Bento Box Ideas for Kids

1 / 5 / 201 / 5 / 20

Oh, school lunches. I want them to be super nutritious and at least little bit different each day… And it’s a definite bonus if they’re simple and quick to make! But most of all, I just want to know that Miss G is going to like them and eat them and not come home at the end of the day staaaaarrrving. {Please say it’s not just me.}

The biggest game changer when it comes to making lunches that are simple, full of variety, and *easy* has undoubtedly been BENTO BOXES for us. I started using them even before Grae went to Kindergarten for outings and meals-on-the-go, and I don’t think I could ever switch over to packing traditional bagged lunches. I know I’ve said it before, but here’s the thing about bento boxes – filling several little compartments with bits of different foods feels so much easier and so much less intimidating than creating a packed lunch from scratch {and then having to find bags and containers to hold it all}. Thankfully Grae and Sam love snack-style meals (I find that most kids do), so that’s a bonus! Plus bentos make it super easy to pack zero-waste meals, so they’re a win all around in my opinion.

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First off – the bento boxes themselves… We’ve tried many over the years (too many), and hands down our favourite bento boxes are Yumboxes {the colourful ones you see above}. They’re great quality, they’ve lasted us YEARS, the inserts pop out for easy washing, they fit inside a regular insulated lunch bag, and most importantly – the compartments are individually sealed off and leak-proof when it comes to things like yogurt and fruit sauces. If we could have just one, I’d definitely choose the Yumbox Original which is the green 6-compartment box. This is our go-to and the bento we use most often and I love it because although it’s not massive or heavy, I can cram a really good amount of food into it. That being said, I do love our other Yumboxes too… Our aqua Yumbox Panino is fantastic when I want to send a larger item to school (especially something like a bagel or sandwich} and our Yumbox Tapas is perfect for days when a particularly big lunch is required as it’s a significantly larger. You can see a size comparison in this Instagram post {which also includes the MiniSnack size}. The last bento box in the photos, the stainless steel one, is our other go-to… It’s just a basic stainless steel bento put out by President’s Choice (our grocery store’s brand) and it’s crazy affordable (we’re talking in the range of $9 to $15 range – the price fluctuates) and great for packing really simple lunches. Unfortunately it can’t be purchased online as far as I can tell, but you can see it here and do watch the seasonal shelves of Superstore around back to school time as they’ve brought it out the last two years. I usually use a little stainless steel sauce cup in ours just to add an extra compartment, which works great.

So what to put in your little one’s bento box once you have one…

My go-to formula is a whole grain + a protein source + plenty of fruits and veggies + a little sweet or treat

I also try to include a source of good fat, but at the same time, I remind myself to look at what my kids are eating over the course of a day or a week and to not stress too much about what they’re getting in a single meal.

Here are some of my go-to bento box ideas for kids…

(Yumbox Panino | mexican pasta salad, apple blueberry sauce, kale chips with nutritional yeast and hemp hearts, oatmeal chocolate chip almond butter ball made with agave instead of honey)

Pasta salad – Making pasta for dinner? Reserve some plain noodles for tomorrow’s lunch! Mix up a whole grain or veggie pasta with some black beans, corn, and peppers, a little drizzle of olive oil and some garlic, cumin, oregano, and chilli powder for a Mexican inspired pasta, or try a more Greek-inspired version with pasta, chickpeas, cucumbers, peppers, olive oil, and some oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder.

(Yumbox Original | grape skewers, rainbow veggies, all-natural black liquorice, vanilla chia pudding, homemade granola made with almond butter and agave instead of honey)

Breakfast for lunch – Leftover breakfast? Turn it into lunch! Anything goes here… Try chia pudding paired with your favourite granola or pancakes turned into sammies with the addition of pumpkin seed butter, a little pure maple syrup, and some hemp hearts and chia seeds. Things like leftover breakfast burritos usually pack up great, as do bagels!

(President’s Choice Stainless Steel Bento Box | berry fruit salad, cucumber lettuce cream cheese roll-ups on Silver Hills Bakery Turmeric Wraps, medjool dates stuffed with almond butter and mini dark chocolate chips, popcorn with vegan butter, nutritional yeast, and pink salt)

Roll-ups – Grab your favourite wrap or flat bread, fill it up, roll it, and then slice it into sushi-style chunks. Try pairing seed butter with chia jam, hummus with carrot matchsticks, or mini cucumbers and lettuce with a vegan cream cheese. Sprinkle the chunks with hemp hearts, sesame seeds, or a touch of sea salt and you’re done.

(Yumbox Tapas | watermelon hearts, cantaloupe hearts, chunky salad, strawberry apple chia kind fruit bar cut into bites, mini whole grain bagel pizzas)

Quick pizza – Turn a mini bagel, a sprouted grain english muffin, or a whole grain pita into pizza with the addition some tomato sauce, your favourite vegan cheese, some veggies, and a sprinkling of oregano. Broil it in the oven for just a couple of minutes to get the cheese bubbly and golden and you’ve got lunch!

