- Comfort foods provide emotional satisfaction and nostalgia, often tied to family memories and warmth, brightening your day and providing a sense of happiness.
- Cooking with kids, offers valuable life lessons such as measuring, following instructions, kitchen safety, and healthy eating, while also encouraging educational growth through fun, hands-on experiences.
- Cooking with family creates lasting memories and traditions, strengthening bonds and allowing recipes and shared experiences to be passed down through generations.
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Mmm comfort foods. Comfort foods are dishes that provide a sense of emotional satisfaction and well-being, and are often linked to nostalgia. Though these foods vary widely across different regions and cultures, they share qualities of warmth, comfort, and familiarity. They provide an emotional connection to home, family, and happy memories.
When you think of comfort food, what types of food come to mind? For me, most of those foods include cheese and potatoes. Putting both of those foods into a warm delicious side dish just makes my day. That is what this double baked cheesy potato recipe aims to do.
These potatoes are a particularly comforting food for me as it is a food that my grandmother often made. However, I tweaked her original recipe slightly to suit my and my family’s taste. I also use low-fat or 2% sour cream, low-fat cheese, and no-salt added butter to make the recipe a little healthier.
If you are looking for a good comfort food to brighten your day or just a different side dish to add to your meal tonight, this recipe has you covered.
Ingredients
5 large baking potatoes
1 cup low fat sour cream
1 1/2 cup shredded cheese (low fat if preferred)
3 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup sliced green onions (optional)
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (optional)
Steps – and How to Include the Children
Step 1: Clean and prep potatoes. Show your children how to thoroughly wash the potatoes. If your children already know how to rinse potatoes, let them complete this step. Once all of the potatoes have been washed, cover them lightly with butter. I use my hands to do this, and your children will probably enjoy doing this step. Once all of the potatoes are coated in a thin layer of butter, poke each potato with a fork on all sides. This prevents them from exploding by allowing trapped steam to escape. You can let your child poke the holes with a fork if they are old enough.
Step 2: Bake the potatoes. Bake the potatoes at 400 degrees until the potatoes are done. This takes approximately an hour but can take more or less time depending on the size of the potatoes. To check for doneness, poke them with a fork. If the fork easily pierces through the potato it is done, if there is still resistance it will need a little more time. If your children are helping with this step, make sure that they are well supervised around the oven. TIP: spray the baking sheet lightly with oil or butter to avoid having the potatoes stick to the sheet.
Step 3: Gather ingredients and utensils. This step is usually my first step but since the potatoes need to be baked first, I have added this step further down. This is an easy step to include children of all ages. Young children love helping to gather ingredients, and older children will know locations of the utensils needed. For this particular recipe, I let my kids gather the cheese, sour cream, butter, salt, and pepper along with a mixing bowl and a large spoon. For a smooth experience, especially with younger kids, make sure that you give specific instructions such as “can you get out the butter for me?” or “can you grab the mixing bowl?”.
Step 4: Sauté the spring onions (OPTIONAL). Sautéed spring onions add a little extra flavor to the potatoes but are completely optional as the double baked cheesy potatoes are terrific even without the spring onions. To sauté, add the tablespoon of evoo to a pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the sliced onions. Stir and sauté until the onions have a caramelized (light brown) outer coat. Take off the eye and let the onions cool. Generally, this is a step that I complete, however, if you have older children this presents a great opportunity to show them how to sauté vegetables.
Step 5: Make filling and fill potatoes. Once out of the oven, cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out the potato from the outer skin and put the potato in the mixing bowl. TIP: use a clean oven mitt to hold the potatoes while you scoop. This can be done by either yourself or an older child. Once all of the potatoes have been scooped, let your children add 1 cup of cheese, the sour cream, butter, and salt and pepper to the bowl. Mix all of the ingredients together (this takes a little force so may be more difficult for small children). Once everything is thoroughly mixed, gently fold in the sautéed spring onion if you are using them. When the filling is ready, let your child use a spoon to put the filling into the potato skins, filling each one.
Step 6: Sprinkle with cheese. Let your child sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly over the stuffed potatoes.
Step 7: Broil stuffed potatoes. Turn on the broiler and allow the potatoes to set beneath it for about 3-5 minutes or until the cheese on top begins to brown. Again, with the oven being so hot, this step should only be done by children under supervision or done by you.
Step 8: Enjoy! Once the potatoes are browned to your taste, take them out of the oven and let them cool. Serve while they are still warm. I particularly like to add a bit of extra sour cream and crunchy salad toppings to the top of mine for extra flavor, while my kids enjoy them as they are.
The Importance of Including Children in Cooking
Cooking with kids offers a wide range of benefits that go beyond just preparing meals. It provides a fun, hands-on way to teach valuable life skills such as measuring, following instructions, and kitchen safety. Working together in the kitchen can strengthen family bonds and boost children’s confidence. It also encourages healthy eating habits, as kids are more likely to try new foods that they’ve helped prepare. Additionally, cooking introduces basic math, science, and literacy concepts, making learning engaging and meaningful.
On top of lessons learned, cooking together with your family will create wonderful memories for all involved. Who doesn’t fondly remember some type of cooking memories with a member of their family? And working together as a team in the kitchen will help reinforce bonds (or help create them). Not to mention the fabulous recipes that will be passed down. This can also start traditions that will continue through your children’s childhood and into their adult lives.
If you are interested in recipe cards to use with your children, I have made a set of 54 3×5 inch cards. These are available on my TPT store. The set is split into 6 different categories: Baked Goods, Appetizers, Soups, Main Dishes, Side Dishes, and an empty customizable category. Each category has 3 different design options and includes an optional back side with additional lines to write on to be printed on each.
<– Here is a link to my Recipe Cards page on my TPT store.
I hope this cooking with kids recipe helps to create happy memories, make a delicious side dish, and provide useful lessons for everyone involved. If you found this blog helpful please consider subscribing to and liking this post as it will help to grow the community as well as let me know which type of posts are more beneficial for you. For a fun and delicious dessert, try my Cooking with Kids: No-Machine Mango Ice Cream blog.
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If you and your kids try this recipe please let us know if you enjoyed it in the comments below.
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