Healthy Chocolate Coconut Banana Muffins

2 / 24 / 131 / 6 / 14

One of the little traditions we do on Gracen’s half birthday (ohmahgerd, I have a two and a half year old) is make a fresh batch of muffins (aka ‘cupcakes’) to top with freshly whipped cream and candles later in the evening. So today we used our usual no sugar added banana muffin recipe, tweaked it just a little bit, and came up with these delicious chocolate coconut creations. They are super yummy and truly do feel like a cupcake instead of a healthy muffin… Especially if you add the dark chocolate chips I added to the adult half of the batch (with which I doubt they can be remain in the ‘healthy’ category, but hey – I try my best). ☺

Here’s the recipe…

Healthy Banana Chocolate Coconut Muffins

4 large ripe bananas
1 organic egg
1/3 cups of coconut oil
2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons of cocoa
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla

1 1/2 cups of wholewheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut shavings
dark chocolate chips (optional – we used 1/3 of a cup in half the batter)

Preheat oven to 350° . Prepare a 12 cup muffin pan by brushing it with coconut oil.

Mix the bananas, other wet ingredients, and cocoa until the mixture is mostly smooth and only slightly chunky. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients (save the coconut and chocolate chips) well. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Slowly stir in the coconut (and chocolate chips if adding them). Fill greased muffin tin with the mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool.

Enjoy!

Berry Jello Play Dough

2 / 16 / 132 / 20 / 13

A couple of days ago, Miss G and I experimented with making a couple of changes to our scented Kool-Aid play dough. I don’t know if Kool-Aid is just on the way out (surely it should be ☺), but our grocery store only stocks a few colours. So as an alternative, we decided to give Jell-O crystals a shot.

We followed our original scented play dough recipe *almost* exactly, but added a packet of Jell-O mix instead of Kool-Aid mix.

We also added some fine glitter because…. Well, because Grae said so. That’s why.

We mixed everything up and added our wet ingredients, going a little bit easier on the water this time. While we absolutely loved our Kool-Aid play dough and it kept great when somewhere cool, we did notice that it got a bit mucky when stored in a cupboard near one of our heat vents, so hopefully the reduced amount of water will help fix this problem.

The result was a soft, smooth, yummy-smelling play dough that Miss G was just dying to get her hands on.

We made two batches, one raspberry, one strawberry, and added some cookie cutters, a mini rolling pin, and a mini baking pan for a fun creative table set-up.

{No-Cook} Berry Jell-O Play Dough

1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of table salt
1 packet of Jell-O (we used the sugar kind)
1 tablespoon of cream of tartar
1 teaspoon of glitter (if desired)

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of glycerine (optional and readily available in the first aid section of most grocery stores)
3/4 of a cup of boiling water

Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add wet ingredients, saving the boiling water for last. Add the water and give the mixture a few quick mixes, banging off your whisk every once and a while. Leave the semi-mixed dough on the counter to cool. Once cooled for about 10 minutes, dump the mixture onto the counter and knead really well. Knead for about 3 minutes, or until the dough smooth and well-blended.

Enjoy!

♥

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Toddler Food: What Miss G Eats {27 – Valentine’s Edition}

2 / 14 / 132 / 18 / 13

Breakfast // Heart-shaped wholewheat flax oat pancakes with a tiny drizzle of pure maple syrup. Strawberry hearts.

Special drink // Frothy strawberry milk (made with freeze-dried strawberries) with heart-shaped milk ice cubes.

Lunch // Veggie and wild rice soup with heart-shaped carrots (aka “love soup” according to Grae).

Dinner // Roasted veggie and feta pizza on a thin wholewheat crust.

♥

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Valentine’s Day Slime Favours

2 / 5 / 132 / 11 / 19

Okay, so not the most traditional of Valentine’s Day treats, but when you ask a two year old what she wants to give her friends for Valentine’s, you have to be open to the suggestions. And those just happen to be heart wands and sparkly slime this time around.

Luckily, fun-to-play-with slime is a cinch to make and requires ingredients we always have around the house. Plus, we’re slime experts after whipping up 50+ slime treats this past Halloween.

Detailed instructions can be found here, but basically all you have to do is mix the glue, glitter, food colouring, and some of the water together…

And the other bit of water with the Borax separately.

Then pour the two mixtures together, knead it together a bit…

And watch oozy gooey slime form. It’s honestly so easy that Miss G can do almost everything (save the measuring) on her own.

For packaging, we like using these 125 ml mason jars because they’re the perfect size and can be reused for something else afterwards (plus they’re pretty cute!)

Filling the jars with was Miss G’s favourite part of the process this time around, especially when she discovered that she could create all kinds of silly noises by forcing the slime down into the jars.

Though she’d asked for red slime with red sparkles, this is what our finished product looks like {even after using a half a bottle of liquid food colouring}. Luckily the pink and red combo is perfect for the occasion and Miss G was pleased with how it turned out.

