Cooking for Kids: Sausage Noodle Octopus

I decided to get the kids involved with dinner prep last night. I usually shoo them out of the kitchen (over and over and over again) while I'm scurrying around trying to get dinner on the table. It's such a battle. I'm going to try to get them involved a bit more so maybe there's less of a struggle every night at 5 o'clock.

Last night we made these octopus sausage noodle things. I don't know what else to call them. Maybe Sausage Spaghetti Spiders. That's a bit more catchy. But we went with the octopus thing. Which actually turned into a nightmare (literally).

Ingredients:

• Hot dogs or pre-cooked sausage
• Noodles - spaghetti or linguini (thin spaghetti will break too easily)

Slice up the sausage into little rounds.

Let your kids help by pushing the noodles through the slices of sausage. If they've been playing the Pipe Cleaner + Colander game they should be pros at this.

Grady kept trying to eat the sausage. That's why I highly recommend pre-cooked sausage. That kid will put anything in his mouth.

Boil them in a pot or a pan, using the directions for the noodles you chose.

Say cheese!

Do a quick photo shoot of your adorable little boy while the octopus are cooking.

Then enjoy the slithery, slimy little suckers!

About that nightmare... Apparently I talked a bit too much about octopuses (or is it octopi?) at dinner last night. Around midnight Finley woke up crying so I went to her room to calm her down. She was talking about a scary octopus but then she calmed down and said, "The octopus was nice though. It had toys!"

If you're looking for other recipes for kids, check out this recipe for one pot mac and cheese. It's super duper yummy!