Monday 16 September 2013

Party Food for Healthy Kids!


Another birthday has come and gone. I can't quite believe this has been the third time we've had a sugar-free healthy birthday party for our little man. I also can't quite believe he is EIGHT! How did that happen?! He has grown so much over the fantastic Summer and is really quite tall now. He looks so strong and healthy and tanned, its a joy to behold! He went back to school without any problems, he was really excited to see all his friends again, and he was really looking forward to learning more and doing more advanced maths, his favourite subject!

His birthday comes early in September so its always a bit hectic with the madness of getting them all back to school and then having to organise a party, especially organising party food, but somehow it all came together really well this year. Maybe, just maybe, I am finally getting a little bit organised. Probably just luck! This year we went a bit crazy and hired a bouncy castle for the first time ever. We're lucky to have a big back garden so we went for a BIG castle with a slide. It was SO much fun!! The faces on the boys when they saw it blown up were priceless! It was really wonderful. I even had a sneaky bounce and a few slides myself!

We've had a couple of parties over the last few years, where some of the invited kids were a bit disappointed when they arrived in to discover that there were NO sweets, NO crisps, NO fizzy drinks and not even ice-cream, so each year I'm trying to make a few more bits and make it a bit more like a regular party, without giving in to eating rubbish!

This year I made LOADS of mini-muffins. They were a big hit! I made chocolate flavour ones and raisin ones and there were only 2 left at the end of the day, which I promptly scoffed! I made the old favourites, toffee and the home-made chocolate. I had a display of dried fruit, which was also devoured. My fab sister made her famous gingerbread men cookies, all grain-free and sugar-free. And of course there was a fab cake covered in chocolate flavoured meringue icing. I didn't see any disappointed faces this year, so hopefully I got the balance right! Or maybe the kids were just too busy bouncing!!

GAPS/SCD Grain-free mini-muffins


60g butter, melted
3 eggs
100g honey
225g ground almonds
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt

For chocolate flavour muffins add 2 tbsp cocoa powder (be careful about using cocoa if you're on SCD/GAPS, we avoided it for well over a year)
For raisin muffins add a few drops of vanilla extract and 2 handfulls of raisins

Put all the ingredients into a large bowl, mix it all together with a hand-mixer for a minute or two, spoon into mini-muffin cases and bake for 12 minutes at 170, gas mark 3. Totally divine, easy-peasy, and very appealing to little ones, and their parents too!!