(President’s Choice Stainless Steel Bento Box | peppers, carrots, cucumber, and pita bread with homemade hummus, rainbow fruit, pretzel / dried cranberry / mini dark chocolate chip mix)

Dip & dippers – Probably the most popular ‘main’ in our school bentos… Miss G LOVES hummus, so that’s our go-to, but a white bean dip, pesto, or seed butter with cinnamon are great options too. Pack your dip alongside whole grain pita bread, sprouted grain flatbread, pretzels, carrot and cucumber sticks, or apple slices and let your kiddo dip away.

Okay, now for fruits and veggies! Obviously you can pack all kinds of fruits and veggies just as is – washed and chopped – and they’re perfect just like that, but if you’re looking to switch things up a little, here are some ideas…

Fun Ways to Pack Fruit

Fruit salad – Chop up a little assortment of favourite fruits, mix it up, and you’ve got fruit salad.

Skewers – Everything is more fun on a stick! Thread berries and grapes onto reusable mini skewers to switch things up.

Sauce – Simmer seasonal fruit in a covered pot with just a touch of water and blend once soft. Apples and pears make a great fruit sauce base and you can even add spinach to them without changing the flavour… We call it hulk sauce!

Rainbow fruit – Arrange some freshly chopped fruit in rainbow order, and voila – rainbow fruit!

Fruit shapes – A little more finicky, but if you’ve got an extra couple of minutes, use a mini cookie cutter to chop things like watermelon, cantaloupe, and pineapple into fun shapes. (We have several of the mini Wilton cutter sets and they work great.)

Fun Ways to Pack Veggies

Chunky salad – Chop up your kiddos’ favourite veggies, drizzle them with a little olive oil and a sprinkling of Herbamare, and top with sesame seeds or hemp hearts.

Sticks & dip – A classic combo. Chop some veggies into sticks and pair them with a little pot of hummus or dip.

Chips – Turn kale, carrots, beets, turnips, and other thinly sliced veggies into crispy chips by tossing them in a tiny amount of avocado oil, sprinkling them with a little garlic powder and sea salt, and roasting them in a 400 degree oven until crisp. You’ll want to watch these closely and remove the chips as they become ready.

Rainbow veggies – As simple as arranging freshly chopped veggies in rainbow order in your kiddo’s bento box!

Veggie shapes – If you’ve got time, take a mini cookie cutter to your peppers, cucumbers, and carrot slices to switch things up.

Happy lunch making! For more easy bento ideas, you can follow our hashtag #bentosbympb and you can see all of our favourite reusable food containers and accessories in the ‘Feeding Kiddos’ section of our amazon shop.

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The Very Best Green Smoothie

9 / 14 / 199 / 15 / 19

With Grae back to school, I feel like I basically have two main goals at the moment… 1) Getting us all ready, out the door, and to school on time, and 2) keeping everyone {especially my preemie babe Sam} healthy with all of the gross school germs currently being reintroduced into our lives. So far so good, but we’re only two weeks in, so fingers crossed for a fairly healthy winter. Being a NICU mama I feel like I have lots of little tricks for avoiding sicknesses as much as we can, and one of those things is definitely daily green smoothies. This particular one is the very best green smoothie I’ve ever had (truly!) and everyone seems to like it – even the green smoothie critics I’ve encountered. While it’s got lots of great greens and nutrition in it, I think the key is that it’s nice and sweet and has a little punch of tartness from the pineapple and orange… Basically it tastes good vs. TOO healthy like some green smoothies do. That being said, it is healthy… It includes lots of leafy greens and fruits, plus it’s got vitamins, healthy fats, protein, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, iron, fibre, and more. A definite win-win in my books.

Here’s the full list of required ingredients: kale, spinach, banana, frozen pineapple, frozen mango, avocado, oranges, hemp hearts, chia seeds, and pure apple juice (which is optional but does make a difference in the finished flavour of the smoothie). We use the stuff from our local apple orchard that is absolutely to die for and freeze it into easy to use ice cubes since juice is not something we keep on hand usually.

Now you can just use this recipe to make your smoothie each morning as usual, but what I like to do is prepare smoothie bags in advance. Basically that means I haul all of the ingredients out, fill multiple bags / jars / containers with all of the ingredients save the liquid, and I have pre-made smoothies ready to go for the week {or more}.

