Tweet your way into spring with this cute little salad!
Ingredients:
Happy spring!
As a mom of vegan kids, my biggest goal is to make sure they never feel left out. This means I come prepared with vegan pizza slices and cupcakes to every birthday party we attend, stock my son’s preschool cabinet with vegan cheddar squares and rice cereal bars, and happily go out of my way to try a new recipe or test a new vegan meat on the market.
But one item we haven’t been able to replicate was goldfish crackers. Until now! These snacks are ubiquitous, and Travis has been asking about them, so I special ordered a little goldfish cookie cutter. Turns out the crackers are a cinch to make, and now he can have them at snack with his school buddies!
Ingredients:
Note: The original recipe said to roll the dough 1/8-inch thick, but ours was closer to 1/4-inch. Honestly, we preferred the results, with crackers that were a little chewier and a little less cracker-crispy than actual Goldfish.
It’s the tail end of maple sugaring season, something Travis and I got to check out in person last year, helping to collect sap from a spile! So we decided to feature maple syrup in tonight’s dinner, to celebrate the tail-end of winter.
Ingredients:
When you’ve been having a whale of a good time with your Baleen Whale crate from Kiwi Co., you continue the fun with these adorable whale bread rolls. These would be fantastic in a bento box, if you’re into lunchtime art!
To start, Travis made ovals about the size of his fist from store-bought bread dough, which we arranged on a baking sheet.
Shape smaller portions of dough into the fins and tails. (Note: he had trouble shaping the tails, so I made a rough V-shape for each, which he stuck to the whale bodies).
Next we pressed a raisin into each “whale” for an eye; make sure to press these in quite deep, or they will pop out during baking.
Use kitchen scissors to snip a small slice into the front of each whale, and pull open slightly to make a mouth.
Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes.
Let cool, then poke a hole in the top for each blowhole – a straw worked nicely.
As the finishing touch, I cut Daiya cheese sticks into small slices, and divided these into thirds to be the spouting water; carefully insert one water spout into each blowhole.
Thar she blows!
Of all the Raddish Kids lessons we’ve enjoyed thus far, the suggested “Kitchen Brigade” unit to go with our Croque Monsieur Sandwiches was the hardest to adapt for a preschooler. It involves learning and identifying the different jobs within the classic French kitchen hierarchy, and was a stretch to make this material accessible to my four year old.
Instead, I turned the focus onto him being a chef… with his own chef’s hat (toque) of course!
First, cut about 3 feet of parchment paper. Travis was really into the feel of the paper, since we don’t use it very often. “What’s this?” he asked, delighted.
Fold up accordion-style, then unfold; your paper now has a pleated look.
Tape two sheets of regular white paper together for the base of the hat.
Fold in half, then in half again, and open back up. Fit the parchment paper into this base, and staple closed at the ends and middle.
Gather together the top of the parchment paper, and tape to secure.
Now fold the whole hat inside out, tucking the tapered point inside. Staple together (make sure the hat will fit your child’s head before stapling), and voila!
Note: If the directions are hard to follow, you can get a visual of the project here.
Next my little chef de cuisine and I did sit down briefly to discuss kitchen roles. I simplified greatly, selecting 6 jobs for him: chef de cuisine, sous chef, patissier, aboyeur, line cook, and plongeur (dish washer).
There are multiple games that big kids can play by making flash cards for each of these jobs (plus many other roles): memory games; charades; role playing; or “who’s the boss,” (i.e. knowing the order of the kitchen hierarchy. Rather than play a true memory game, I simply had Travis name each job while looking at the flash cards we made, and tell me which job it was.
In this way, at least he knew 6 kitchen roles, and roughly their hierarchy, since we numbered them 1 through 6.
Overall, I doubt he took much from the lesson… But he did like his toque!
Start your Valentine’s Day on this sweet note with hearts for breakfast! Or, serve these adorable sandwiches for a Valentine’s Day tea time.
To start, use a cookie cutter to cut heart shapes from slices of white bread.
In a bowl, Travis mixed a few drops of red food coloring into Daiya cream cheese; stir until you have a pretty pink.
