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...

Spelt, Beetroot and Walnut Chocolate Brownies

It is school holidays here and the kids love to eat a lot, cook alot, do fun things, explore, run amok,  and did I mention eat a LOT?

The recipe below has been one of their favourite picks these holidays.

Spelt, Walnut & Beetroot Chocolate Brownies

We  made these brownies right after the grand opening of Coles in Nambour, yes, I was made delighted to go down for all the face-painting, balloon blowing, stilt walking, live music, games, colouring in, ring tossing and fun and festivities after my kids discovered everything that was going to be happening down there.

I have to be honest and say we were a bit disappointed with the main lift not working and traipsing across to the next one and then all the way around to the said open new shop and through non automatic doors (you notice these things pushing a pram or trolley) and we had been hoping to see more specialty stores, when it is not so busy I would recommend parking up the top rather than underneath if you have a pram, I think a lot of Nambour and surrounds was excited and eager to see what specialty stores were going with it, I was naturally hoping for a kitchen ware shop ;) I can't say I am a huge fan of the design of these shops being wrapped around outside in the heat instead of inside a shopping centre design with air con, I don't tend to browse a lot when we are all hot but I am very happy to see Coles is moving with times and taking great strides like teaming up with WWF to source and supply sustainability caught seafood.
And we were all very impressed with Not Just For Kids entertainment that was put on and the general atmosphere was great and staff were very happy and friendly, it is good to see more jobs in the region and growth in Nambour.

Couldn't believe she stayed so still!

Lily is always a fan of free balloons and promotional giveaways!

AND I was very surprised and happy that this Coles had a lot of organic and healthy food items that you just don't often see in such a large supermarket chain store and at very family budget friendly prices, which when you are on a tight budget can make a big difference to what you can actually buy and make for your family each fortnight.
The organic, wholemeal spelt flour in a large bag I was very happy to see and it was that we used for these brownies.

Spelt, Walnut & Beetroot Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

• 2 cups wholemeal, organic spelt flour
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 4 free range eggs
• 1/2 cup raw honey (or to taste)
• 1 cup walnuts, roughly smashed - see notes
• 200g dark chocolate of choice - see notes
• 1 cup firmly packed grated, raw beetroot
• 1/2 teaspoon pink himalayan salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• baking paper - I use If You Care non toxic baking paper

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 180ç. 
• Grease and then line a suitable baking dis with baking paper.
• Over a low heat melt the chocolate and butter together. (You can of course do this double boiler if you want too but I find over a low heat as it is with butter (and as a busy mum) I often just do it this way).
• Remove from heat.
• Stir honey into chocolate mixture.
• In a large bowl combine the spelt flour, salt, baking powder.
• Add in the eggs, mix together.
• Mix in the walnuts and beetroot.
• Combine it all together and pour into the prepared tin.
• Bake in the oven for approximately 25 minutes or until nice and golden and firm on top but you want the skewer to come out a little sticky in spots so that your brownies are still lovely and chocolately gooeyness in some places but still quite firm. Sometimes ovens vary so a lot will depend on how yours cooks too.
• Allow to cool slightly on a wire rack, cut into squares.
• My kids especially liked theirs drizzled with Maleny Dairies fresh, nothing added real cream, by themselves and with a chocolate sauce.

Notes

• You don't want to over-smash your walnuts as you want mostly crumbly with some bigger chunks through it.
• Use your preferred dark chocolate, you could even use Sweet Williams sugar free or an organic bitter dark - just remember to taste your batter in case it is not sweet enough if the chocolate is really bitter- unless you like it that way!
• Use a GF flour to make these gluten free.

Happy Cooking!

Bek XX

Note: this was not a sponsored post

Earthy Fun With Kids

Earthy Fun With kids

Step away from the TV, the game console, the dvd's.

The best fun to be had these school holidays is OUTSIDE

Not only is outside play FUN and best of all generally FREE it teaches kids about their environment, the natural world, creative play, active play and uses their imagination.

Combine their play with some educational follow on and it becomes a live science lesson.

We spent the morning in the garden the other day, tying up some wayward snow peas, fertilising, sowing some seeds and because our garden is organic admiring the bugs, we have a wide variety of bugs and insect activity, the majority of them are very amazing to look at.

After Lily discovered a beautiful beetle that she was very taken with, using her imagination she decided to build a house for the beetle in what became a gorgeous afternoon of artistic play, even after the beetle had long since flown off!

She spent ages constructing her very cute little house and was so enthralled we decided to follow up the following day with a trip to the library and look at some books on insects, such a simple, fun activity to do with your kids.

Some other great ideas for some earthy fun these holidays are:

• Make a mini garden where they can plant some easy things like lettuce and spinach seeds, alyssum and lobelia, marigolds.
• Create a leaf collage.
• Make a fairy garden.
• Set up a worm farm or compost system together.
• Visit a national park and take the time to find out what some of the trees and birds are within it and see if you can all spot any of them.
• Visit a local mountain if you have one. Learn its name and how high it is, make an adventure of the day.
• Pick a bird species of your local area and go bird spotting, research them for the older kids, draw them. You can even do this at home. Record what birds you see each day and how many each day.
• Write your own nature story. Get the kids to pick a nature animal or insect and create a short story around it and illustrate with their own pictures.
• Create a mini pot plant garden - these are great for kids of all ages and easy to manage. You can even often pick up second hand pots at recycle centres, garage sales.
• Plant a sensory garden with plants of all different textures and smells and experiences so children can learn as they explore. Some great plants could include lamb's ears, a wide variety of herbs, cousin it plants, different textured low ground covers - take the kids to a plant nursery and let them choose a plant each that they find fascinating. Take some cuttings together, collect and plant seeds.
• Growing veggies with kids
• Make a dry creek bed area in your garden for lizards and frogs. After construction make a log book to record any visitors they see. They could draw them or photograph them. 
• Go on a bug hunt. Explore the backyard and find 5 different bugs. Draw or photograph them and then go to the local library and look them up to identify them. Fine out what they are, what they eat and what they do, bugs are fascinating and some are very cool critters indeed! Even older kids will be amazed at some of the facts about them, some of the gory habits!
• Build a frog pond, learn what some native grasses are that you could plant around it, look up together what frogs need to be healthy and happy and what types of frogs are in your area.
• Grow something edible like Growing Your Sprouts 
• Finding a kids gardening activity in your local area, comunity gardens often have kids programs.
• Visiting a community garden.
• Visiting a botanical garden.
• Go on a neighbourhood explore and see who can name the most plants, trees and birds that they see. Again another great one for a log book, drawings and photos.

There is also a fantastic KIT now available especially for kids is at www.planet-eco.com.au - look out for my review coming soon!! It is really beautiful and a perfect Christmas Gift idea.