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Now I will say that last winter I made up a ton of smoothie jars, strategically placing everything {well except that coconut yogurt that was a mistake – hah!} in order to ensure I’d be able to get everything out come smoothie making time, and let me tell you, it was an epic fail. Even the jars that you’d think would be easy to dump out were a huge pain in the butt and I think I wasted more time scraping ingredients out of jars than it would have just taken me to make the smoothies from scratch in the mornings. Lesson learned. I would maybe try the jar method again in the future, but certainly not with these jars… They’d have to be something with a wide enough mouth that I could stick my whole hand in them to retrieve ingredients if needed.

While I’m not happy about it, I’ve resorted to using 6 of my very precious use-only-for-gifting-play-dough-kits-zip-close-bags this time around as they were my only option (I haven’t bought plastic bags for regular use in several years now and I don’t have enough glass containers to spare), but I’d really like to invest in a set of large Stasher bags or something similar to use as dedicated smoothie bags. (I just found these on amazon and they seem to have good reviews and are super affordable.) Anyways, until then, rest assured that these 6 bags will be used again and again until they can’t be used anymore…. (We’re the people who wash out bags from bread and tortillas to reuse multiple times before sending them off for recycling.)

Alright, now onto the very best green smoothie smoothie bags!

First up, a big kale leaf. We often use lacinato kale {because it makes amazing kale chips and is what we have on hand}, but you can use any type you like. One leaf per smoothie bag. We have a Vitamix so I don’t even bother removing them stem bit, but if you don’t have a high-powered blender, you may want to.

Next up, a handful of spinach per bag… Literally just however much you naturally grab. Smoothie recipes are just one of those things that always turns out, so no need to be finicky or exact.

Add a ripe banana to each… The key here is ripe. A green banana won’t do you much good as you’re really counting on the banana for some sweetness here.

Now, 1 cup of frozen pineapple. Pineapple is what makes this smoothie in my opinion, so if you have to choose, be more generous with it than less generous.

Next up, frozen mango… I cup of that per bag too.

Add half an orange…

And half an avocado… (You can skip this if needed, but healthy fats are important – especially for kids and avocado does add a creaminess to smoothies too.)

Okay, almost there… Next up, about a teaspoon and a half of chia seeds and a teaspoon and a half of hemp hearts. You can add any other nutritional add-ins you love here too.

Lastly, two ice cubes worth of frozen apple juice. We don’t keep juice in the house usually, so this ice cube method works really well for us, but you can also just add in a splash before blending.

And that’s it! Seal these up and store them in your freezer for super quick and easy smoothies on busy mornings {or afternoons, or whenever!}

When you’re ready, simply dump the contents of your smoothie bag into your blender, add about 2 cups of water {or a little more or less depending on your blender’s abilities and the consistency you’re going for}, and blend! I use the smoothie setting on our Vitamix A2500 Ascent Series, which is 50 seconds long.

This recipe makes a good amount of smoothie… We get four smoothies from each smoothie bag… A small / medium one for Sam, Grae, and I and a big one for Brad. That being said, if you’re an adult who enjoys smoothies as breakfast, I’d say this makes two BIG adult size smoothies that would fill you up.

The Very Best Green Smoothie Smoothie Bags

1 leaf of lacinato kale
1 handful of spinach
1 ripe banana
1 cup of frozen pineapple
1 cup of frozen mango
1/2 of an orange
1/2 of an avocado
1.5 teaspoons of chia seeds
1.5 teaspoons of hemp hearts
2 ice cubes of frozen pure apple juice

2 cups of cold water

Fill bags or containers with the ingredients above, seal well, and freeze. When ready, dump the contents of one smoothie bag into the blender, add approximately 2 cups of cold water (or a little more or less depending on your desired consistency and your blender’s abilities), and blend until smooth.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Serves 4.

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Vegan Lemon Zucchini Muffins

8 / 27 / 19

Is there anyone who is NOT drowning in zucchini this time of year?? My zucchini is doing terribly at the moment {in fact my entire garden is pretty sad this year}, but thanks to my friend Stesha, there’s been no zucchini shortage around here! I’ve been grating it up and throwing it into soups, sauces, veggie ground for tacos, and wherever else I can get away with it and there’s still more! We LOVE our super cakey {and also vegan, naturally sweetened, and whole wheat} chocolate zucchini muffins, but sometimes a girl just needs some lemon in her life, am I right? {I freaking. love. all. things. lemon.} After completely winging a batch of lemon zucchini muffins and having them turn out flavourful but too wet and zucchini-y, I came to a brilliant conclusion… Why would I not just adapt my chocolate zucchini recipe?? It’s crazy delicious and nearly fail-proof, which would make for a good jumping off point, right?

RIGHT.

I’m so stoked on how these turned out. They’re super lemony, tender, and I hate myself for saying it, but MOIST. (Gag! Grossest word in existence.) The only thing I may experiment with next time around is using a combination of traditional whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour as they’re almost too tender and flaky if that’s possible. {If you try it, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!}

The other thing I’ll say about these {and most of the muffins I make} is that because the veggie content is so high, I usually keep what we’re going to eat in the coming few days in an air-tight container in the fridge and then freeze the rest to pull out one at a time when needed. They freeze well and this ensures that they don’t turn to mush as healthy muffins sometimes do.