We spread half of our hearts with the pink cream cheese (which Travis thought was frosting, so much the better!), and the other half with strawberry jam.
Serve to someone you love! A great little recipe suggestion from Ranger Rick Jr.
In the February issue, Travis’s High Five magazine gave us pretend hot chocolate … But real orange juice! Travis had an absolute blast with this easy squeeze-your-own project.
First, he helped me peel two big oranges. He was very interested in the peel, and what it felt like, since normally I present him with oranges already cut up.
Next he proudly put all the orange wedges into a large zip-top bag.
Seal the bag tightly, making sure the air is out, and then squeeze! Travis went wild with the squishing and mushing.
Once it looks like you have enough juice in the bag, place a strainer over a cup. Let the juice trickle into the cup, reserving the solids in the sieve. Travis was very pleased about this step, since he always tells people he doesn’t like orange juice with pulp.
(Note: we found that it was easier to get the last of the juice out of the orange segments squeezing them directly in the strainer, rather than still in the bag).
Time for a taste test!
Travis loved it, deciding it was kind of sweet, and the freshest orange juice he’d ever tasted.
Next we got a little scientific with the project, wondering what would happen if we squeezed a grapefruit instead. Travis surmised that since the grapefruit was bigger, we’d have more juice.
Ding ding ding! He was correct.
Thanks for the great burst of citrus on a cold winter’s day, High Five. This was such a neat way to show kids where their boxed juices come from.
As an expansion to our French-themed Raddish Kit, Travis and I headed off with a scavenger hunt card to discover some of the most common ingredients in French cooking.
On the way there, I gave Travis a quick lesson on French food shopping. Having spent time in the country, I eagerly told Travis how different types of ingredients were sold in different markets. So although we were headed to a big grocery store, we still shopped department by department!
First up was the produce, or what might be found in a village marche (farmers’ market). Travis was very proud finding mushrooms, the first item on our list.
We also picked up a number of spices, including fresh tarragon, rosemary, and thyme. Take the time to savor the smell of these!
Bread would have been purchased at the boulangerie of course, and Travis loved pulling a long baguette from the bread counter. And although we didn’t buy it, he had fun stopping by the cheese counter (fromagerie), since we’ve never paused to look at such a display together.
He was so proud holding up our list once everything had been checked off!
Let’s face it – mornings are crazy, amiright? High Five magazine must know it, because Travis’s January issue featured a great recipe that kids can help make the night before. Shake up these no-cook oats, and they’re ready to go for breakfast!
Ingredients:
In the morning, simply uncap the jar and voila – breakfast is served. You can serve cold like muesli, or warm it briefly in the microwave.
Travis doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to receive a subscription to Raddish Kids as a gift this holiday season. Having gotten a sneak peak, I’m already impressed with the company. A suggested further activity from his upcoming December package was a holiday cookie swap. I instantly knew I wanted to make this happen, but it had to be quickly, even before he opens up his first box on Christmas morning. Could we pull off a cookie swap in just a few days? Yes!
First, we decided on a date for the party, then downloaded the invitation template and sent off to a few buddies. Come to Travis’s cookie party!
The day of the party, we set our computer to play holiday tunes…
…and added festive decorations around a cookie table, including garlands, pinecones, and various crafts we’ve made this holiday season.
We offered 4 kinds of cookies to our guests:
Peppermint Chocolate Brownie Cookies
and Snowball Cookies
Now it was time for guests to arrive, each bearing their own plate of cookies!
I recommend keeping things manageable – 3 to 8 friends, depending on your child’s age and the size of your home. Older kids may want to do an organized tasting, sitting down and rating each cookie. Little kids just loved running around and occasionally stopping to chomp a cookie! Meanwhile grown ups got to sit around, enjoy sweet treats, and chat.
As a couple of extras, we also added gingerbread men ice cubes to fruit punch for the kids, and I provided gift bags for everyone to take home the cookies they wanted.
This was an absolutely perfect afternoon – I’m so thankful to Raddish for a suggestion I’d never have come up with otherwise, and can’t wait to see what Travis receives in his official first December kit. You can be sure there will be a blog post about it!
joyful parenting 