For the budding cook in your family, Karen Berman’s Easy-Peasy Recipes: Snacks & Treats makes the kitchen a fun but safe place to explore. Her hardcover cookbook is filled with vibrant step-by-step illustrations that make healthy munchies a breeze. Plus, there are no stoves, ovens, or sharp knives involved, so moms and dads have no need for moms to worry.
Instead, the recipes only call for simple tools like spoons, measuring cups, and plastic knives to make tasty treats like “Snowcapped Mountain” (berry yogurt with bread) and “Cold Creepy Crawly Noodles” (with Asian-inspired dressings). The directions are straightforward and broken down so that even the youngest of chefs can follow them. And we have to love each recipe’s Do It Another Way sidebar, which offers other alternatives if your pantry is missing a few ingredients.
Running Press kindly agreed to share the illustrated instructions for Captain Taco Salad with New York Family‘s readers. Click to zoom if needed, and enjoy!
Captain Taco Salad
Ingredients
- 9 grape tomatoes
- 12 black olive slices
- 1 baby carrot
- 2 tablespoons of shredded carrots
- 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 flour tortilla
- 2 pretty leaves of Romaine lettuce, 1 small and 1 large
Tools
- A plastic knife
- A dinner plate
- Safety scissors, washed and dried
- Measuring cup and spoon
Directions
1. First make Captain Taco-Salad’s hat. Place the tortilla on the dinner plate. Pour 1/4 cup of shredded cheese over half of the tortilla. Leave an empty space as wide as your finger around the edge, so you will be able to fold it without spilling everything, but don’t fold it yet!
2. Roll the large lettuce leaf into a log. With the scissors, cut it into thin pieces to make shredded lettuce. Scatter them over the cheese.
3. Scatter 2 tablespoons of shredded carrots over the lettuce.
4. With the plastic knife, cut the tomatoes in half. Set 1 half aside. Scatter the others on top of the lettuce and carrots.
5. Now pick up the side of the tortilla with nothing on it, and fold it over the cheese and vegetables to make a half circle. Move the place so that the empty side is closest to you. With the fold of the tortilla facing your belly, put the small lettuce leaf on one side of the tortilla to make a feather for his hat.
6. It’s time for the captain’s face. Put 2 olives on the plate where the eyes would be. Put the half of the tomato where the nose would be. Line up 5 olive slices on each side of the nose to make a long, curly mustache. Put the baby carrot where the mouth would be. Now say, “Arrrrrrrgh!” and eat!