Aren’t they pretty too? I was surprised to see that they’d turned a yellow-y hue when I pulled them out of the oven. I guess that’s what happens when you make muffins loaded to the brim with lemon zest and juice, hey? {Hah!}

Here’s how to make them…

Vegan Naturally Sweetened Whole Wheat Lemon Zucchini Muffins

2 tablespoons of ground flax or chia seed
6 tablespoons of warm water

1 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

zest of 4 large lemons

1/2 cup of good olive oil
1/2 cup of pure maple syrup
juice of 2 large lemons
1 teaspoon of good vanilla

1 1/2 cups of finely grated zucchini, deseeded if necessary

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, measure out the ground flax or chia seed and warm water. Stir to combine and set aside to thicken. {This mixture is two flax / chia ‘eggs’.}

In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Whisk until thoroughly combined and sprinkle lemon zest on top.

In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the olive oil, pure maple syrup, lemon juice, and vanilla.

Add the liquid mixture and the flax eggs into the dry mixture and gently mix with a spatula until almost combined. Add the finely grated zucchini and give the mixture a few more gentle stirs. {A word on the zucchini… If you pre-grate your zucchini like we usually do, by the time you go to use it, there will most likely be some liquid that has drained off. No need to include this. Simply pick up the zucchini by the handful, allow it to drip over the bowl for a few seconds, and then add it to your mixture, tossing out any liquid that’s left in the bowl afterwards. Do not squeeze your grated zucchini dry before adding it… The moisture from the zucchini is what makes these muffins so dang good.}

Line your muffin tin with silicone muffin liners and distribute the batter evenly amongst the cups. Bake for approximately 20 – 24 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. I sometimes like to turn my oven to broil for the last minute or two of the baking time in order to get the muffin tops nice and golden and just a touch crispy, but be sure to watch your muffins closely if you choose to do this… Broil is no joke.

Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to sit for several minutes before removing them from the pan and placing them on a cooling rack.

Once completely cool, store in an air-tight container on the counter or in the fridge for a few days or freeze the muffins and pull them out as needed.

Enjoy!

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Vegan Compost Cookies

7 / 2 / 19

Oh my goodness… Can we please just soak in the delicious ridiculousness that is these vegan compost cookies?! And while I’d love to say that they’re healthful, there’s really not much that’s healthful about them… They’re CRAZY delicious though! Filled with oats, pretzels, graham cracker crust, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, potato chips, and coffee grounds (everything you’d find in a compost?), they’re a crispy and chewy and salty and sweet all at once. I usually make them once a year {okay, maybe twice a year when Brad was at his last school}, but this year when we were brainstorming teacher gifts, Miss G decided that she’d like to do big jars of homemade compost cookies and I was totally on board. We paired the jars with a bag of locally roasted coffee beans and our completed ‘Thank you for being my teacher’ printable and that was that.

Since we now eat vegan at home, I also took the opportunity to recipe test a veganized version of the recipe we usually use, and I’m so happy to report that it turned out amazingly well! I also took a chance and swapped out some of the sugar for coconut sugar, so while these still have a ton of sugar in them, at least some of it is a little less refined.

Okay, just look at this…

And that’s not all… There were still potato chips to be added!

Now a quick word on the potato chips… While we usually buy a locally made kettle-chip style of chips to snack on {Hardbite}, these cookies are much better with a classic, cheap potato chip. You know the ones that are a little too greasy and a little too salty? Yup, oddly enough, those are the ones you want. The other ones are so thick that they’re almost too crunchy whereas these thinner ones add just the perfect amount of crunch!

Dough done! (I always double this recipe when making it.)

Okay, now here’s the one unfortunate thing about this recipe… The dough has to be refrigerated before baking the cookies off. Ugh – not the best news for a get-in-and-out-of-the-kitchen-as-quickly-as-possible person like me, but trust me on this one. I’ve made them plenty of times and skipped this step and they’re still delicious. BUT – if you want them to have that crispy outer coating and super thick, chewy inside, you need to refrigerate. I just roll the dough into big balls, pop them into a baking dish, and pop them into the fridge. Come back in an hour and they’ll be good to go.

The last thing… The butterscotch chips. Every type of butterscotch / caramel chip I could find in our little town contained milk products, so those were a no go for us, obviously. I did see that there are some available online for purchase, but I just opted to try making my own using this recipe. It didn’t turn out perfectly (I was left with some extra butter/oil floating around and the butterscotch was soft at room temperature), but I just kept the pan in the freezer, broke off some little chunks and pressed them into the flattened dough balls as I took them out of the refrigerator to bake and it worked out just fine!

