Caramelized Banana Loaf

This recipe is so easy to whip together that my toddler could do it. In fact – she did!  Warning: the baking time is long at 2.5hrs – but the deep caramelized flavour is worth it.

Getting  kids in the kitchen is a great way to increase their exposures to foods, learn language skills, practice fine & gross motor skills as well as keeping them busy (and hopefully out of mess creating mischief). Fussy eaters get so many benefits from increased food exposures, including those away from mealtimes – read more here!

8 ways kids can help in the kitchen & learn at the same time:

1) Measuring and tipping ingredients into the bowl helps with motor planning & learning about volume.
2) Mixing ingredients in the bowl is great for learning to control the speed of the spoon.
3) Threading wooden skewers is great for fine motor skills.
4) Mashing softened fruits or vegetables with a fork is great to learn about changing textures.
5) Cracking eggs into a separate bowl for more motor planning experiences.
**hot tip: use other bits of shell to scoop out shell that accidentally goes into your eggs.**
6) Hand over hand grating is great for sensory exposure – let them feel the fruit or vegetable as well as the vibration of the grater safely by controlling and holding their hand in yours away from the blades.
7) Practice counting and numbers by setting timers or helping to use scales.
8) Using cutters to make and learn shapes in dough, bread, fruits, vegetables and pancakes

Caramelized Banana Loaf

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
3 tsp bicarb soda
1/4 cup macadamia nut oil (or other oil / butter of your choice)
1 1/3 cups flour (you can use a combination of wholemeal and  plain white flour for this)
1/3 cup natural yoghurt (for dairy free opt for 1/2 cup almond milk instead)

Method (steps that kids can do are put in italics):

• Line a loaf tin with foil (shiny surface facing inwards)
• Preheat the oven to 130oC
• Measure out the following ingredients into little bowls; bicarb soda, flour, natural yoghurt, oil, honey and sugar. You can also crack the eggs into separate bowl, check for shell & lightly whisk. This step is optional depending on your child’s involvement and skill set.
• Mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl with a fork – I like to use a plastic bowl with a non-slip bottom to assist my toddler with her tasks. Having a bowl that slips and slides is frustrating and difficult to process for the little chefs.
• Add the bicarb soda, sugar and honey to the bananas and mix.
• Mix in the following ingredients in this order:
       Eggs
       Macadamia Nut Oil
       Flour
       Natural Yoghurt
• Pour the batter into the loaf tin
• Put it in the oven for 2.5 hours or until it is cooked through (ie  a skewer or knife comes out clean)

This recipe is suitable for freezing by wrapping individual slices in cling film.  Take them straight from the freezer and put them into the lunchbox.

Do you have a tip for safely including your kids in the kitchen?

In our Sydney based workshops and classes for toddlers, preschoolers and early primary schoolers, I love to answer parents’ questions about engaging their children in activities with food.  Do you have any questions?  If you want to know when our classes are on – have a look here!

Happy Eating!

Simone

I hope it is not goodbye

Today, I was enjoying a fantastic lunch that my 2 year old created.  We went to the pantry and fridge and she selected all the ingredients she wanted.  I thought that this activity would be great for my facebook page!  And then it hit me, it’s not only great for my facebook page BUT it is also great for my daughter.

I stood back and video’d her as she devoured her whole (but peeled) cucumber accompanied by dinosaur shaped pasta mixed with cheese, salmon & carrot.  She considered throwing in honey too but I’m glad she changed her mind.  She was an image of pure joy making her dinosaur sounds and laughing at how fun it was to make up her own recipe.

After lunch she asked to go outside to watch the clouds.  My heart melted.  Of course!  My girls are at a beautiful age that I want to enjoy.  So, I’ve decided to take my marketing / business information services away from facebook for a while.

I have loved maintaining my facebook page and delight in providing lots of information to my followers.  I put in lots of time and effort bringing original content and looking for amazing content from respected writers and bloggers across the world to share.

