Paula Deen makes a mean, meaty stew — for kids

Turn on the oven to 350 degrees.

Put the ground beef in the mixing bowl. Measure ½ cup of the rice and put it in with the meat. Add the dried onion, seasoned salt, and Italian seasoning. Mix it all together with your clean hands. Roll it into 8 or 9 golfball-sized balls of meat.

Put the rest of the rice in the bottom of the baking dish. Pour in the tomatoes and the beef broth and stir with the spoon. Put the meat balls on top. Cover the dish tightly with foil.

Bake for about 1 hour. Let an adult help you remove the dish from the oven with oven mitts or hot pads. When you remove the cover, steam will come out, so be careful! The rice in the meatballs will have puffed up all around the meat, and your meatballs will look like little porcupines!

Cover a cookie sheet with waxed paper.

Let an adult put the nuts in the food processor and pulse about 6 times to finely chop them. Put the chopped nuts on the paper plate.

Put the chocolate chips in the liquid measuring cup and add the milk or cream. Put the cup in the microwave oven for 40 seconds on high power. Remove and stir the chocolate chips. They should melt as you stir, but if you need to, you can microwave them for 10 seconds more and stir again. The chocolate should be thin and smooth.

Peel one banana and cut it in half crosswise. Using the tongs, dip each half into the chocolate and hold it over the cup to let all of the extra chocolate drip off. Roll the banana halves in the nuts. Set each chocolate-covered banana on the waxed paper and do the rest of the bananas.

When all are ready, cover with plastic wrap and freeze until firm. If you are not eating them immediately, store frozen bananas in a resealable plastic freezer bag.