Teaching Green Smoothies to Happy Kids in Foodie Fun, with a Smothie Bike at Kawana Library

Foodie Fun the event was called and it certainly was!

On the school holidays I had the delight of teaching a really fun school holiday cooking class with the Kawana Library as sponsored by Community Solutions.
I believe the greatest gift we can give our children is the tools to live a healthy, happy life and the very best way of doing that is by making healthy living and healthy eating a fun, enjoyable experience.
When given the chance to cook, grow food and exercise in fun ways kids blow you away with their enthusiasm, their excitement and ability to get involved.
They never cease to inspire me!
I was absolutely delighted to be asked to teach a group of kids some healthy cooking recipes over the school holidays.
And no, I am not about "hiding' veggies from them, they were all on display for them all to see, to touch, to smell, to taste if they wanted too. How it should be.
We need to give kids the chance to really experience their fruits and vegetables, to grow them, to source them at markets, supermarkets, to prepare them and cook with them, to eat them in many different ways. To learn about them, enjoy them. Not just have them hidden in their nightly meal.
This, I believe is the true way to get kids eating healthier.
Inspire them.


What did we make?

We made delicious healthy chocolate bliss balls!















We made lovely pretty in pink smoothies.
And we made, what ended up being the absolute favourite of the whole class, yep everyone was unanimous!
GREEN SMOOTHIES....
Yep all 20 kids booked in for the school holiday cooking class with me at Kawana library, knowing full well as they made batches themselves too, that it contained spinach and kale, absolutely loved the green smoothies!!

The whole smoothie making experience was such a highlight of the whole event, especially with the generously supplied SMOOTHIE BIKE, invented by a very forward thinking Sunshine Coast Council and able to be loaned by community events and groups.

 The genius smoothie bike!
Sunshine Coast council created fun and healthy inspired living 

I have taught a lot of cooking events and classes and I have to say that teaching kids warms your very soul.

My gorgeous little helper, my miss 8!

 Putting in the miles for the smoothies!

Yes, there is already more events on the cards! And I have been so excited by the feedback from parents telling me their kids asked for all the ingredients to go out and make them at home, one family even had to go and buy a blender they told me! So thrilled they were that their child willingly wants to eat spinach and kale! I tell you working with great kids like these guys, seeing them enjoy healthy food and have fun making it literally fills you with JOY!

Absolutely kid approved Green Smoothies
(otherwise known as incredible hulk, goblin green or green lantern superhero smoothies in our house ;)

Ingredients:

(serves 4 big glasses or 6 smaller glasses)

·        1 cup dairy/soy, rice, coconut milk

·        1 cup vanilla yoghurt (we used Maleny Dairies a local producer here as i am a huge supporter of shopping local - you could also use, natural, greek or coconut yoghurt)

·        2 kiwi fruit, skin removed

·        1 large mango ( You can use frozen if fresh out of season)

·        2 bananas

·        1 cup washed baby spinach leaves

·        ¼ cup washed kale
Dash vanilla paste

·        Fresh mint and sliced kiwifruit to serve/decorate (optional)


I find with my two kids that a green smoothie packed full of goodness is perfect for them for breakfast, neither of my kids likes a big, heavy breakfast so a filling and health packed smoothie serves them well, sometimes they have toast, porridge or other things with it sometimes just a smoothie.
At home I also add in extras sometimes like oats, coconut oil, super greens powder , superfoods for kids cberry blast or berry choc chunk - click on my affiliate picture below to check these gorgeous goodies out!
(PS the cocobiotics bars are incredible! ;) )
These powders are so amazing and are completely natural, no hidden nasties! My kids would eat them out of the jar given half a chance...

Edible Sunshine Coast Maroochydore with Maleny Dairies

Recently I had the absolute delight of spreading the local love and presenting a series of EDIBLE SUNSHINE COAST events, right across the coast.

Supporting local businesses in something very close to my heart, it is why I enjoyed teaming up with outstanding local supermarket Maleny IGA so much to create the recipes for their unique, collectible local product local recipe - recipe cards.
(You can find these in store.)

It combined two of my great loves, 

food and community spirit.

Thanks to the Sunshine Coast Libraries I was able spread the messages of eating local through these events, events where I would talk about and showcase locally produced food products.