However, I want to look at the clouds too!  I will still be running classes & workshops and enjoy meeting all the wonderful kids who come along to them.  I’m just not going to be giving away so much of my precious time to social media.

How to keep in contact??

1) Subscribe to the newsletter either via the link on the facebook page or by sending me an email and I’ll put you on the list (simone@playwithfood.com.au) – I endeavour to send out a newsletter every 2 months.

2) Sign-up to the blog!  Go to http://www.playwithfood.com.au and enter your email address into the sign-up field in the left hand column.

3) Email or call me 🙂

It’s not a decision that I take lightly, however, I think those of you with kids will understand what I mean when I want to spend more time looking at the clouds with my daughter!

You will still see an occasional PWF fb post – just so the page doesn’t collapse completely.  I will just set up an automated post of links to my blog when new articles are written.  However, as I don’t own facebook or the algorithm it runs off – I know this won’t guarantee than many (if any) of my followers will get to see these posts.

My reason to stop &look at the clouds! xxx

I hope this isn’t goodbye to some of my followers but maybe a new “hello” to newsletter & blog subscribers!

Happy Eating!

 

 

Illustrate Your Food Memories

I saw a lovely facebook post illustrated by the Blair Athol North School and shared by Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Foundation.  The children illustrated their own recipe.  I looked online for a good template but didn’t find an ideal one …. So at the bottom of this post is one I’ve created for you to print up and have your budding chef/artists record their food memories on.

This is my completed version of the template.  Remember it’s not nice to laugh at other people’s drawings 😉

Food is such a powerful and emotional part of our lives.  We have great memories and painful memories all tied up in food.  Illustrating your own recipes is a good way to put down some favourite recipes and tease out what the memories mean to you and your kids.  It’s a language building opportunity and a great discovery tool for deeper engagement.

I made the blood orange and chocolate cup cakes to eat during last night’s episode of Master Chef.   It came from the top of my head & based on available flavours.  I wasn’t about to watch a dessert challenge & sit pining for something unhealthy for a whole hour.  This was a sweet treat without the guilt.  On the show last night, the contestants on Master Chef had to recreate an amazing dessert based on their perceptions from a  written description alone.  It’s amazing what one written description resulted in from the 4 contestants.  They weren’t given a picture, recipe or a taste of the food.  This is where their memory and their own experiences played a part in determining what they would plate up.

Food memories start VERY early on.  Children that have painful food memories will often exhibit fussiness or issues with eating.  Remember those memories (even fears) are real to them.  Never belittle or dismiss a child’s memories or beliefs, it’s something that you should address correctly.

One way to assist with food memories is to build a library of “safe” recipes.  Review this repertoire with your child and work on adding in some new shapes / colours / flavours and textures.  Use our template to build up your recipe collection!  We cover lots of different ways to enhance positive eating memories in our classes / workshops.  Have a look at our class schedule to learn more about what is available.

Blood Orange and Chocolate Cup Cakes

Stir all ingredients together & baked in a moderate oven for 25 min.  Makes 6 cup cakes.

• Juice of 2 home grown (ie small) blood oranges
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 3/4 cup SR flour
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp macadamia oil
• 1 egg

Here is the Recipe Template for your children to illustrate & enjoy with you.

Happy Eating!

Simone

Lady Marmalade

It’s a funny feeling when you accomplish something that a few years ago, I would have laughed out loud at it’s mere suggestion. Even more surreal to be blogging about it. We grew our own food & turned it into something beautiful. I feel like a total domestic goddess – that’s the bit that makes me laugh!

We have a substantial amount of blood oranges & lemons on our trees this year. So, I decided to try my hand at marmalade. I am chuffed with the results & how easy it actually was. Note: it does need overnight preparation.

Blood Orange & Lemon Marmalade

Ingredients:
3 blood oranges
1 lemon
3/4 cup sugar

Method:
Trim the top & bottoms of the blood oranges & lemons. Cut into quarters & remove the pithy cores & seeds. Finely slice each part of the citrus fruits & put in a bowl. Fill the bowl with water to make it up to 2 cups in volume. Leave to soak overnight.
In a saucepan, add the citrus water mix & sugar. Allow to boil with regular stirring. Simmer until the sauce thickens. It will thicken more after you remove it from the heat.

