HEALTHY Granola Bar Recipe!

GRANOLA BAR RECIPE FROM ALLRECIPES.COM - Great healthy snack for those HUNGRY MONSTERS!

Cranberry Nut Granola Bars

Submitted By: SeattleFarmersMarketGirl
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Servings: 24

Ingredients:
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup hulled pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup dried cranberries
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:
1.
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a 13x9-inch pan with lightly-greased parchment paper; an inch or so of parchment paper should stick up on 2 sides to form lifting handles.
2.
Mix the quick-cooking oats, old-fashioned oats, pumpkin seeds, almonds, mixed nuts, cranberries, and sweetened condensed milk together in a bowl; spread into the prepared pan, evenly pressing into the corners and out to the sides.
3.
Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden brown, 20-25 minutes, using slightly less time for chewier bars and slightly more time for crunchier bars.
4.
Allow the the bars cool for 5 minutes in the pan before using the parchment paper to lift them from the pan. Use a sharp knife to cut into bars. Let the bars cool completely and store in an airtight container.

GRANOLA BAR ADD-INS:
Substitute the seeds, nuts & berries in this recipe for any combination of the following:
Coconut
Chocolate Chips
Peanut Butter Chips
Mini Marshmallows
Dried Apples, Bananas, Cranberries, Raisens,
Peanuts, Almonds, Pecans, Cashews (chopped small or slivered)
Sunflower Seeds
Flax Seed
Wheat Germ

Toddler Friendly Dessert (that they can help make!)

This is the dessert we had for Valentine's Day that my toddler helped make (and enjoyed licking the spoon & bowl too)

JEllO PARFAITS

Stir together for at least two minutes:
1pkg jello (red for valentine's!)
3/4 cup boiling water

Add & Stir:
2 cups Frozen chopped Fruit (strawberries in ours)

Remove 1/2 cup of the fruit & jello mixture and add to a bowl with
1 cup Cool Whip

Layer in glasses or bowls the jello, cool whip, jello, cool whip.

Enjoy (they are so yummy!!!)

Baby or Toddler or Mommy Valentine Drink - Smoothies!

A Smoothie is a yummy treat for any age! We rarely (if ever) make these (I hate cleaning a blender!) so this is exciting for the kids.

It's yummy no matter the quantity of ingrediants you use, so here is my 'recipe':

2 small yoghurts
a cup 'ish' of frozen strawberries (or other fruit)
a banana

blend that on ice crusher mode

pour in a small amount of milk to get your desired consistancy.

Baby Friendly (well not newborn but the age that is eating solids!) too!

Edible Toddler Craft - Sugar Cone Christmas Tree

* Sugar Cones

* Green icing (could substitute coolwhip & vanilla pudding combo tinted green for a slightly less sugary icing)

* Various little candies, coconut, raisens, etc. (could substitute with fruit loop cereal)

* Sprinkles

Working over a paper plate: Spread the icing on the sugar cone.
Decorate your little Christmas Tree using the candies!

Edible Snowman Craft / Snack

Let's Make a Snowman Snack!

Sweet Version
Spread two Graham Crackers with Icing. Use raisens, marshmallows and small candies or small cereal to create the face and buttons.

Savoury Version
Spread round crackers with cream cheese. Use raisens and small bits of carrots, broccoli, celery etc. for the face and buttons.

CUPCAKE DECORATING IDEAS

These ideas compiled from a variety of magazines & online articles.

* FLOWER - Arrange cupcakes in a circle with one in the middle at the far side of a large platter. Use green construction paper to create a large stem & leaf.




* PIRATE - sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over white frosting and decorate with gold covered coins.

* PRINCESS - Pink frosting strewn with edible glitter and rose petals

* BABY SHOWER - Draw a baby face on each cupcake with icing, or simply pile up the frosting and stand a frosted animal cracker on top.

* BRIDAL SHOWER - Top with sugared edible flowers or candied fruit

* BIRTHDAY - Ice one letter on each cupcake and arrange to read "HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Child's Name)" on large serving tray
(I should have arranged this on a bigger platter to make it more flattering)



* SUNFLOWERS - Chocolate or yellow frosting with candy corn trimmed with a halo of orange candy corn 'petals'

* VALENTINE's DAY - Red Velvet cake with an inner core of chocolate and frosted with more chocolate. Top with candy hearts, kisses, or X's & O's.

* ST PATRICK's DAY - Green, Green and more Green.

*MUD / DIRT - Sprinkle chocolate frostinng with crushed chocolate cookies and have a candy worm slithering out of the center.