Here’s what they look like straight out of the oven…

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Also, I can’t recommend getting one of these silicone baking liners enough… They work just like parchment paper does and are waste-free!

Here they are completely cooled and ready to be packaged…

We picked up some big glass jars with good seals at a local shop {these are very similar}, filled them up to the top with cookies, added a little homemade tag using baker’s twine, and that was it! Big jars of vegan compost cookies ready for gifting.

Here’s our recipe…

Vegan Compost Cookies (based on this recipe by table for two)

1 tablespoon of ground chia seeds
3 tablespoons of warm water

1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs (double check the ingredients to ensure your graham crackers don’t have honey or milk products in them)
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of vegan butter
2 teaspoons of pure maple syrup

1 1/3 cups of bread flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

1 cup of vegan butter
1 cup of coconut sugar
2/3 cup of packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon of agave syrup
1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla

graham cracker crust
3/4 cup of mini vegan chocolate chips
1/2 cup of vegan butterscotch chips*
1/3 cup of old-fashioned oats
3 teaspoons of ground coffee beans

2 cups of plain potato chips, crushed
1 cup of mini pretzels

Prepare your ‘chia egg’ by combining the ground chia seeds and warm water in a small bowl. Set it aside to thicken.

Prepare your graham cracker crust by working the vegan butter and maple syrup into the graham cracker crumbs with your fingers in a medium-sized bowl. Set this aside until needed too.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt until everything is evenly distributed.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the vegan butter, coconut sugar, brown sugar, and agave syrup on medium-high for two minutes. Scrape down the sides, add in the chia egg and vanilla, and mix for another few minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.

On low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients until just about combined – little flour pockets here and there are fine.

Still on low speed, pour in the graham cracker crust, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips (if using them), old-fashioned oats, and ground coffee beans. Allow it to mix for about 30 seconds and then add in the potato chips and pretzels and mix just enough to distribute them throughout the dough.

Using a medium sized cookie scoop, portion the dough out into generously sized cookie dough balls, place them in a container, and pop them into the fridge to chill for one hour (this step is important – I highly recommend not skipping it).

Preheat the oven to 365 degrees and prepare a baking sheet by lining it with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

After an hour, retrieve just enough dough balls to cover your baking sheet and gently flatten them down. If you’re using the homemade butterscotch ‘chips’ like we did, break off a few little chips and gently press them into the dough near the centre of the cookie.

Bake for 13 – 14 minutes in a fully preheated oven. When removed, the cookies will still be very soft to the touch and will look darker than most due to the coconut sugar. Allow them to cool for at least ten minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. The goal is for the outsides to be golden and crispy and the insides to be soft and chewy.

Once completely cooled, pop the cookies into jars for gifting or into a container at room temperature to enjoy / store for up to a week.

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Chocolate Covered Frozen Banana Pops

6 / 19 / 196 / 24 / 19

Okay, I’m probably aging myself here, but do you remember being able to get frozen bananas dipped in chocolate at Dairy Queen growing up? The ones that came on a stick and were absolutely delicious? Because I do! I don’t know if it’s sad or awesome that I’d choose a frozen banana over everything else one can get when at a fast food chain full of frozen treats, but I loved them. And apparently I still think they’re awesome because chocolate covered frozen banana pops happen every summer in this house. We most often sprinkle them with chopped nuts (peanuts + chocolate + banana = actual heaven), but this time around we went for the naturally coloured candy sprinkles I bought ages ago for a birthday party {they’re not at all healthful, for the record – just naturally coloured}. Put a few candy sprinkles on anything and the kids will think it’s amazing, but the best part of these frozen banana pops for me? Not having to melt actual chocolate. In fact, there’s no actual chocolate involved.

Fruity Green Popsicles

5 / 8 / 195 / 11 / 19

Today, with Sam still recovering from his latest bout of croup and Miss G home from school to catch up on some rest she can hopefully avoid getting sick, I decided it was time to make our first batch of popsicles of the year. I wanted them to be super healthy, full of vitamins, but still delicious, and so these fruity GREEN popsicles came about!

Now there’s no hiding this – all these fruity green popsicles really are is a green smoothie in frozen form {though if your kids are like my kids, it won’t matter one bit because anything in popsicle form is exciting and loved}. Truthfully, you don’t need a recipe at all because you really just can’t go wrong here… Just whip up a regular green smoothie, pour it into some popsicle moulds, and freeze! If the smoothie tastes good, the popsicles should too!

That being said, I know that there are lots of people who really like having a recipe to guide them, so if that’s you, here’s exactly what we included in our fruity green popsicles… Frozen mango, clementines, lacinato kale, pineapple juice, coconut water {which is optional}, hemp hearts, and chia seeds. Super healthful, right?

The best part? The kids did almost everything on their own! First up, they washed the kale and removed the cores.

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Then they put the kale and fruit into our Vitamix…

And added our juice and coconut water.

Looks delish, doesn’t it?

Then Sam did the honours and blended everything up.

Now I will say that if you don’t have a high-powered blender, you may want to skip the chia seeds and hemp hearts – unless your kiddos don’t mind a little texture.

Our Vitamix {which was worth every penny of its purchase price} blends them up like nothing, so add them to your heart’s delight if you have a similar blender.

Next up, we poured the fruity green mixture into our popsicle moulds. We have quite the random assortment and used all shapes and sizes and got 17 popsicles out of this recipe.

Here they are when done. They look good, right??

Here’s the recipe…

Fruity Green Popsicles

2 cups of mango, fresh or frozen
2 clementines (or other small oranges)
5 lacinato kale leaves, washed with the cores removed
1 tablespoon of chia seeds
1 tablespoon of hemp hearts

1 cup of pure pineapple juice*
1 cup of coconut water*

* for sweeter popsicles, omit the coconut water and use 2 cups of pure pineapple juice

Add everything to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into popsicle moulds and freeze for at least 5 hours or overnight.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Ice Cream Chia Pudding Parfaits

2 / 13 / 19

Please tell me I’m not the only one who loves whipping up on-theme food for my kiddos on holidays and special occasions. I know, it’s a little bit nerdy and over the top, but I love it so much. Last Valentine’s Day I made the kids these strawberry ice cream chia pudding parfaits and oh my word… You should have seen their little eyes light up when I set breakfast down in front of them!

Besides the fact that they’re both nutritious and super delicious, the thing I love about these ice cream chia pudding parfaits is that they’re a lot easier to make than they look. In fact, you can do most of the prep work the night before so they come together super quickly come morning.

First up, you’ll want to cut a bunch of strawberry hearts… Just cut the green leafy part of the strawberry off to create a ‘v’ shape at the top, then slice! You’ll want fairly thin hearts to place along the inside of the mason jars, so keep that in mind while slicing. If prepping these the night before, just pop them into an air-tight bag or container in the fridge. And while you’re at it, wash and dry a few blueberries and add them in there too.

Next up, your chia pudding. I have a couple of posts about chia pudding (our tropical version | our chocolate version), but if you haven’t tried it, you really must. It’s so unique and delicious and my kids just love it! To make it, pour 1 cup of coconut milk into a jar along with 3 tablespoons of chia seeds, 1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup, and a little splash of good vanilla. Shake it up like mad and then place it in the fridge overnight to thicken. If you can, give it a couple of extra shakes before going to bed for the night to help prevent clumping. If not, no worries – it’ll be fine either way.

Alright… Now for the part that has to be made in the morning… The strawberry ice cream! Or nice cream as it’s often called.

Chuck 3 frozen bananas, along with 5 big frozen strawberries and a splash of good vanilla, into a food processor. I find this works best if the frozen fruit has had just 5 minutes at room temperature, but you can do it straight from the freezer too. Basically, you just need to blend it like CRAZY. It’ll take a little while and will most likely require you stopping the food processor to scrape down the sides a few times, but keep going {past the chunky stage, past the mealy stage} until your bananas and strawberries are the consistency of soft serve. Mmmm… so good!

Now it’s time to assemble! Line a mason jar with your strawberry hearts simply by pressing them against the glass surface…

Then gently fill the jar about halfway full of chia pudding…

And generously top with strawberry ice cream.

Finish off the strawberry ice cream chia pudding parfaits with a strawberry heart and a few blueberries on top and breakfast (or snack) is served!

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Whole Wheat Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes

2 / 5 / 192 / 5 / 19

Ages ago {aka back in 2012} Miss G and began making these whole wheat lemon poppy seed pancakes and they’ve been a favourite ever since. Grae absolutely LOVES them, as do I – and that’s saying a lot because I’m not much of a breakfast food person if I’m being honest. BUT – give me something something lemony and not too sweet and I’ll happily eat it any time of the day.

Layered Caramel Apple Dip

9 / 25 / 189 / 25 / 18

No joke – I think I’ve had ‘layered apple caramel dip’ in my idea book for a full 3 years now… It’s on a random page of fall ideas and says ‘layered caramel apple dip – like 7 layer bean dip but sweet – for apples’ – hah! I’ve wanted to make it for ages now, but we just finally got around to it and I’m so happy we did. Because daaaaang – is it ever delicious!

We made a plated version to enjoy immediately as well as several little pots to keep in the fridge and let me tell you – they didn’t last long! Brad and I enjoyed some as a treat while watching a show, Miss G got to take one in her lunch one day, and the others? I’m not sure, but they disappeared.