For the tops, we created simple paper circle inserts that include a little ‘Valen-slime’ saying and a sparkly red heart. Here are a few close ups…

‘Be mine, Valen-slime.’

‘Be my Valen-slime.’

‘Will you be my Valen-slime?’

Surely we’re the first ever people to give out slime on a holiday centred around love and friendship, but who wants to be run of the mill anyways?

Want to make your own? Download our printables here:

Printable Valentine’s Day Slime Favour Labels

Sparkly Slime

(This is essentially the exact same recipe we used last time, but in a bigger batch. This recipe yields 24 – 26 mason jars of slime – perfect for a class of kids – or in our case, 12 mason jars and a big batch to use for sensory play.)

3 cups of white glue (approximately 6 regular sized bottles)
2 1/4 cups of hot water
1 1/2 teaspoon of fine glitter
food colouring (as much as desired)

1 1/2 cups of hot water
3 1/2 teaspoons of Borax

Combine the first set of ingredients until the mixture is smooth and free of glue globs.

In a separate measuring cup or bowl, combine the second set of ingredients until the Borax is dissolved into the water.

Slowly pour the Borax mixture into the glue mixture, stirring as you pour. When the slime comes together in a large mass, knead it for a minutes until if is soft and stretchy.

Package in pretty little mason jars and gift to friends.

A few helpful tips:

While clear glue with work just fine for this recipe, environmentally-friendly versions will not. Trust me. We tried it. TWICE.
If your finished slime seems too stiff and not soft/stretchy/runny enough, add some really hot water to it, knead it in vigorously, and let it sit a few minutes. The texture will improve greatly.
Borax is a laundry booster and can be found near the bleach/stain remover/oxy clean in most big stores.
If you wonder about the safety of using Borax with children (as I did) this post is helpful.

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{AMAZING} Ice Cream Dough

2 / 1 / 133 / 6 / 14

This afternoon Gracen and I tried out a new sensory material originally created by Jessie of Play Create Explore (if you’re a parent and haven’t checked out her blog before, you definitely should – she’s got hundreds of sensory play ideas, fun bath ideas, and tons more) and it was AWESOME.

The ingredients seem a little strange, but they work perfectly together to create a hard ice cream-looking texture. The main two ingredients are cornstarch and conditioner – yes, hair conditioner – the cheapest variety you can find. The other stuff is just food colouring and cheap imitation extracts to make it look and smell more like real ice cream.

We decided on making 3 ‘flavours’ (coconut, strawberry, and hazelnut), Gracen started us off by putting an equal amount of conditioner in 3 bowls.

Then she added our food colouring – none for coconut, red for strawberry, and a combination of red, green, and yellow for the hazelnut.

Then she added a generous pour of extract into each of the bowls…

And mixed them up.

One thing I will say is that we should have spend a little more time looking for an unscented {or at least a very lightly scented} conditioner. At $1.28, the price was certainly right, but the strong ‘fresh’ scent gave our imitation extracts a serious run for their money. Even something food scented would have been better… Next time we’ll look for something of the strawberry / coconut / mango variety.

Next up was the messy part… Mixing the cornstarch into the conditioner mixture.

After gently folding and blending the cornstarch and conditioner together, this was the end result.

Isn’t it crazy how much it looks like REAL hard ice cream?!

Here’s a close up view.

And as long as it’s handled like hard ice cream usually is (not rolled or smoothed over too much – thanks for the tip, Jessie!), it scoops perfectly – just as ice cream does. ☺

We followed Play Create Explore‘s ratios exactly, so please visit the original post here. The amounts we used for these batches, along with details on the colouring and extracts are as follows:

Coconut Ice Cream Dough

1/2 cup of cheap hair conditioner
1 cup of cornstarch
1 tablespoon of imitation coconut extract

Strawberry Ice Cream Dough

1/2 cup of cheap hair conditioner
1 cup of cornstarch
6 drops of red food colouring
1 tablespoon of imitation strawberry extract

Hazelnut Ice Cream Dough

1/2 cup of cheap hair conditioner
1 cup of cornstarch
4 drops of red food colouring
4 drops of green food colouring
12 drops of yellow food colouring
1 tablespoon of imitation hazelnut extract

Enjoy!

See how we put our ice cream dough to use in our pretend play ice cream shop.

♥

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{Heart-Shaped} Wholewheat Cheese Crackers

2 / 1 / 139 / 22 / 13

Today Gracen and I whipped up a batch of what is easily her most loved treat in the entire world – our homemade version of the classic ‘fishy crackers’. Though I’ve shared this recipe before, I thought I’d share it again as we did things a teeny bit differently this time around… Plus, this heart-shaped version would make a perfect treat for Valentine’s Day.

First off, our ingredients… We used the usuals, but tried using a coarse stone ground wholewheat flour, replaced the cheddar with Colby and fresh parmesan, and added some basil into our spice mix.