* EASTER - White cake and frosting. Cut marshmallows in half diagonally to form ears (frost the insides pink). Two more marshmallows make cheeks and a mini marshmallow cut in half makes bunny teeth. Use tiny candies for eyes; finish with a pink jelly bean nose.

* EASTER 2 - Sprinkle with coconut and nestle a few jelly beans in center

* HALLOWEEN - Ice with chocolate frosting and make spider legs with licorice and give them red cinnamon candies for eyes.

* DOGS / PUPPIES - Ice with chocolate frosting. Using crackers, one large brown candy and two smaller candies, and gel icing, create a puppy face.
(This was done for a Puppy Party my friend's 5yr old wanted)



* CHRISTMAS - Top with marshmallow snowmen, candy canes, or gingerbread figures.

* CHRISTMAS 2 - Ice half of your cupcakes in white and the other half in red. Alternate on large platter in the shape of a candy cane. *Option* Sprinkle them with crushed candy canes



* CANDY-TOPPED - Arrange candies on top in whatever design pleases you.

~~Decorate the tops with a variety of smarties or other small candy.


~~Arrange green & red smarties in a Christmas Wreath shape

~~Arrange gumdrops & jube jube in a flower shape (summer flower or Christmas Pointsettia)


~~Create a spider with black jube jubes and black licorice

If you are searching for a particular theme of cupcake, Google it! It's amazing all the ideas that are out there and many sites include the instructions on how to make it as well.

Disney's Family Fun Website: http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/specialfeature/cupcake-finder-birthday/

Toddler Birthday Party Food Ideas

This was our menu at our 2yr olds Birthday Party. The party consisted of many kids and their parent(s) too so needed foods for both age groups.

Pigs in a Blanket
(1/2 hotdog wrapped in 1/2 a Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough - bake at 350 for 10mins - I pre bbq'd the hotdogs a wee bit first)

Cheese Slices

Pickles

Kielbassa & Garlic Sausage

Carrots, Cucumbers & Ranch Dip

Grapes & Watermelon

Veggie Dip (combination of cream cheese, sour cream, ranch dressing, and small bits of carrots, broccoli, green onion, pinch of garlic)

Mexican Dip (layered salsa, guacamole, sour cream with some taco seasoning and topped with tomatoes, green onions, and cheese)

Crackers, Tortilla Chips, Baguette Slices for the dips

Pretzels

Jar of Peanut Butter for those hard to please kids

Cake & Ice Cream

*The pigs in a blanket were a huge hit with even the parents and were the first thing to get eaten up*

Peanut Butter & Banana Pancakes

I wanted to give my daughter a breakfast different from her usual few items. Pancakes aren't really a healthy breakfast so I thought this would improve its nutricious value.

*This is the recipe off the Bisquick box with a few changes*

2 cups Bisquick Mix
1 cup Milk
2 Eggs
2 Mashed Bananas

Mix all together. Heat griddle (Grease if needed). Pour 1/4cup batter in. Wait for the bubbles and then flip. A minute more (approx) and they are done!

Spread pancake with Peanut Butter and fold in half. Cut into triangles for an easy sandwich-style pancake!

My daughter loves them. For my husband and myself, we use the same batter but then do the tradational syrup & butter and it's still yummy!

Another Healthy Pancake idea is to slather with cream cheese (with a bit of icing sugar & vanilla mixed in), load on the berries, and roll up. Yum!

Recipe: Frozen Yoghurt Popsicle

1 1/2 cups flavoured Yoghurt
1 Banana
2 T Apple Juice

Mash Banana into the Apple Juice. Mix in the Yoghurt. Pour or spoon into popsicle molds.

*I always favoured grape koolaid popsicles as a kid but these are pretty yummy too and much healthier!*

Edible Peanut Butter Playdough Recipe

1 cup Peanut Butter (smooth)
1 cup Milk Powder
1 cup Oats
1/4 cup Honey

Mix all together!

(Makes enough for 3 kids to have a good size chunk to play & snack)

If you are tempted to add more dry ingredients, STOP! It needs to be a bit sticky and once it's all mixed thoroughly it won't stick to your hands.

**
This is my favourite edible playdough recipe. The majority of peanut butter playdough has icing sugar for the second dry ingrediant (rather than oats in this one) and since Peanut Butter is made up of lots of sugar, that is just way too much for my little one. This one is healthy and still quite yummy - trust me cause I like to eat it too!

link for ideas on tools & accessories with edible playdough: http://123mytoddlerandme.blogspot.com/2009/04/playdough-tools-from-around-house.html

Edible Playdough Recipes (without Peanut Butter)

Got these from http://www.familycorner.com/:

Oatmeal Play Dough
1 part flour
2 parts oatmeal
1 part water
Mix ingredients together and form into shapes.