Serving suggestion for this marmalade is with scones. Even better if the scones have been made with love!

Happy eating!

June is Artichoke Month

Another Month = Another Challenge!

This month I took on artichoke.  This one was a real curve ball for me as the only time I have ever really used them was from a jar!  A 100g serve of Artichokes from a jar contains 320mg of sodium whereas steaming them fresh (without salt) gives 60mg of sodium. Depending on your total diet though this may not be a significant issue – it’s unlikely we are going to be adding a significant number of artichokes to our diet!  However, if you consider that the National Health and Medical Research Centre suggests we limit salt to 4g/day (1600mg sodium) and the Heart Foundation says 6g/day (2300mg sodium) and the average Australian consumes 8 or 9 times this amount, I think we should be mindful of what salt we add to our diet by using processed foods vs naturally occurring salt.

Now, I’ll jump off my nutritional science podium and chat to you about the main things I learnt during my challenge.

1) Preparing an artichoke is a bit perplexing but you can find awesome infographics on pinterest to help you!

Source of Image:  http://illustratedbites.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/prickly-treat/

2) Talking about artichokes was a wonderful language building exercise for my toddler.  We looked at pictures of them on the internet and talked about what they may feel like before we went to the shops to choose some to cook.  My daughter was quite the sight walking around the green grocers with her “choke fwowers”. I figured that they did look like flowers and some multi-syllable words are still a bit tricky.  (The artichoke is actually the flower bud harvested before the flower blooms).  The preparatory talks about artichokes, built some excitement about going to the shops.  As you may have seen in my previous post about vegetable exposures away from mealtimes,  I did creatively use going to get the artichokes as a “bribe” to get her off the Peppa Pig coin operated ride and into the green grocer.

3) I made an Artichoke, Lemon & Tomato cob loaf with my steamed artichoke hearts that was really yummy and simple. Lemon is in season now & so very fragrant in this bread. I loved it served with some good quality butter, fresh ham & a side salad. The loaf is big enough for a light lunch for 2 adults & 2 kids.

Artichoke, Lemon & Tomato Cob Loaf

Ingredients:
1 Artichoke Heart
1 Tomato, Roughly Chopped
Zest from 1/2 Lemon
1/4 cup Parmesan, Finely Grated
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 1/2 cup Self Raising Flour
1 Egg
Ground Black Pepper, To Taste

To prepare the artichokes, I trimmed it as per the above infographic.  Instead of putting them in the pot with salted water, I used a bamboo steamer and no salt – this worked well and in 20mins I had lovely steamed artichokes.  I tried one with a lemon & pepper yoghurt dipping sauce, which was OK.  I didn’t actually try to get my daughter to try the artichoke like this.  Scraping the flesh away from the leaves with your teeth is interesting but a bit of work for the limited fleshy artichoke that you get.

On my remaining artichoke, I cut away the hard leaves & was left with the heart.  I roughly chopped up the heart & yielded about 1/4 cup of chopped pieces. To the bowl I added the remaining ingredients. My toddler did some stirring & kneading of the bread with me. We put it on a dusted baking tray in the preheated (180oC) oven for about 30mins (until it sounds hollow when you tap on the bottom of the loaf).

Do you have a favorite artichoke recipe?
Happy Eating!

Dinosaur Cakes

So, I felt bad that my princess cakes may have excluded the boys. Today I asked my daughter what kind of cake would be green & she roared back at me “saurus cake”,  (ie. Dinosaur cake in Ellie speak).

We set about a little ingredient experiment to change up our princess cake recipe to make them green instead of orange.  We exchanged the finely grated carrot with a cup of loosely packed baby spinach and omitted the cinnamon.

