Kids Cook for Themselves: Friday Frittata

Scroll down to the end for the big winners of last week's giveaway!

The kids have been doing most of the cooking around here this summer as I was super-pregnant-with, then snuggling-with baby Mary Jane. I figured we'd share another recipe today. This time brought to you by nine year old Bobby. Because, yes. Boys can cook, too.


Bobby is actually probably the most natural cook of the bunch. He's always enjoyed it, and was making pancakes for the family pretty much all by himself before he was eight. He is more cautious than Jack, but less cautious than Betty, which seems to be just about right for ending up with edible meals in a reasonable amount of time.

We keep mostly meat-free on Fridays, only occasionally substituting a different sacrifice for the year-round Friday penance required of Catholics. We have backyard hens, so there are usually plenty of eggs. So this frittata is one of our go to meals on Fridays.

It's absolutely easy enough for older kids to make on their own, but does require things like chopping and cracking eggs and using both the stove and the oven. So, I made it WITH the kids the first few times, just to make sure they'd eventually be able to manage it unsupervised.

Frittata is pretty much just a fancy term for a baked omelet. When we eat it for breakfast, we call it a baked omelet, when we eat it for dinner, we call it frittata. But either way, it's the perfect way to use up leftover cooked vegetables of any kind.

We didn't happen to have any leftovers today, so we started from scratch.

I'll let Bobby take it from here . . .

First I had to chop up the veggies. I know how to use a real knife. But it's faster and easier and cooler to use this pull string chopper thingy. (Note from Mom . . . I am a huge fan of this thing. Easy to use, easy to clean. I'm largely anti-gadget, but seriously, you need this: Veggie Chop Hand-Powered Food Chopper.)


I used a mix of bell peppers, onions, and broccoli. But you could use whatever you want: potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn, whatever. Just not mushrooms. Those are just gross. For a dozen eggs, you want about three cups of veggies, chopped up really tiny.


I put the big (twelve inch) cast iron skillet onto the stove and let it start heating up over medium heat while I cracked all the twelve eggs into a big bowl and whisked them up.


I added some salt and pepper. (About a half teaspoon of each.)


Then I put a tablespoon or two of butter and a tablespoon or two of olive oil into the hot skillet.


And dumped the veggies in.


I moved them around in the pan to cook for a couple minutes, until they start to get a little soft.


Then turn the heat off and dump the eggs on top.


You can mix it if you want to, but you really don't have to.


Then it goes into the oven at 350 degrees for about thirty minutes or until the eggs puff up in the middle. Then I took it out, put grated mozzarella cheese on top of it, and put it back into the oven under the broiler just until the cheese melted.


A dozen eggs is enough for our family for one dinner.


We served it with salad and bread on the side.


Here's the recipe:





For more Kids Cook for Themselves, check out . . .

KIDS COOK FOR THEMSELVES: A UNIVERSAL SMOOTHIE RECIPE