Then my little helper dumped everything together.

Instead of mixing everything in our mixer like we have in the past, this time we did it in the food processor I got for my birthday. It definitely allowed the dough to come together more easily, and as guessed, adding a touch of water wasn’t necessary in the food processor.

With all of the ingredients well mixed, we dumped everything out onto our workspace and used our hands to form it into a large mass.

Then we patted it down by hand, covered it with parchment, and rolled it out nice and thin.

It must be all the talk about Valentine’s Day festivities, because Grae chose a heart-shaped cookie cutter this time around.

We cut out endless hearts, carefully lifted them with the flat edge of a butter knife, and transferred them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

We popped them in the oven, and in no time, we had crispy, tender crackers that are full of flavour and free of preservatives.

See our original recipe here.

Wholewheat Cheese Crakers

2 cups of Colby cheese
1 cup of fresh parmesan
8 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon of cayenne paper
1/8 teaspoon of dried basil
1/8 teaspoon of sea salt (optional)

1/4 cup of warm water (if mixing by hand or using an electric mixer – not necessary in a food processor)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine all ingredients and gently form dough into a ball.

Sandwich dough between two layers of parchment and roll it out to 1/8 of an inch thick. Form shapes with a cookie cutter, dipping it in flour from time to time if needed. Gently transfer crackers to a parchment-lined baking sheet using the flat edge of a butter knife if needed.

Bake the crackers for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are just barely browned at the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Enjoy!

♥

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Toddler Food: What Miss G Eats {26}

1 / 31 / 139 / 16 / 13

The one question I get asked as a mom, far more than anything else is, “How do you get Gracen to eat the way she does?” And the usual follow-up questions include, “Has she always been open to trying new foods and flavours?” and “Is there anything she doesn’t like?!”

While I’ve given my take on it here and there in the comments sections of my Toddler Food posts, I’ve never included the answer in an actual post because the truth is, I don’t really know how she became such a good eater. {And perhaps I’m a wee bit afraid of talking about it too much and jinxing it all. ☺} Is it because of the way we introduced food to her? Is it because of the way we currently handle meal times and eating in general? Was she just born a good eater? Likely it’s a combination of all of those things… But I can’t be sure.

That being said, since I continue to get requests for eating tips each week, I’m going to share what we did and what works for us.

It all started while I was pregnant actually… Other than the first few weeks, I had a really good pregnancy. I felt well and could eat {small portions} of anything I wanted (other than meat) without feeling sick, so I made sure to nourish our growing baby the best I could while she was still in the womb. Right away, I cut out all refined sugars, caffeine, and unhealthy fats. I filled my diet with healthy fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans and nuts, and ate a variety of flavours, spices, herbs. (Did you know that your baby tastes the flavours of what you eat through the amniotic fluid? They do! Cool, eh?) And I continued to do the same once she was born so that she’d still be experiencing a wide variety of flavours through the breast milk she was drinking.

When she was 6 1/2 months old and we decided to introduce solids, I made all of her food at home and included those same herbs, spices, and flavourings she’d already become accustomed to into her first foods (bananas with cinnamon, carrots with dill, spinach with nutmeg, and curried chicken were some of her favourites). During our brief time with purees, I also made sure to vary the textures of the foods so that everything wasn’t always just smooth – some were slightly chunky, others were quite chunky, and she got used to them all from the get go.

After eating purees for about a month, we basically transitioned her over to a baby-led weaning style of eating. I ensured that our food was fresh, flavourful, and full of variation, as well as free of salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats, and she began eating chunks of our family meal (no separate “kid food” here!) from about 7 1/2 or 8 months on.

There have definitely been things she hasn’t liked along the way. Potatoes (of any sort) were a big flop for a long time, she had a short stint of not enjoying cheese, and she’s never liked raw tomatoes (but then again, I don’t blame her for that one – they’re one of the few foods I despise also!) Right now, she’s not a fan of raw leafy greens though she happily ate them from the age of 1 until just after 2. Do we force her to eat the things she doesn’t like or want? Absolutely not. But we don’t stop offering them either. To this day, I’ll still put a grape tomato on her plate if they’re part of the meal we’re eating. And no, she never eats the whole thing, but sometimes she does try them, which is just fine with me.

There are a few other things we do that I think help Miss G to remain a good eater… First off, she’s involved in a lot of the cooking and food prep in our house, and I always feel like kids are more likely to eat foods that they’ve helped make. Secondly, I make one meal and we all sit down and eat together as a family. No Gracen eats first and we eat once she’s in bed, no separate kid meal, and no television on during meals. She sees us trying new things and she’s usually happy to try them too. And lastly, and I hope it doesn’t sound too harsh, there’s no other option available if you don’t want to eat the meal that’s been prepared. She never has to eat if she doesn’t want to, but we won’t give her a bowl of yogurt or a banana or something else in place of the meal she has in front of her. If she wants to be done and hasn’t eaten a whole lot, we simply save the meal for her to come back to later when she’s feeling hungry.