Pouring the batter from the blender into the waiting mini-muffin & patty cake tins is a great job for toddlers. You can also do some counting practice at the same time & we had some fun roaring like dinosaurs as we worked. The result is a moist & dense coconut flavoured mini cake that is egg free, gluten free, low in fat and packing some great vegie nutrients.

We decorated ours with a thin spread of nutella (like dino mud) and some shredded coconut. Have your child use a toddler knife to spread the nutella for motor planning practice. They will feel a great sense of achievement with their decorating.

We used our the busy mums store plate as a work surface for the decorating. The plate provides learning opportunities from colour recognition (toddler), number recognition (preschooler) to equation practice (primary schoolers). The plates are great quality & likely to last us that long! They are designed & sold by a local mum. Supporting local business is important to me- hence the little plug here! :p

Dinosaur Cakes

3/4 cup rice flour
1tbsp chia seeds, soaked in 2tbsp cold water for at least 10min
1 cup of loosely packed baby spinach
1/3 cup cooked sweet potato
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup milk
1tbsp butter
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 180oC and grease your patty cake tin (or you can use mini cup cake holders). I used spray on coconut oil.

Put all ingredients into the blender. Whizz until all ingredients are well combined.

Pour batter into cake tin & bake for about 20mins (until cooked through). Tip: the mixture does not rise so fill the tins to the brim. Gently shake to level out the batter in the tin. This mix should make approx 24 mini-cakes.

To decorate these cakes we used nutella & shredded coconut.

All toddler cooking should be supervised.

Happy Eating!

Dinosaur Cakes

So, I felt bad that my princess cakes may have excluded the boys. Today I asked my daughter what kind of cake would be green & she roared back at me “saurus cake”,  (ie. Dinosaur cake in Ellie speak).

We set about a little ingredient experiment to change up our princess cake recipe to make them green instead of orange.  We exchanged the finely grated carrot with a cup of loosely packed baby spinach and omitted the cinnamon.

Pouring the batter from the blender into the waiting mini-muffin & patty cake tins is a great job for toddlers. You can also do some counting practice at the same time & we had some fun roaring like dinosaurs as we worked. The result is a moist & dense coconut flavoured mini cake that is egg free, gluten free, low in fat and packing some great vegie nutrients.

We decorated ours with a thin spread of nutella (like dino mud) and some shredded coconut. Have your child use a toddler knife to spread the nutella for motor planning practice. They will feel a great sense of achievement with their decorating.

We used our the busy mums store plate as a work surface for the decorating. The plate provides learning opportunities from colour recognition (toddler), number recognition (preschooler) to equation practice (primary schoolers). The plates are great quality & likely to last us that long! They are designed & sold by a local mum. Supporting local business is important to me- hence the little plug here! :p

Dinosaur Cakes

3/4 cup rice flour
1tbsp chia seeds, soaked in 2tbsp cold water for at least 10min
1 cup of loosely packed baby spinach
1/3 cup cooked sweet potato
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup milk
1tbsp butter
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 180oC and grease your patty cake tin (or you can use mini cup cake holders). I used spray on coconut oil.

Put all ingredients into the blender. Whizz until all ingredients are well combined.

Pour batter into cake tin & bake for about 20mins (until cooked through). Tip: the mixture does not rise so fill the tins to the brim. Gently shake to level out the batter in the tin. This mix should make approx 24 mini-cakes.

To decorate these cakes we used nutella & shredded coconut.

All toddler cooking should be supervised.

Happy Eating!

Guava & Grape Slushy

•  Point One: This week is Allergy Awareness week
• Point Two: May is also the “G & H” challenge for the Eat A to Z Healthy Recipe Challenge.  Something I recently stumbled upon & thought I’d try to participate in. Here is a link to the Eat A to Z Healthy Recipe Challenge pinterest board (for more inspiration).
• Point Three: Winter is on our door step here in Australia and it’s time to boost your Vitamin C intake.  This claim is made despite the beautiful t-shirt weather we experienced here in Sydney today.

