ½ cup Cheerio wholegrain cereal circles

1. Heat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Put sugar, brown sugar, self-raising flour and Milo in a bowl and mix together then make a well in the centre by moving the mix to the sides of the bowl.
3. Into the well add melted butter, egg and vanilla essence and mix all ingredients together. The mixture will be quite dry so, once you have mixed well, use your hands to form the mixture in to a big dough ball.
4. For the head of the bear take a spoonful of mixture (approx. 1 heaped tablespoon), squeeze mixture so it's firm, then roll into a ball. Gently press ball down on to the baking tray.
5. For the ears, take 2 small pieces of mixture (teaspoon size), roll into balls and attach to left and right side of bear's head. Pop a cereal circle in each ear.
6. For the nose, place a white chocolate melt on the face, then a dark chocolate morsel in the middle of the melt (this is the tip of the bear's nose).
7. For the eyes, place 2 chocolate morsels slightly above the nose.
8. Repeat for all the other bears. Place the baking tray in the oven and bake for 12 minutes. Let cool before removing from tray.

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Fruit hog

Makes 1

Handful blueberries
1 green or red apple
Handful grapes
1 orange
½ cup chopped pineapple

1. Rinse blueberries, apple and grapes.
2. Chop apple into chunks.
3. Use toothpicks to stick pieces of fruit on to the orange.
4. Poke 4 toothpicks on base of orange then pop a grape on each for fruit hog's feet.
5. Use a marker pen to draw a silly face on the front of the orange.

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Solar soup

Serves 4-6

1 dob of butter
1 small onion, chopped
2 cups peeled, chopped carrots
1 tsp sugar
2 ½ cups water
2 cans tomatoes
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp celery salt
½ cup of cooked pasta shapes

1. In a saucepan, melt butter and gently fry onion until soft (count up to 120 seconds).
2. Add carrot, sugar, water, canned tomatoes, salt, pepper and celery salt. Simmer with lid on for 10 minutes.
3. Remove the pot from heat. Cool for 10 minutes.
4. Carefully pour cooled mixture into a blender then blitz until mixture is smooth. Pour back into saucepan.
5. When ready to eat, reheat and add the cooked pasta.

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