Now we just have to hope that I haven’t jinxed it all and she continues to be a fantastic little eater. ☺

Alright, so after that long-winded explanation, here’s some of what our little lady has eaten lately…

Breakfast // Wholewheat bagel with cream cheese and avocado slices. Kiwi slices. Red grapes.

Breakfast // Baked blueberry oatmeal with organic milk.

Breakfast // Wholewheat oat flax pancake. Scrambled eggs with garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and feta. Plain organic yogurt.

Breakfast // Organic multigrain cereal with hemp hearts, chia seeds, frozen blueberries, and organic milk.

Breakfast // Toasted sovital with all-natural peanut butter. Banana coins. Honey mandarin.

Breakfast // Scrambled parmesan basil eggs. Panfries. Honey mandarin. All-natural chicken sausage.

Snacks {on the go} // Raw almonds. Fresh avocado. Red grapes. Snap peas. Old cheddar. Organic wild rice sticks.

Lunch // Wholewheat rotini with toasted almonds, sautéed spinach, and feta.

{Weekend} Lunch // Assorted crackers with baked garlic and sun-dried tomato brie. Avocado, Asian melon, and celery with mediterranean hummus. Kiwi quarters and pomegranate seeds.

Lunch // Organic egg salad in a mini wholewheat pita. Carrots, snap peas, peppers, and avocado with all-natural dip.

Lunch {on the go} // Peppers and carrots. Baby mandarin. “Lulu mix” (almonds, kamut puffs, organic raisins, freeze-dried raspberries, and organic o’s). Almond butter and hemp hearts on wholewheat pumpkin seed yogurt bread. Cheddar cubes. Black beans.

Lunch // Harvest grains. Sauteed kale. Grilled chicken breast. Steamed beets.

Lunch // Spicy tomato soup with fresh parmesan and parsley. Multigrain crackers. Carrot sticks and humus.

Lunch {on the go} // Boiled organic egg. Tofu cubes. Plain yogurt with cinnamon. Apple sandwich with almond butter, chia seeds, and old-fashioned oats. Pepper strips. Avocado.

Lunch // Tuna salad and sprouts on flax seed bread. Avocado. Apple and kiwi slices. Baby mandarin.

Lunch // Black bean veggie quesadillas. Kiwi slices. Watermelon spears.

Dinner // Mulligatawny soup. All-natural turkey, spinach, colby, and avocado on multi-seed bread. Cucumber slices.

Dinner // North Shore Mama‘s salmon tacos. (YUM!)

Dinner // {Turkey} Lasagna soup.

Dinner // {Turkey} Shepherd’s pie.

Dinner // Israeli couscous with steamed veggies and feta. Grilled chicken breast.

Dinner // All-natural apple chardonnay chicken sausage. Steamed broccoli. Dilly carrots. Roasted potatoes.

Dinner // Ravioli with a spicy cream sauce. Coleslaw with fresh herbs and sunflower seeds. Veggies and humus.

Dinner // Brown rice with steamed veggies and tofu.

Dinner // Potato and leek soup. Spinach salad with edamame, avocado, and sunflower seeds. Grilled white cheddar on Ezekiel 4:9 bread.

Dinner // {Take out} Thai green curry on coconut rice.

Dinner // Grilled chicken with tzatziki. Garlic and parmesan roasted Brussels sprouts. Roasted baby potatoes.

Dessert // No-sugar peanut butter chia cookies.

♥

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Apple Pear Carrot Fruit Leather

1 / 25 / 138 / 27 / 13

After getting our batch of banana berry fruit leather in the oven, Gracen and I decided to give round two a go, this time with a different combination of ingredients…

We had a couple of bruised pears that I really wanted to use, and while digging in the fridge for an apple, Grae suggested carrots too (sure, why not?) We added the other half of our lemon to the mix and called it good.

This batch took a wee bit more prep than the last one. Grae peeled carrots {ever so cautiously}…

While I prepped the apples and pears (I peeled the apple, but not the pears).

When everything was ready to go, my little sous chef added the produce to a big pot…

And attempted to squeeze the juice from the lemon. (Her exact words just before this shot was taken were, “Com’on, lemon… Why you not working??”)

Then she poured in some water (quite a bit more than with our first batch because carrots don’t produce their own juice while stewing).

Then we popped our pot on the oven, put a lid on it, and let everything simmer for about half an hour on medium heat.

It looked absolutely horrible when it was done cooking (like some kind of veggie stew gone terribly wrong), but smelled delicious.

During the stewing process, my little girl helper was replaced by this equally cute kitty helper. Luckily, she likes to help just as much and saw to it that our mixture was pureed perfectly.

Then we poured it out onto a parchment-lined sheet.

This time we were a little more careful to make sure the mixture was an even thickness all over the base of the pan. Then it was into the oven on the lowest temperature.