So, to acknowledge all three points above, I came up with a fun, new (allergy free) drink for our afternoon tea today – a Guava & Grape Slushy.  I loved that this drink (with a small pepita & cranberry bar) was enough for us to be sustained during the witching 2-hours before dinner.  (Please see my post about afternoon snacks for more ideas about how to cure 3:30-itis without spoiling dinner).

Why Guava?  
In 100g of guava there is 228.3mg of Vitamin C which is about 4 times the amount found in Oranges!  
Guava also contains a relatively high antioxidant value compared to other plant foods.

---

Ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen green grapes
• 6 tinned guava halves with seeds removed
• 1/2 cup of water or ice cubes (depending how icy you like your slushy)
• 1 sprig of mint (optional)

Method:

Blend all ingredients.  Serve in 2 medium sized cups.

Happy Eating!

Simone

 

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Easter Brownies

For Easter, I’ve come up with two recipes for brownies using Cadbury Creme Eggs.  The Cadbury creme eggs are optional because the two recipes are reasonably healthy when you don’t add the Easter eggs.  However, it is that time of year when the Easter bunny is knocking at the door!  Maybe these recipes give you a good excuse for the kids to donate their eggs for a greater purpose? These recipes are designed for you to make with the kids.

Fudgy Cadbury Crème Egg Brownies {Egg Free Base}

The first brownie recipe gives a really rich, moist and fudgy consistency.  This recipe is also ironically egg free and lower in fat & sugar – does that make adding the crème eggs OK?   (I think so!)  It is also a great recipe for kids to participate in as I have made all the measures in ½ cup increments (making less dishes for you!).  However, if you are after a totally egg free recipe – do not add Cadbury Crème Eggs as they contain egg.  Instead try other types of mini eggs that are available & check their ingredients list.  The pumpkin is the key ingredient used to substitute in for the egg.  Pumpkin is used to bind the ingredients together.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup cocoa
• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cornflour
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup castor sugar
• ½ cup yoghurt
• 1 cup pumpkin puree, cooled
• ½ tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 x 130g packet of Cadbury Mini Crème Eggs

Method:  (Where you see an A – it is an adult step and K – is a kids step)

Step One:
A – Steam, puree and refrigerate the pumpkin in advance. (I made mine the night before as extra with dinner.)
A – Preheat the oven to 180oC and grease an 8”x8” brownie/cake tin.
K – Measure out and add the dry ingredients (excluding the Cadbury crème eggs) to a bowl.

Step Two:
K – In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients and then add them to the dry ingredients.
A – Check the batter for sweetness (add more sugar if required remembering that the Cadbury crème eggs will add sweetness too).  BONUS: It is safe to eat this batter raw due to lack of raw egg in the mixture!

Step Three:
K – Remove the foil from the Cadbury crème eggs and break them in half.  Add the eggs to the batter.  After mixing in the chunks of crème eggs, spread the batter out in your tin evenly.
A – Place brownies into the oven to bake for 30-40min. (Test that the brownies are cooked after 30min with a skewer, if not leave to bake for an extra few minutes).

Cadbury Creme Egg Brownie Cake {Dairy Free Base}

The second brownie base recipe that I have developed to go with the Cadbury Crème Eggs is Dairy Free.  Please note, you should add dairy free chocolate chips instead of Cadbury crème eggs to ensure the whole product is dairy free.  This brownie recipe has more of a cake like consistency.  I actually ended up baking it in a smaller round pyrex 8” bowl instead of a brownie tin.

As a deviation from my usual baking recipes I used weights (instead of cup measures).  This gives kids the chance to practice some numbers & requires electronic scales that you can zero after each ingredient is added.  Or conventional scales that you can individually weigh each ingredient on before adding it to the bowl.

Ingredients:

• 80g Castor Sugar
• 100g Nuttelex (or other dairy free source of fat)
• 2 eggs
• 60g water
• 150g wholemeal flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 x 130g packet of Cadbury crème mini eggs

Method:  (Where you see an A – it is an adult step and K – is a kids step)

Step One:
A – Preheat the oven to 175oC and grease and line an 8” brownie/cake tin.
K – Measure out the castor sugar and nuttelex and cream them together in the bowl.