The best part? I was really hoping to include a caramel outside of my usual date ‘caramel’, and I was able to make a delicious version using coconut milk, pure maple syrup, and coconut sugar. Definitely a still a treat in my books, but no dairy, no butter, and no white sugar. We also used a non-dairy cream cheese for a fully vegan recipe.

For the full recipe and all of the details, pop over to CBC Parents and check out our Layered Caramel Apple Dip post.

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The Very Best Healthy Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

8 / 5 / 188 / 5 / 18

The very first thing you do when gifted several pounds of zucchini? You make healthy chocolate zucchini muffins of course! The *very best* healthy chocolate zucchini muffins that are also vegan, naturally sweetened, and made with whole grains, that is. {WINNING.}

Just check these beauties out, will you? I don’t know if this photo does their size any justice, but they’re huuuuuuuge.

And begging to be turned into these insanely good chocolate zuchinni muffins by Relishing It. For real, they taste more like cake than any other muffin I’ve eaten before. Insanely good. We’re talking by far the very best healthy muffin I’ve ever tasted… To the point where I regularly pass them off as chocolate birthday cupcakes {and even our pickiest little guests gobble up TWO}.

Now here’s my public service announcement… If you’re just a regular person wanting a regular healthy muffin recipe, pop over to Laurie’s post and make them exactly as she tells you to. They’re absolutely perfect as is – no need to change anything.

Now if you’re like me and are attempting to minimize the amount of animal products your family consumes, try our version below. They’re every bit as delicious, but they don’t contain the egg or honey, which makes them healthy, whole grained, naturally sweetened, and VEGAN.

{this post contains affiliate links}

Here’s our line up of ingredients… First up, whole wheat pastry flour. Every bit worth the effort it takes to find, in my opinion. In Kuwait we used this one by Bob’s Red Mill and in Canada we use one from Nature’s Fare. Whole Foods stocks whole wheat pastry flour too and my guess is that it is decent. Next, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, sea salt, and dark chocolate chips that are optional, but delicious. The wet ingredients include coconut oil, flax ‘eggs’ {which is just ground flax seeds and water}, and vanilla, and of course you’ll need the zucchini too.

The most important part of any baking session though? Little helpers. Little helpers who undoubtedly make the process longer and messier and way more fun.

Here’s how this recipe goes down… First, measure out the dry ingredients and whisk them together well.

Then in a separate bowl {we use a big glass measuring cup}, measure out the wet ingredients and give them a good whisk before adding them to the dry mixture.

Lastly, add in loads of finely grated zucchini that will pretty much just disappear during the baking process and leave you with the cake-iest, most delicious muffins ever.

Gently stir it in…

And then enlist your little ones’ help to prep the muffin tin {silicone muffin liners like these are the BEST} and divide the batter evenly between the 12 cups.

Patiently wait as they bake….

Let them cool for a couple of minutes…

And dive in!

SOOOO good. {Find Sam’s construction spoon here.}

So good that we almost always make a double batch – otherwise they disappear too quickly.

The Very Best Healthy Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (adapted from this recipe on Relishing It)

2 tablespoons of ground flax seed
6 tablespoons of warm water

1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

1/2 cup of coconut oil {in its liquid state}
1/2 cup of pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon of good vanilla

1 1/2 cups of finely grated zucchini, deseeded if necessary
1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, measure out the ground flax seed and warm water. Stir to combine and set aside to thicken. {This mixture is two flax ‘eggs’.}

In a large bowl, add the flour cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Whisk until thoroughly combined and sprinkle the dark chocolate chips on top.

In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the liquid coconut oil, pure maple syrup, and vanilla.

Add the liquid mixture and the flax eggs into the dry mixture and gently mix until almost combined. Add the finely grated zucchini and give the mixture a few more gentle stirs. {A word on the zucchini… If you pre-grate your zucchini like we usually do, by the time you go to use it, there will most likely be some liquid that has drained off. No need to include this. Simply pick up the zucchini by the handful, allow it to drip over the bowl for a few seconds, and then add it to your mixture, tossing out any liquid that’s left in the bowl afterwards. Do not squeeze your grated zucchini dry before adding it… The moisture from the zucchini is what makes these muffins so dang good.}

Line your muffin tin with silicone muffin liners and distribute the batter evenly amongst the cups. Bake for approximately 20 – 25 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to sit for several minutes before removing them from the pan and placing them on a cooling rack.

These will last for several days in an air-tight container on the counter, but because of there high veggie content, I pop them in the fridge if they’re going to be around longer than a few days.

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Easy Naturally Sweetened Peanut Butter Granola

4 / 16 / 184 / 22 / 18

Mmm… peanut butter granola!

