Do your kids like to help you in the kitchen? Ethan is not really interested at all. Lately though, both the girls have been showing an interest in helping me cook.They are 3, so I am struggling with what they can actually help with because let’s face it, I’m not giving them a knife and it scares me to have them around the stove. So for now it’s little things like opening packages and pouring the contents into the bowl and helping me stir things. And they are happy with that.

I recently found out that Birds Eye has an entire page on their website devoted to kid friendly recipes. Recipes that are not only healthy, but fun. So I headed over to the Birds Eye Kids website and the girls and I looked through the recipes to find one that would be fun to make.We spent a lot of time just looking at all the fun recipes, and I’m sure we’ll be making several of them in the future.

We settled on the Lasagna Cups recipe not only because it sounded tasty, but also because it sounded easy to make and there were lots of steps they could help with: there was a lot of mixing of ingredients, they could spoon the filling into the muffin cups, and pipe the ricotta “frosting“ on top of the cupcakes before baking.

As you can see, they had lots of fun and the end result was really good! The kids loved eating the little “hamburger cupcakes“ and Lila even asked for a second one. Although Mia couldn’t quit eating the filling when we were putting it in the wonton wrappers, she wouldn’t give me a thumbs up. She did like it though and wanted the filling by itself.

We made a few changes to the Birds Eye recipe because I wanted to include more veggies. I wanted to share our version with you.

Lasagna Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 pound (16 ounces) lean ground beef or ground turkey
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon minced dried onions
• 1 box (10 oz.) Birds Eye Chopped Spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
• ¼ cup Birds Eye Frozen Corn
• ¼ cup green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2-1/2 cups prepared spaghetti sauce
• 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 24 (3-inch) potsticker or wonton wrappers, round or square
• 2 cups low fat ricotta cheese1
• cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg, beaten

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat 12 cups of a standard size muffin pan with nonstick spray.
• Brown meat, garlic powder, and onions in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over MEDIUM-HIGH heat, breaking meat into small pieces. Remove from heat and stir in spinach, corn, bell pepper, 2 cups spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
• Arrange one wonton wrapper in each prepared muffin cup and top with about 2 tablespoons spinach mixture. Lay another wrapper over the filling and top with an additional 2 tablespoons spinach mixture. Place a third wrapper on top and press down gently (muffin cups will be full).
• Spread ½ cup of the remaining spaghetti sauce on each “cupcake.“
• Blend ricotta, Parmesan and egg together in a small bowl until well combined. Spoon into a quart-size resealable plastic bag and gently “squeeze“ the mixture toward a corner. With scissors, clip the tip off the corner and pipe 2 tablespoons ricotta on top of each cupcake. (Ricotta may also be dolloped on top of each cupcake…this is way easier and bakes more evenly…trust me).
• Bake until cupcakes are heated through and “frosting“ is lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes
• before serving.
• To serve, loosen each cupcake from the pan with a small knife. Carefully lift out with a small spatula and transfer to serving plates. Serve immediately.

Notes You will have some filling left over so you can use it to make more cupcakes since there are about 1,000 (only minor exaggeration) wonton wrappers in a package, or put it in a small casserole dish, cover with the ricotta mixture and bake as a casserole for 20 minutes. Next time, I think I’ll add some fresh basil to the top of each cupcake before serving.

Still have leftover wonton wrappers? Check out my recipe for Jalapeno Popper Wontons

If your little ones are interested in helping in the kitchen and you are looking for kid friendly recipes, I’d definitely recommend that you visit the Birds Eye Kids website for lots of suggestions and ideas.

Do your kids like helping in the kitchen? What are their favorite things to help you make?

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Birds Eye. I received product coupons to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.