After eight hours, we had a lovely sheet of fruit leather.

Once again using kitchen scissors, I cut the sheet into strips…

And rolled it up using strips of parchment paper and baker’s twine.

And though our berry banana version is very tasty {despite being a tad over dried}, I think these are even better. They’re sweet and flavourful and have just the perfect bit of tartness.

Gracen seems to agree. She gobbled up this entire strip in 3 minutes flat and promptly asked for another.

Carrot Pear Apple Fruit Leather

2 Red Anjou pears
3 large carrots
1 Granny Smith apple
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 cup of water

Peel the carrots and peel and core the apple. Put all of the produce into a large pot along with the water and the juice from the lemon. Cover the pot and stew the fruit/veggies on medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool a while.

Pour the stewed fruit and veggies into a blender or food processor and puree.

Pour the pureed mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and use a spatula to evenly distribute the mixture over the base of the pan. Bake at 150 degrees for about 8 hours, removing it from the overn when the leather is no longer sticky to the touch.

Peel away the parchment paper and cut into strips using kitchen scissors or a pizza cutter.

Enjoy immediately or roll using parchment strips and baker’s twine and store in an airtight jar.

♥

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Berry Banana Fruit Leather

1 / 25 / 138 / 1 / 13

One of the few ready-made packaged foods I buy now and then is organic all-fruit fruit leather strips. They’re a very special treat for Miss G and I don’t feel horrible about letting her have one once and a while (as long as her teeth are brushed extra well that day), but I’ve always known that I should probably be making them at home instead. Recently, our local grocery store stopped restocking their organic fruit leather supply (I think they’re getting rid of the current stock and then no longer carrying them) and they were down to just two lonely strips on our last visit. It was the perfect push I needed to try making my own.

Today I asked Gracen if she’d like to try making some fruit leather of our own, and she responded enthusiastically with, “Sure! Purple ones.” so I decided we’d try a berry variety first. Since we don’t really buy many berries when they’re out of season, we went with what we had in the freezer – strawberries, raspberries, and wild blueberries. Plus an apple and half a lemon for texture and a little kick.

As we were prepping the fruit, which really only consists of peeling and coring the apple, we decided to add a banana in the mix for sweetness.

With all of the ingredients ready to go, Gracen popped them into a large pot…

Then squeezed the lemon on top…

And added a little bit of water.

Then we popped the mixture on the stove to stew over medium heat for a while.

About a half hour later, this is what we had.

We let it cool for a little bit and then dumped it in the food processor to puree for a bit.

With our mixture nice and smooth, we lined a baking sheet with parchment paper…

And poured our berry mixture on top.

Using a spatula, we spread the mixture out to cover the entire base of the pan (on our next attempt, I’d spend a little more time getting it as evenly as possible) and put the pan in the oven on the lowest temperature.

Eight and a half hours later (yes – it takes a long time!) this is what we had.

We carefully peeled off the parchment paper…

And then I used kitchen scissors to cut it into strips.

A little parchment paper and baking twine later, we had our own homemade {and healthy!} version of a Fruit Roll-Up. ☺

Banana Berry Fruit Leather

1 cup of raspberries, frozen or fresh
1 cup of strawberries, frozen or fresh
1 cup of blueberries, frozen or fresh
1 ripe banana
1 Granny Smith apple
juice of 1/2 of a lemon
1/3 cup of water

Peel the banana and peel and core the apple. Put all of the fruit into a large pot along with the water and the juice from the lemon. Stew the fruit on medium heat (uncovered) for 25 to 30 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool a while.

Pour the stewed fruit into a blender or food processor and puree.

Pour the pureed mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and use a spatula to evenly distribute the mixture over the base of the pan. Bake at 150 degrees for 8 to 9 hours, removing it from the oven when the leather is no longer sticky to the touch.

Peel away the parchment paper and cut into strips using kitchen scissors or a pizza cutter.

Enjoy immediately or roll using parchment strips and baker’s twine and store in an air-tight jar.

♥

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Toddler Food: What Miss G Eats {25}

1 / 18 / 131 / 19 / 13

Breakfast // Organic shredded wheat cereal with hemp hearts, frozen blueberries, fresh raspberries, and organic milk.

Breakfast // French toast (made with omega seed bread) with plain organic yogurt, frozen blueberries, a TINY drizzle of pure maple syrup, and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Breakfast // Wholewheat cinnamon raisin English muffin with all-natural peanut butter. Kiwi slices. Fresh raspberries.

Breakfast // Parmesan basil scrambled eggs. Homestyle potatoes with onions and peppers. Flaxseed toast.

Breakfast // Wholewheat raspberry scone. Kiwi slices. Fresh raspberries. Raspberry tea.

Breakfast // Flaxseed toast with all-natural peanut butter, chia seeds, and hemp hearts.

Breakfast // Wholewheat ‘Gracen’ pancakes.

Lunch // Southwest turkey chili with sour cream. Avocado couscous salad.