Note: The items made from this play dough recipe can be painted when they are dry.

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Cream Cheese Play Dough
8 oz. package of cream cheese
1/2 cup non-fat dry milk
1 tablespoon honey

Combine cream cheese, milk and honey in a bowl and mix until well blended. Mold sculptures on was paper.

Storage: Unused portions MUST BE STORED in an airtight container and kept refrigerated!
Use the expiration date on the cream cheese package as your guide for how long you can keep this play dough.

Note: The shapes can then be placed on crackers or bread slices, decorated with edibles (celery or carrot slivers, raisins, dried fruit pieces, nuts, or seeds for a healthy snack... then eat!

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Chocolate Play Dough
8 oz. semisweet chocolate
1/4 cup plus one tablespoon light corn syrup

1. Melt the chocolate in a metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water (a double boiler). Stir the chocolate with a spoon until smooth, then stir in the corn syrup.
2. The chocolate will stiffen almost immediately but stir completely combined.
3. Transfer the chocolate to a sturdy plastic bag and refrigerate until firm; the consistency will be that of Play Dough.
4. When firm, the dough can be worked by kneading. If it is too hard, cut off small pieces and knead until pliable.
5. If the dough sticks to the counter when rolling, lightly spray counter or breadboard with vegetable spray or lightly grease with vegetable oil.
6. Hand shape the dough into a rope or braid, making two or three long ropes and twist or braid them together -- can be used as the outside edge on top of a cake or around the base.
7. Make ribbons to cover the cake. To do this, pat your dough into a disk shape and roll dough out to desired thickness using a rolling pin or else use a manual pasta machine.Flowers, too!

Storage: When not using, MUST be stored in an airtight container and refrigerate.

Utensil for Toddler

These spreader knives that you purchase for use with dips or cheese balls are great for a toddler to learn how to properly use a knife.

My daughter uses it to cut up her playdough and Ive also let her cut up her banana at snack time. They have no sharpness to them but will cut soft foods.

Toddler Snack Mixes

I like to make little containers of snack mixes to keep in my purse for long waits, appt's, etc.

The items vary depending on what's in the cupboard.
A little of this and a little of that!

• Teddy Grahams
• Fruit Loops
• Cheerios
• Raisens
• Pretzels
• Chocolate Chips
• Craisens
• Corn Pops
• Chex
• Cheese Nips
• Animal Crackers
• Smarties
• Pretty much any small cereal, cracker or candy.

Make Snacks or Meals Fun & Interesting

These ideas could be for a regular day, keep boredom away on snowy or rainy days, or use at a Birthday Party!


Serve in different containers.
- A muffin tin
- Ice Cube Tray!
- Veggie sticks in a cup – squirt of ranch dressing in the bottom to dip
- Snacks in a mug are easier for a small child to hang on to and seem unique
- Think 'outside the box', there's all kinds of containers in the house you could use probably.

Colour Themed Snack (Serve food of one colour) For example, a red snack would be strawberries, raspberry juice, bread with strawberry cream cheese

Coloured Bread: If you use a bread machine or bake from scratch, you can always add some fruit colouring into the dough ingredients to make a neat green bread (or whatever colour)

Make different shapes or animals with the snack:
**Pizza is great for making faces with the toppings (For a snack version, serve Pizza Toast)
**Ants on a log is classic (Celery with cheese whiz & raisens)
**Pancakes are easy to make into shapes – Mickey Mouse is a regular one. You can always use chocolate chips or fruit slices to enhance details.

Peanut Butter Toast with their initial on it made from raisens (Could also be done with Cheeze Whiz Toast & bacon or ham

Cut sandwiches with Cookie Cutters to create neat shapes. Make the sandwich after the bread is cut and then use the crusts for stuffing or bread pudding or dry out and pulse in food processor for bread crumbs.

Location: Why always be at the table?
Have a picnic on the livingroom floor on a blanket or table cloth.
Take the snack outside for a picnic
Set up a tent in livingroom or basement and enjoy snack inside
Make your dining table into a cave (throw large blanket or tablecloth on that hangs over sides) and dine inside
Head to the park and sit at a picnic table


Backwards Day: Have pizza (leftover) for breakfast and pancakes for supper. Not a new idea but telling the kids its a backwards day gets them all excited.


Maybe even claiming that supper is Snack Time for one night.