Step Two:
A/K – Break and add the two eggs
A/K – Zero the scales & add the water (it’s about ¼ cup)
K – Zero the scales and add the wholemeal flour and then zero again for the cocoa powder
K – Add the baking powder along with the pinch of salt and mix really well

Step Three:
K – Remove the foil from the Cadbury crème eggs and break them in half.  Add the eggs to the batter.  After mixing in the chunks of crème eggs, spread the batter out in your tin evenly. (Note: This mixture is very thick & is challenging to spread out evenly)
A – Place brownies into the oven to bake for 30-40min. (Test that the brownies are cooked after 30min with a skewer, if not leave to bake for an extra few minutes).

Happy Eating and Happy Easter!

March is Fig Month

Another month, another ingredient challenge….

In March, I set-out to find ways to prepare figs.  I have to admit to a small defeat here.  Although, I have 2 recipes to share with you today, I honestly couldn’t beat my love of fresh figs. One of my all time favourite snacks is fresh figs with ricotta, a drizzle of honey and sprinkle of cinnamon.  I really love it!  I found that when I cooked the figs they were OK but (for me at least) fresh is best.  During this month I ventured out with my fresh fig uses and tried them with home-made chocolate chia pudding.  And loved fresh figs cut into segments and dipped in passionfruit yoghurt.  My toddler also liked the fresh figs dipped in yoghurt.

The two recipes that I want to share with you this month are: Fig and Chia Blender Bars as well as Fig and Kale Chicken Maryland.

Fig and Chia Blender Bars

Perfect for afternoon snacks (at least 2 hrs before dinner) or lunchboxes!  My toddler LOVED this freshly baked for her afternoon tea.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup rice flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
• 1/4 cup unprocessed bran (replace with more coconut for gluten free version)
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp melted butter
• 5 dried figs steeped in 1/2 cup boiled water for 10 minutes  (put all of this in blender including water)
• 1 fresh fig sliced for top (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180oC.  Put all of the ingredients into a blender & whizz.  Pour the mixture into a greased 20cm x 20cm cake tin / pyrex dish.  (Optional: place slices of fresh fig on top to decorate).  Bake for 30mins or until the edges are golden.  Cut into single serve bars.  These will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days.   Warning: Chilling the bars does make them denser over time – so for fussy children they may not like them cool even though they enjoyed them fresh.

Fig and Kale Chicken Maryland

Debone the thigh section of 2 chicken Maryland portions. This will give you a pocket of meat that can be stuffed.

For the stuffing, mix together 1 fresh diced fig, the leaves from one stalk of kale (finely chopped) and 2 tbsp of ricotta cheese.  Season the stuffing to your taste with salt & pepper.

Use toothpicks to secure the flesh of the chicken around the stuffing.  Bake at 180oC for 40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

 

Do you prefer fresh or cooked figs?

You can also use dried figs in place of the mixed dry fruit in this flapjacks recipe.

Here is a link to the list of my monthly challenges – take a peek here to find out what we will be cooking with in upcoming months!

PS – here is a shot of my fresh figs topping my homemade chocolate chia pudding…  I enjoyed that the chia pudding was healthy and had that small hint of chocolate (I went for the no sugar / little cocoa version) but my toddler was not a fan of the chia pudding texture.

Pear Flapjacks For Kids

Inspired by a fellow blogger, I adapted her recipe this week, healthy flapjacks, to suit the ingredients I had on hand. The result was so quick & easy to make and is a perfect lunchbox counterpart packed with fibre!

Fun fact: Did you know one medium pear has 5.5g of fibre? Hence, it is one of the most fibre rich fruits.

On the super healthy kids blog, they have been talking all things fibre this week. So, I recommend having a look at the recipes they’ve been posting.