Once upon a time, Miss G and I made a big batch of chia granola every couple of weeks or so and it was absolutely delicious. That continued on for years – while living just off of Main Street in Vancouver and then throughout our second stint in Kuwait. And then we came back home to Canada for the second time {you can see snipets of our last few weeks in the desert here}, me pregnant, tasked with finding a home, getting Miss G started in school, and settling back into life here in North America {which I truly think is harder than settling into a new life abroad}… And somewhere in between all of that and our little nugget Sam being born super early, I started buying granola instead. Delicious, locally made and naturally sweetened granola from Terra Breads, but store bought nonetheless.

Well, on a whim a few weekends ago, I whipped up a batch of peanut butter granola to feed the kids for breakfast as Grae read and Sam played play dough up at the island. I burned the first batch badly {too many things on the go at once while solo parenting}, but despite being completely charred, I could tell that the recipe was a good one, so I promptly whipped up another batch. Since then? I think I’ve made another 2 or 3 batches. It’s that delicious and that easy.

Now disclaimer – this homemade granola isn’t as healthful as our old version made with all kinds of seeds, hemp hearts, wheat germ, flax seeds, and a very small amount of oil made up for with pure apple sauce… In fact, I’d probably classify this new version as more of a ‘treat’ granola, but it’s still naturally sweetened and made of a few fairly wholesome ingredients, so I’ll take it. Plus it’s incredibly delicious and so easy that you can whip it up while your kiddos patiently wait for their weekend breakfast.

Here’s our recipe…

Easy Naturally Sweetened Peanut Butter Granola

2/3 cup of natural peanut butter (or other natural nut butter)
1/3 cup of coconut oil
1/3 cup of pure maple syrup or honey (we do half and half and use a maple honey)

4 cups of old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup of sliced almonds
1/4 cup of chia {we use white chia seeds}

In a small saucepan, combine the nut butter, coconut oil, and maple syrup and/or honey. Warm it over medium heat, stirring regularly, until it starts to bubble.

On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a baking mat, measure out the old-fashioned oats, sliced almonds, and chia seeds.

Pour the hot liquid mixture over the oat mixture and combine them well (I get in there with my hands once it cools a bit). Spread the mixture out evenly, pat it down a little bit (this will help clusters form!), and pop it into a 300 degree oven.

Let the granola bake for 20 minutes undisturbed, then take it out, flip it carefully (trying to keep as many big clumps as you can), and then pop it back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

Allow it to cool completely (it’ll crisp up as it does) and serve or pop into an air-tight jar or container for later use.

We keep our granola in a mason jar in our pantry for a week at a time (it doesn’t last any longer than that), but if you really want to extend it’s storage, you could easily store it in the freezer and use what you need when you need it.

Also, though we’ve not tried it ourselves, my guess is that you could totally make this nut-free if you have an allergy in the family or if you want to send it to school and your child’s class is nut-free… I’d swap out the peanut butter for either sunflower seed butter, pumpkin seed butter, or Wow butter, and the sliced almonds for pepitas. {If you try this, please let me know how it works out!}

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The Best Maple Spice Steamer

10 / 11 / 1710 / 31 / 17

My gosh it’s been cold in the Okanagan already… The other day, after a two degree school drop-off, I actually told Brad that I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the winter up here. My bones are chattering just at the thought of several months in the negative temperatures – brrrr! All I have to say is thank goodness for fire places, fuzzy slippers, cozy blankets, and hot lattes. Thankfully the kiddos don’t seem to be as bothered by the cold as I am, though they’ll very happily take a steamed milk anytime one is offered. Lately I’ve been making them these delicious maple spice steamers on chilly mornings and crisp afternoons and they’ve just been loving them.

School Snacks You Can Batch Make Ahead of Time

9 / 14 / 179 / 15 / 17

Real talk? I think I had a little bit of anxiety about Miss G heading back to school last week. We knew we had to make a decision about what we’d do for schooling once in the Okanagan, but we spent the summer so caught up with buying a house and moving, we honestly didn’t officially decide which route we were going until the night before school started.

Easiest Ever Asian Noodle Salad

6 / 13 / 177 / 30 / 17

If you were to make me choose one favourite meal, hands down, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, it would be an Asian noodle salad. Yum, yum, YUM. The obsession started while working at Earl’s during my summers off of university, and for a good few years, I probably ate at least a few Thai noodle salads a week.

Easy Homemade Beef Jerky

5 / 31 / 176 / 4 / 17

While it may sound weird, we usually make sure that special days celebrating Brad involve meat. Strange, I know. The thing is, the guy loves meat. But he doesn’t cook, which leaves all of the cooking up to me – the one who would rather not eat any meat at all. And so, we eat vegetarian at home probably 95% of the time. Brad’s an incredibly good sport about it, but when it comes to things like his birthday, Father’s Day {or even his Christmas stocking}, I attempt to be a good wife include some sort of meat.