The range we have here on the coast is simply outstanding. So much talent and creativity. All of the local products I displayed are available from the Maleny IGA who even have their own unique labeling system making it easier for shoppers to buy local. I served  the audience 2 of my recipes from the Maleny IGA recipe card series.
The Buffalo Haloumi Spelt Sour Dough Salad and the Custard Apple Coconut Crumble which was served at every one of these events with beautiful Maleny Dairies custard, yoghurt and THE BEST cream I have ever used. Seriously this cream is so natural with nothing added or watered down that it is that thick you can literally hand whip it and it has this deliciously real yellowy glow to it.

The crowd were delighted to be able to talk to a Sunshine Coast producer about their products, the lovely Meg from Maleny Dairies was a real hit with the audience and enlightened us all about things like permeate and what can be added to the cheap commercial milks you buy from the supermarket. The great thing about Maleny dairies is too that they not only are a local producers but they work with so many Sunshine Coast family farmers and employ so many Sunshine Coast people and are a family business too.

Their cream goes perfectly with the custard apple crumble!

 Real milk

 Sweat Pea the cow with her calf

Maleny Dairies don't just produce dairy products they also have a factory and farm you can visit, farm tours the kids will love and a cafe to relax at and take in the rolling green hills and picturesque township of Maleny.

To find out more about them visit http://malenydairies.com/

Thank you for having me Maroochydore Library and thank you everyone that attended, I enjoyed meeting you all very much.

And of course on top of the product information and talk on why it is so great to eat local and the taste testings we had lucky door prizes too, generously donated by local sunshine coast producers including the famous and extremely well received at all the demonstrations Pomodora's dressings, the stunning Noosa Chocolates who not only donated prizes but also individual chocolate taste samples for ALL participants and of course lovely, fresh Maleny Dairies products 

Happy Cooking!

Bek xx

Edible Sunshine Coast - Caloundra

Eating local is...
Exciting, fresh, supportive and makes you feel good too.

The Sunshine Coast where I live, is home to some very talented local producers indeed.
We have locally made products like milk, yoghurt, the best cream I have ever tried, cheese, olives and olive products, preserves, chocolate, nuts and nut products, nut pastes, tempeh, salad dressings that are to die for, olive oils, avocado oil, flavoured oils, beautiful breads, buffalo haloumi cheese, cordials, ginger and ginger products, coffees, teas, seafood, African spice and sauce blends, spices, chick pea and broad beans "chips", jams, preserves, gluten free products, pastas, gorgeous fresh fruits and vegetables, beautiful chopping boards and even natural dishwashing liquid just to name some of them!

Almost a year ago I teamed up with a very exciting and innovative supermarket, Maleny IGA to use these amazing local products and create unique recipes around them that they published on recipes cards for their customers and were also introduced through fun taste testing events in store each month which were all received with great success!

I have been delighted to further promote these recipes, what the Maleny IGA does and the EAT LOCAL movement through the Sunshine Coast Libraries and a series of Edible Sunshine Coast events where the audience hears all about local products, why it is so fantastic to eat local, how it has a ripple benefitial effect through the whole community and supports local families and jobs and all about the extensive range carried by the Maleny IGA as one of the region's greatest supporters of local businesses.
 The audience also gets to taste test some goodies and 2 of the recipes!
Like the Custard Apple Coconut Crumble served with gorgeous Maleny Dairies cream and custard brought to each demonstration by the lovely Meg! Who is a fountain of knowledge on dairy and a huge favourite with the audience!

Meg

The Custard Apple Coconut Crumble

It was wonderful seeing the audience enjoy the food
Aamongst them was the lovely Karen from Wholistic Evolution

and the Sunshine Coast's own inspirational Yummy Mummies!

 And to end on a really high note we had some lucky (and very happy) winners of some fantastic prizes like gorgeous Maleny Dairies products, a beautiful locally made Fab Slabs chopping board and the sensational Pomodora's dressings

It was a wonderful morning full of the buzz for local food,

Thanks you so much to everyone that came and to the Caloundra Library for hosting us!
At the date of posting this one there are just 2 Edible Sunshine Coast events left! Nambour and Noosa, unfortunately Noosa is fully booked out but you can leave your name in case of cancellation and still get one of the last spots at the Nambour HERE

EAT LOCAL

Rebecca x
A big thank you to: