When Gracen gets invited to a birthday party, she’s usually excited about two things – actually going to the party of course, and coming up with a fun gift to bring along! This gift was for a friend who was celebrating her 7th birthday this time around, so Miss G knew she wanted something ‘big girlish’. We brainstormed ideas throughout the week {a hair dressing kit and a card making kit were other options in the running – two of G’s favourite things}, but in the end we decided on a little chef’s baking kit since our friend enjoys baking with her mama just as Grae and I enjoy baking together.
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Long ago during my university days, I nannied for a family that had taught their son to open pistachio nuts by placing them inside a towel and smashing them with a hammer. I must admit that at the time I thought it was a little crazy… The danger! The noise! The mess! Oy.
The other night, I had the absolute pleasure of joining several other Vancouver mom bloggers at 
Here’s our lineup of ingredients…. Pecans, dates {soaked in water}, coconut, raisins, sea salt, cinnamon, coconut oil, and vanilla. Now, I have to say that the original recipe includes coconut manna (also known as coconut butter) and not coconut oil… In fact, our healthy eating specialist explained that coconut oil is just the fat squeezed out of the coconut meat, while coconut manna is the coconut meat and fat combined, making it much more nutrient-rich. The trouble is, our local grocery store doesn’t carry coconut manna, so we had to improvise. While maybe not as healthy, the recipe still turned out great!
Anyways, onto actually making the cookie dough boys! First up, we drained {almost all of} the water our dates had been soaking in and blended them in our food processor. (Word to the wise, be sure your dates don’t still have the pits in them before blending. Oy.)
We processed them until nearly smooth, but not perfectly pureed. Because it was such a small batch, it did take several rounds of stopping the machine, scraping down the sides, and then doing it again, but that just meant more jobs for my little helper, which she of course loved.
With the date paste saved in a separate bowl for later, Miss G added our coconut and pecans to the food processor. Call us lazy, but we didn’t even wash out the processor bowl in between as it seemed like sort of an unnecessary step.
Then we pureed the coconut and pecans until they were meal-like.
Next up, Grae dumped all of the other ingredients (save the raisins) into the food processor with the coconut/pecan mixture.
Then we processed it all until it started to come together in a mass.
Here’s what it looked like when done.
The last step was to mix the raisins in by hand.
With our dough complete, we rolled it into balls using about a tablespoon of the mixture at a time.
And because Miss G is no longer a huge fan of raisins, before mixing them in, we set aside a part of the mixture. To set Grae’s balls apart from the other, she rolled them in coconut, which was a lovely addition.
The verdict? Delicious! They’re sweet and satisfying just like a good dessert, but come sans all of the sugar and fat regular desserts have. A definite success!
Gracen and I have experimented with making many different versions of healthier peanut butter cookies – cream cheese ones, two ingredient ones, banana-based ones – but sadly, none have ever turned out really well. Late this afternoon, however, when she randomly declared that “We should make cookies! Yummy no sugar ones that Gracen can have – YEAAAAAAAAH!”, we came up with our first batch that actually taste like real peanut butter cookies. Only they’re much healthier. ☺ Here’s our new go-to peanut butter cookie recipe…
While I’m not ready to hand over the car keys or let her navigate her way across a busy road just yet, I am ready {and more than happy} to let her put together some of her own meals. Given the proper set up, it’s something she’s totally capable of and she’s so, so, sooo proud after having done so. A couple of days ago, she 
We’ve done this many times now, and what I’ve learned is that it’s best to let her create her pizza masterpiece directly on the parchment-lined baking sheet we’ll use to bake the pizzas. After that, I kind of just let her go. I’m a big fan of not directing our activities all that much (well except when it comes to safety, I guess), and really, it doesn’t matter which order the toppings go on in all that much. The finished product will undoubtedly be delicious no matter what. 
That being said, we’ve made 
Here’s her mini pizza, ready for the oven. I cook ours for about 5 to 8 minutes at 350 degrees, then crank up the temperature and broil them for just a minute at the end.
I can’t even explain how proud Miss G is after creating her meal on her own… She exudes pride. And my personal opinion is that when kids take part in creating food, they are much more likely to eat it.
The verdict? A total hit. A pizza assembling station is always a hit in our house. 
I’m well aware that many people may think I’m crazy, but recently, I’ve been helping Gracen learn how to safely use sharp knives while cooking. She’s been helping in the kitchen since shortly after her first birthday, and is becoming an expert pourer, mixer, peeler, and grater, so this felt like a natural next step. I fully subscribe to the notion that children, even wee ones, are very capable little human beings… More so than we often give them credit for. So, given her kitchen experience, her ability to follow instructions, and her generally cautious nature, I felt like she was ready. Plus, I sort of feel that being handed a cucumber to cut and a butter knife to do the job must feel a little insulting. 
Wouldn’t you trust this innocent little face? ☺
When she’s practicing her cutting skills, I like to give Grae my favourite tomato knife. It’s quite sharp, but it doesn’t have a pointed tip and it doesn’t seem to easily puncture the skin – perhaps because it’s serrated? I also make sure to give her soft foods that have at least one flat side (no rolling) and are long and thinnish (more space for holding).
So far, we’ve been focusing on holding the food at the far end and really being aware of where the knife is in relation to her little fingers.
This morning, while we were at the grocery store, I let Grae pick out what she wanted to cut. First on her list was cantaloupe.
She also selected a dragon fruit and a couple of kiwi fruits…
Perfect for a fruit salad! Overall, she’s doing really well with it. I still always stay close to her and monitor her chopping carefully, and I did ask her to slow down a little bit today, but for the most part, she can safely use a sharp knife on her own.
The best part is how proud she is of herself. Chopping up all the fruit for a big bowl of fruit salad while using a sharp knife = official big girl status. 
With 1/2 a crate of mango in the fridge and our supply of 
Here’s our lineup of ingredients… Pineapple chunks (we used frozen because it’s what we had on hand, but fresh would be even better), mango chunks, a lime, one ripe banana, coconut milk, and Grae’s addition – unsweetened shredded coconut.
We began by juicing our lime and threw both the juice and the pulp into our food processor…
Along with everything else, except the shredded coconut.
Then we blended everything up until completely smooth while this little monkey gave our food processor some love.
Next, we added the shredded coconut and gave the mixture just a couple of pulses to mix it in. At this point, we had a little taste test and decided to add in a teaspoon of good honey because our mango was very tart (totally optional, of course).
Now while it does mean dirtying another dish, I always like to pour our popsicle mixture into a large measuring cup before filling the moulds. It’s so much easier and quicker than clumsy me attempting to pour straight from the food processor. Of course, if you use a blender, this won’t be an issue.
After I fill the moulds, Miss G’s job is to place a ‘stick’ in each one. When she was done, she desperately wanted a popsicle to eat (particularly, “the green and blue one on the riiiiiight”) .
Luckily, the disappointment that came with me telling her they’d need to sit in the freezer for several hours first was kicked to the curb with the offer of drinking up the leftover mixture, smoothie style.
Healthy Tropical Fruit Popsicles
Yesterday, when I told Gracen that we’d be celebrating Papa’s birthday soon, the first thing she said was, “We need to make a cake!” Then she went on about painting him party hats and getting 3 pink gifts, but I digress. Originally, I was thinking about doing two cakes. Something delicious and wildly unhealthy from 
Here’s the lineup of ingredients my little sous chef and I used to make our mini mason jar cheesecakes… Sour cream, cream cheese, lemon zest, pure maple syrup, pure vanilla, almonds, an egg, and coconut. Plus the mini mason jars themselves, of course. 5 of these little jelly jars works perfectly with this recipe.
To make our crust, we added some coconut, some raw almonds, a little bit of pure maple syrup, and a little bit of pure vanilla into our food processor and blended until it was thick and sticky.
Then we scooped the crust mixture evenly into our 5 jars, and Miss G used a cork to flatten them out.
This was the end result.
With our crusts ready to go, we switched our focus over to the actual cheesecake part. First, we added our room temperature cream cheese and egg into our mixer and beat until smooth. 
Next we added our sour cream, pure maple syrup, pure vanilla, and lemon zest, and mixed again.
Baking is ridiculously fun, wouldn’t you agree?
With our cheesecake filling prepared, we poured the mixture evenly into our 5 mason jars.
Then we placed them into a high-walled baking dish, filled it halfway up the jars with hot water, and baked the entire thing.
When they’d finished baking, I topped the ones for Gracen and I with stewed blueberries…
And the birthday boy’s with deliciously naughty Nutella. Of course the options are endless really… Fresh berries, shredded coconut, sliced bananas, or mini dark chocolate chips would all make yummy toppings too.