Cooking with Toddlers: Flower Petal Cookies

Toddlers love to pluck and pick things from the earth. I know because I have a bald apple tree. My dear little toddler has managed to pluck off the vast majority of blossoms from our beautiful apple tree. I also caught him “pruning” the lilac trees. And by pruning I mean ripping all the flowers, branches and leaves off.

Clearly Fig is into flowers.

In an attempt to quell his shrubbery inquisition (before I lost every single tree and plant in our yard) we decided to gather all our edible flowers and turn them into a cookie.

Most toddlers will be keen on flower gathering. It’s an easy way to involve them in the kitchen even if you don’t have the time or desire to involve them in the rest of the recipe.  It’s also a natural way to teach kids about flowers without actually any formal lesson. I explained to Fig that we only wanted the flower petals for this cookie; not the leaves, not the stems, not the sepals etc. After a bit, he got the hang of it.

You can use any edible flowers for these cookies. We choose lavender, calendula, lilacs, kale flowers ( also known as kale raab) and clover. A combination of fresh and dried will do just fine. Make sure you don’t put too much lavender in these cookies or they will start tasting like a face mask.

More information on edible flowers can be found here.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of edible flowers, dried or fresh.
• 1 cup of sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup of flax seeds
• 1/2 cup of hemp seeds
• 1 cup of almond flower
• 2 tablespoons of chia seeds
• 1/2 cup of almond milk ( any milk will do if you don’t have almond milk handy)
• 3 tbs of maple syrup
• 1/4 cup of coconut oil, melted

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 F
• Wash flowers well and pick off petals and place in a large mixing bowl.
• Combine flowers with sunflower seeds, flax, hemp, almond flowers and chia seeds. Mix well.
• Stir in the melted coconut oil, maple syrup and almond milk to the dry ingredients. Mix well.
• Line a baking sheet and spread out mixture to about 1/4 of an inch high.
• Bake for between 20-25 minutes; checking frequently to ensure the cookies are not browning too much. They should be lightly toasted.
• Cool, cut, and serve with tea.

Toddler Friendly Parts of this Recipe:

• Gathering edible flowers
• Plucking the petals off the flowers
• Measuring out the seeds
• Stirring the cookie mix

 

 

Cooking with Toddlers: Hemp, Tomato and Cilantro Salad

Fig usually doesn’t help me with salad preparation except when all other attempts to “inspire” him to eat his veggies fail. No matter how I serve , prepare, or disguise it, there are some vegetables that Fig won’t come within a mile of unless he’s preparing them. Case in point this amazingly delicious Hemp, Tomato, and Cilantro salad. Fig categorically rejects all things involving fresh tomatoes unless he’s chopping them. Something about slicing those babies in half makes them suddenly OK to eat.

So, on this particular day, when Fig had pretty much only eaten cream cheese and bread all day I decided it was time to bust out his kid friendly knife and do some veggie chopping for my most beloved of all salads. Of course, I had to redo much of his work ( toddler’s apparently don’t pay much attention to aesthetics! ) but he ate about 10 tomatoes and about $10.00 worth of hemp seeds ( an excellent source of omega fatty acids) so I was happy to oblige.

I make this salad in massive bunches on the weekend for weekday lunches. By Tuesday it’s certainly gone and I’m always looking forward to making it again on the weekend, it’s that good.

Hemp, Cilantro, and Tomato Salad:

• 1 cup of hemp seeds
• I dry pint of cherries tomatoes
• 1 cup of finely diced cilantro
• 1/2 a lemon’s juice
• 1 large garlic cloves, crushed into a paste with a pestle and mortar if possible.
• Salt to taste

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients together
• Try not to eat the entire salad in one sitting.

 

Baking with Toddlers: Bliss Muffins

True Life: My son’s a muffin addict.

In fact, several nights ago we awoke out of our sleep to the screams of “MUFFINSSSS!!!!” coming from my son’s bed. Upon closer examination, it was discovered that little Fig was having a passionate and vivid muffin dream. Muffins rock my little guy’s world and I’m happy to supply his daily fix.

In my attempt to make the healthiest muffins on the block, I stumbled across this recipe for “bread”. I’ve made several loaves, all of which were scrumptious but had no luck convincing the little guy to eat it. So, I’ve been experimenting with several different variations over the last few weeks. Eventually I decided to load it with dried fruit and make it into the revered muffin.

Nicknamed The Bliss Muffin ( for the bliss it supplies Fig), these Muffins are a great activity for little kids to participate in. In fact, muffin making in general is a quick, easy, and super fun way to get little folks into the kitchen. Just watch out that the batter doesn’t disappear before your eyes. All that goodness can be hard to resist!

The Bliss Muffin:

First and foremost, I suggest you check out the original recipe ( found here) and even make a loaf or two of bread.

Ingredients for 12 Muffins:

• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 cup flax seeds
• 1/2 cup of shaved almonds
• 1 ½ cup of rolled oats
• 1/4 cup of dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup of dried turkish apricots
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup of currents
• 4 Tbsp. psyllium seed husks
• 1 tsp. fine grain sea salt
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. maple syrup (for sugar-free diets, use a pinch of stevia)
• 4 Tbsp. melted coconut oil
• 1 3/4 cups / 350ml water

Fig thought adding a touch of Aloe soap might make this muffin recipe come alive! I persuaded him otherwise.

Directions:

• Combine all ingredients in a bowl ( except the water, coconut oil and maple syrup)
• Melt the coconut oil in a pot. Once melted, add the water and maple syrup to the pot. Mix well.
• Add the mixed coconut oil, water, and maple syrup to the rest of the ingredients and make sure everything is mixed well and thoroughly coated.
• Place batter in a muffin tin. Pack down batter as much as humanly possibly without the batter spilling over the top ( this is key).
• Let batter set in the muffin tin for at least 2 hours. The longer the better.
• Bake muffins at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.
• You’ll need to be very vigilant in watching the muffins to make sure they don’t over crisp.
• Leave muffins to cool. Again, the longer the better. I left ours overnight and was amazed at how structurally sound they were compared to other batches that fell apart much easier.

Enjoy!