Lunch // Black bean veggie quesadilla on an Ezekiel 4:9 tortilla with sour cream and fresh avocado.

Lunch // Parmesan and avocado toast. Carrot sticks and hummus. Apple slices.

Lunch // Wholewheat elk pasta with baby peas, edamame beans, and fresh parmesan.

Lunch // Chicken, tofu, and veggie stir-fry on fresh rice noodles.

Lunch // Curried tuna and apple salad on a tomato wrap. Red pepper slices. Roasted squash.

Lunch // Potato and leek soup with chickpeas and veggies. Wholewheat naan.

Dinner // Wholewheat spaghetti with spicy turkey tomato sauce and fresh parmesan. Roasted Brussels sprouts.

Dinner // Creamy corn and veggie soup. Multi-seed flatbread with humus.

Dinner // Harvest grains, steamed veggies, and sesame tempeh.

Dinner // Parmesan and walnut encrusted chicken. Roasted Brussels sprouts. Roasted golden beets with feta. Cheese ravioli with herbs and spices brought home from Italy.

Dinner // Tuscan sausage soup with shell pasta, spinach, and white beans. Parmesan rye spears.

Dinner // Homemade pizza (BBQ chicken and roasted veggie and feta).

Dinner // Wholewheat penne with tomato basil turkey sauce and feta.

♥

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Grae’s Favourite GREEN Smoothie

1 / 17 / 131 / 17 / 13

I know that green smoothies may seem a little trendy with all of the New Year’s resolutions happening right now, but the truth is that they’re really easy, really healthy, and pretty much a fool-proof way to start your day.

Grae and I have been making green smoothies for a long while now (and even made one with all green ingredients for last year’s St. Patrick’s Day), but I decided I’d make a habit of making one each morning after slipping into a routine of skipping breakfast for the last couple of months of 2012. So far, we’ve pretty much started each day of the New Year with a green smoothie of some sort (we often just add a couple of giant handfuls of kale or spinach to this trusty standby), but this particular one has quickly become our very favourite.

Here’s the lineup of ingredients… Some cold water, several ice cubes, pure orange juice (or better yet – a fresh squeezed orange), half an apple, a pear, a banana, and a few kale leaves.

To get started, peel the banana, chop up the pear, and peel and chop the apple (as long as you don’t mind some added texture, feel free to leave the apple peel on).

Now pop those things into the blender {while sneaking a few bites of course}.

Next, remove the stems from the kale.

And add it to the blender along with the orange juice, water, and ice cubes.

This part isn’t necessary and certainly doesn’t change the flavour, but we always add a big scoop of chia seeds to our smoothies. The nutritional benefits of chia are amazing and it keeps your smoothie from separating if you store extras in the fridge overnight. Bonus!

Next, blend everything up. We normally start on a low setting until the ingredients are combined, then crank it up and let it blend a while longer so that it doesn’t feel as though you’re drinking a salad. ☺

(If you really don’t like the idea of drinking leaves and want your smoothie to be as smooth as possible, blend just your liquids and leafy greens first, then add in the other ingredients afterwards.)

Now pour into cups and enjoy!

Gracen’s Favourite Green Smoothie

1 banana, peeled
1 ripe pear, chopped
1/2 an apple (we usually use Galas, Ambrosias, or Fujis), peeled and chopped
3 big leaves of kale, stems removed
1 tablespoon of chia seeds

1 cup of cold water
1/2 cup of pure orange juice (or the juice from 1 large orange)
4 ice cubes

Add all ingredients to a blender and blend for approximately 45 seconds.

Enjoy!

♥

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Baked Chicken & Bean Burritos

1 / 16 / 1311 / 3 / 13

Tonight Gracen and I whipped up one of our easy family favourites for dinner. I’ve been asked for a detailed recipe for these baked burritos time and time again, but to be honest, they’re so easy, a recipe isn’t really required. There are tons of different possibilities, but we keep ours very simple…

First off, our usual list of ingredients… Wholewheat tortillas, shredded chicken breast, refried beans (you can easily make your own or look for the can with the lowest sodium – some are though the roof with salt), cheese (in this case an all-natural vintage white cheddar, but colby, jalapeño jack, and mozzarella work well too), and salsa verde (or ‘green sauce’ – I always pick the one with a short list of wholesome ingredients).

All it really takes is layering up the ingredients on the tortillas. First up – the refried beans. We use a heaping scoop per tortilla and spread it out across the centre of a tortilla using the back of a spoon.

Next, we take a little bit of shredded chicken breast and distribute it over the beans. Be sure not to over fill the tortillas – you want them to roll easily at the end.

Next, add a tiny sprinkle of cheese.

And if desired, add a couple of jalapeño peppers to each shell (we leave a couple without for Miss G).

That’s it. Now gently roll up the tortillas and place them in a glass baking dish, lining them up tightly, one next to the other.

Eight burritos should fit perfectly in your dish.

With the burritos finished, pour the salsa verde evenly on top.

How much salsa you use just depends on how saucy you want the dish. We normally use between 1/2 and 3/4 of a jar so that all of the burritos have some salsa on top, but are not fully covered.

Last step – sprinkle a small amount of cheese on top of the salsa.

Ready for the oven!

Bake until the filling is piping hot and the cheese is melty, then allow the burritos to broil for a couple of minutes so that the cheese becomes golden and the tortilla edges begin to get crispy.

Top with avocado chunks, green onions, or fresh cilantro (or better yet – all 3) and serve with a side of sautéed veggies and/or rice.

Baked Chicken & Bean Burritos

8 small wholewheat tortillas
1 can of refried beans
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 cup of cheese (cheddar, colby, jalapeño jack, or mozzarella)
1/4 cup of jalapeño peppers, if desired
1/2 to 3/4 of a jar of salsa verde or green sauce

burrito toppings (avocado, green onions, fresh cilantro, sour cream, etc.)

Lay out the tortilla shells and add a strip of refried beans to the centre of each shell. Top the beans with some shredded chicken and a big pinch of cheese. Add jalapeño peppers if desired.

Carefully roll the tortillas and place them in a glass baking pan close to one another.

Top with the desired amount of salsa verde and the remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, then switch the oven over to broil and let the burritos crisp up for another couple of minutes.

Add toppings and enjoy!

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Healthier Crispy Rice Treats

1 / 13 / 131 / 11 / 14

I don’t know why, but lately I’ve had a real hankering for Rice Krispie treats… Of course I could have easily whipped up the classic butter and marshmallow version I grew up with, but number one, I wouldn’t feel good about letting Miss G try one (which is slowly becoming the determining factor of whether or not any of us should eat particular foods), and number two, have you ever read the ingredient list on the side of a bag of marshmallows?! It’s not good.

So today Miss G and I set off on a little mission to create our own healthier version.

To be honest, I really had no idea if it was going to work. My thought process went something like this… Hmmm… I guess I could replace the butter with a nut butter (still lots of fat, but good fat with some added nutrition mixed in). Then I could replace the marshmallows with a more natural sticky sweetener (Maybe maple syrup? Honey? Brown rice syrup?) And the regular Rice Krispies cereal could easily be swapped for a sugar-free crisp brown rice cereal. It at least sounds like an okay plan, right?

In the end, I decided to go with cashew butter… It’s light, has a mild flavour {that is almost mallowy}, and is super creamy. As for my sweetener, after a bit of online research, I decided to go with this brown rice syrup. I haven’t used brown rice syrup a whole lot in the past, but that’s only because I hadn’t yet done my research. What I found out is that brown rice syrup is a natural sweetener produced by fermenting cooked rice and treating it with natural enzymes from sprouted barley. It’s about half as sweet as sugar, has a mild flavour, and is thick and syrupy (somewhere between pure maple syrup and a good honey). The benefits are that it has a low glycemic value, and it’s a good source of minerals and minor nutrients. Sold. In order to add just a touch of sweetness, we added a little bit of pure maple syrup, and pure vanilla is a must in almost all baking projects in our house.

So there you have it – crisp brown rice cereal, brown rice syrup, cashew butter, pure maple syrup, and pure vanilla – and all were available in our nearby {regular} grocery store.

Just for fun, we decided to make our treats in individual portions using a muffin tin, so Grae prepared the tray ahead of time by lightly brushing on some grapeseed oil.

Now for the actual cooking part… First, we put our brown rice syrup to a large pot…

Then we added our cashew butter…

And a little bit of pure maple syrup for sweetness.

Then we transferred the pot over to the stove and stirred the mixture over medium heat until it was hot and liquidy, but not bubbling.

Next, we added a good amount of vanilla, gave the mixture another quick stir, and removed it from the heat.

While you could just as easily dump your cereal into the pot and dirty one less dish, we opted for dumping our cereal into a large bowl and pouring the mixture on top so Miss G wouldn’t have to worry about the hot pot during the mixing process.

Then we mixed everything up until the cereal was evenly coated with the gooey mixture.

Working quickly, I filled each cup with a heaping scoop of crisp rice mixture.

Then we placed a large sheet of parchment paper on top and pushed the mixture down firmly into the cups.

Voila!

After a little bit of time in the freezer, I used a butter knife to pop out our treats.

The verdict on Miss G’s first ever crispy rice treat? She LOVED it.

We all loved them in fact. They’re soft and gooey just like regular Rice Krispie treats, with a similar flavour that is just slightly more caramely.

The true determining factor of success? Brad {my sometimes picky husband who doesn’t always love the ‘weird food’ G and I cook} announcing that he likes them just as much as the classic variety, only to later decide that he thinks he likes them more. Score. ☺

Healthy Crisp Rice Treats

1/2 cup of organic brown rice syrup
1/2 cup of cashew butter (or your favourite nut butter)
1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup

1 tablespoon of pure vanilla

4 cups of organic sugar-free crispy brown rice cereal

Measure the brown rice syrup, nut butter, and maple syrup into a large pot. Warm over medium heat, stirring almost constantly. When the mixture is hot and liquidy (but not bubbling), add the vanilla, give it another quick stir, and remove the pot from the heat.

Add in the crispy rice cereal and mix well to ensure the cereal is evenly coated with the sticky mixture.

Dump the mixture into a parchment-lined baking pan or scoop into a greased muffin cups and press it down firmly. Pop the pan into the freezer for about 15 minutes to allow the treats to set.

Enjoy your much healthier crispy rice treats!

♥

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Strangley Delicious: {Vanilla Maple} Snow Ice Cream

1 / 9 / 131 / 14 / 13

I’ve seen snow ice cream floating around the web a lot lately (like here, here, and here)… Some recipes use eggnog, some use sweetened condensed milk, some use vanilla pudding powder, and others use raw eggs. The trouble is that I wouldn’t feel good about giving any of those things to my little lady. So today we set off to create a healthier version. (It would have been a shame not to with all of this snow we’ve been getting in the Okanagan!)

I’m happy to report that the end result turned out wonderfully! It was sweet, creamy, and delicious – a perfect afternoon treat.

Here’s our line up of ingredients… Cream, vanilla almond milk, pure maple syrup, pure vanilla, and some really good cinnamon.

Oh, and a bunch of this – light and fluffy freshly-fallen snow.

To get us started, Gracen poured both the cream and vanilla almond milk into a large mixing bowl.

Then she added some pure maple syrup…

Some pure vanilla…

And a few pinches of cinnamon.

Then she stirred everything up.

The next step involved adding the snow.

The monkey requested a mitten in order to get the job done.

With all of the ingredients added, it was time to mix, mix, mix.

We found that alternating mixing with a sort of mashing motion worked really well and broke up the clumps at the same time. Here’s what our batch looked like once it was ready.

To serve it, I added a little sprinkle of cinnamon (Miss G loves it and it has great health benefits, so we add it to a lot of things) and topped it with a pecan.

Not only was it delish, but it was a really fun snowy day activity.

Vanilla Maple Snow Ice Cream

3/4 cup of vanilla almond milk
1/4 cup of cream
1/4 cup of pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla
a couple of pinches of cinnamon

6 cups of freshly fallen snow

Add the milk, cream, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon to a large mixing bowl and stir well. Add the freshly fallen snow and mix until all ingredients are evenly distributed and clumps are broken up.

Enjoy!

A couple of quick tips based on our experience…

You do have to work a little bit quickly in order to prevent the snow from melting and turning your ice cream into soup. If needed, you might be able to buy yourself a few minutes of extra time by placing your large mixing bowl into an even larger bowl lined with ice.
This ice cream is best made and served fresh. After a few hours in the freezer, ours pretty much turned into an ice block.
If you don’t have snow where you are, processing ice cubes in a blender or food processor until fine is a fairly effective way of making your own snow.

♥

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Candy Cane Epsom Salt Sensory Play

12 / 4 / 1212 / 9 / 12

Last night, I sliced my finger open {after my very favourite ever vintage mixing bowl fell from our infamous mountain of clean, drying dishes and shattered all over the floor *sob*}. As I shuffled through our catch-all closet to retrieve the first aid kit, I stumbled upon a giant bag of forgotten about epsom salt. And that’s how this random little sensory activity began. ☺

Having used regular salt {on trays} for drawing and letter printing practice in my classroom many times before, I knew that epsom salt would be just as fun. But to amp it up a little and make it more festive, we decided to turn out plain old epsom salt into the candy cane variety with a little peppermint extract and food colouring.

Of course my little helper did most of the work.

To get started, we measured out a couple of cups of epsom salt into a zip-close bag (you could easily use a jar instead – it just requires a little more shaking power).

Then we added a spoonful of peppermint extract. And because this was the white batch, zipped up the bag tightly…

And shook it up.

We repeated the process twice more, this time adding food colouring into the mix. The end result was a tray of minty fresh, candy cane-coloured epsom salt just begging for little hands to play with it.

I gathered up a few spoons and some silicon muffin cups, and Miss G retrieved some Christmas cookie cutters.

Then she got to playing.

First up was making “pucktakes” (cupcakes according to our silly little girl).

Of course pucktakes need candies and cherries on top, so off she went to collect some buttons.

This simple little sensory station kept her happily engaged while I made dinner and washed a big load of dishes, plus our whole kitchen smelled deliciously of peppermint.

And the fun didn’t stop there… When bath time rolled around, Miss G picked her very favourite epsom salt cupcake to take along with her.

(The really neat part is that if you let the salt sit in the silicon cups overnight, they harden and become little pucks that are easily portable to and from the bathtub.)

Candy Cane Epsom Salt