Pear flapjacks for kids
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of Oats
1/2 cup Dried Mixed Fruit
2 peeled, cored & chopped ripe pears (you don’t have to peel it & this way you keep more fibre)
Juice from half an orange
1/2 cup Dessicated coconut
1tbsp Honey
2tbsp Macadamia nut oil
1tbsp Butter

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180oC & get out a 20cm x 20cm square cake tin.
In a food processor, whizz oats, dried mixed fruit, coconut, orange juice and pears to get a thick paste.

In a saucepan melt the butter together with the honey and macadamia nut oil. Pour this into your tin (this acts to grease the tin too) and swirl it around. Mix in the oat mixture. Pat the flapjack mixture down into the tin & pop it into the oven for 20mins.

Cut it into bar like slices once it is out of the oven. You can store these in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days.

Happy Eating!
Simone

Not-so-pretty cookies

Inspired by pinterest again, I tried out my own version of real mom nutrition’s peanut butter cookies.

The result is not-so-pretty but they are biscuits (cookies) with a delicious personality. My 22 month-old made these & helped press a sugar dipped fork into the tops which probably added to their failings in the looks department.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup mayvers peanut butter with cacao (see pic below)
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup quick oats

Mix all ingredients & dollop spoonfuls onto a baking paper lined tray. Use a sugar dipped fork to flatten. Bake for about 15mins in a 180oC oven.

Cooking with Kids

Before I started blogging my recipes (this year), I regularly published recipes to my Facebook page & also I write recipes for Mum’s Lounge.  The recipes for Mum’s Lounge are in a “little one & me” format, where I step out what the kids can do and what the adults can do to complete the recipe together.  I really and truly believe cooking with the kids leads to wonderful conversation and food awareness …. but don’t just take my word for it….

Why involve kids in the kitchen?  Children who learn to cook before the age of 8 are 50% more likely to have healthy diets!  Read more here  

Today’s post summarises my “little one & me” recipes for you to have a look at:

“Monster Balls” served with a white bean dip

My FAVOURITE “little one & me” recipe is for these Monster Balls.  Why is it my favourite?  Because it is so versatile.  You can use the basics of this recipe (bread crumbs, eggs & cheese) then choose any left-overs / or a clever mix of your child’s tolerated and preferred foods to make these.  See the variations list in the introduction to the recipe and some ideas for dipping sauces at the end.  Giving food clever names will help engage your children to a theme & spike their interest in trying it out.  There is nothing wrong with having a bit of a laugh in the kitchen!

Strawberry and Apple Crumble with the added goodness of Quinoa is a great celebration of springtime flavours when strawberries start hitting the green grocer.

Strawberry & Apple Crumble

Healthy Gummy Stars are a good recipe for lolly alternatives.  They are a very firm jelly made with real fruits and no cane sugar.  The little ones can probably only assist when it comes to cutting out the stars (or whatever shapes you have).

Easy & Healthier Snickerdoodles are a great motor planning exercise with the children as they wrap the dough around the filling.  Plus, they taste so good whilst still warm from the oven (note: if you use chocolate buttons / squares they stay piping hot for a while so always taste test them first for correct temperature before letting the kids loose on them – plus this way you ensure to get your share of them before it’s too late!)

Chocolate Button & Banana Filled Snickerdoodles

Also, check out the dough that I use for the snickerdoodles because it can be made sweet or savoury, it is super easy AND is egg free!  We use this dough recipe regularly for pizza bases in our house.

Zucchini & Sesame Quackers (Crackers) is a great make ahead recipe for a party or gathering where you are told to bring a plate.  You can enhance the flavour of these crackers with herbs or parmesan cheese, depending on your taste preference & any allergy considerations you have.  The version I have made here is dairy and egg free.

A big hit on the Play with Food Facebook page in 2013 were my sweet vegie muffins and I have to say that they are so nice straight out of the oven.  You can also substitute the golden syrup with honey.  There are some good tips in the comments too for encouraging interaction with the kids during this recipe.

Wishing you all the best for some “little one & me” cooking time!

HAPPY EATING!

Simone Emery