Tag Archives: kids making food

how to get your kids to drink more water

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Getting kids to drink more water might be a cinch if it was a beautiful colour like this magenta-tinted water.
And it’s all natural! No artificial anything.

Here’s how I do it:

Fill your container of choice 3/4 full with water (I like mine filtered).
Use some beet juice left over from juicing or grate half a small beet (save the grated beet for salad).
Add the grated beet to a small glass of water and swish it around a bit to release the beet’s colour.
Using a strainer and a funnel, pour the tinted beet water into your container of water.

That’s all there is to it!
This has been kid tested – they love the stunning colour and always ask for more.

You could also tint your water with a little red berry juice, but I think the kids love grating the beet and watching how it magically tints their water.

making corn salad with the kids at Leslieville Farmer’s Market

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Kid’s Corn Salad

3 cobs of cooked corn, kernels removed

1 small cucumber, diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 yellow zucchini, diced

1 green zucchini, diced

1 small red onion, diced

3 small tomatoes, diced

sprigs of fresh thyme, minced

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (use this instead of regular white vinegar because ACV is health promoting and a very good digestive aid. Use one with ‘mother’, such as Braggs or Filsinger’s – if you want more info on this, come visit me at the market, at the kid’s table and I can explain it in more detail)

2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)

Add everything to a large bowl and toss gently or do it à la Leslieville Market and add all the ingredients to a plastic bag and gently massage to incorporate all the ingredients.

We like the bag method because kids love adding all the ingredients to the bag and doing the massaging!

Seems that when kids make it – they eat it and love it! (some kids ate 3 bowls!)

Have you been to the Leslieville Farmer’s Market this year? Tell me what you think about the farmer’s, vendors, kids’ table, or your experience – I’d love to hear your feedback!

fixin’s for the corn salad

the corn’s ready to have the kernels cut off

corn kernels in the bowl, ready to add the fixin’s

‘massaging’ the salad to mix all the ingredients

Xav is a big helper, getting the corn ready for cooking

YUMMY! loving the corn salad! have to get every last kernel

a bag + some beans + kids = bean dip (and loads of fun!)

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What a great day we had on Sunday making bean dip with the kids at the market!
A few simple ingredients turned into plenty of laughter, good fun and even some delicious bean dip. The kids were so into it, smashing the beans in the bag as well as the garlic in the mortar and pestle. 
Who knew that just a few simple, whole food ingredients could turn into such an adventure! 

Here’s how we did it:

  • we used a few cloves of peeled garlic (we were so lucky that we had garlic from The Cutting Veg – it was Persian garlic, they grow approximately twenty varieties from various places in the world), with a bit of salt and  the kids smashed it in the mortar and pestle to make a paste
  • then the kids added between 5 and 10 spoons of cooked navy beans into a large ziploc freezer bag
  • to this we added some olive oil and the garlic paste
  • in went some herbs and other ingredients (I’ve listed the recipes below) and the smashing began. There were some great sound effects and karate chops as the kids smashed all the beans until no beans were visible
  • the bean dip was emptied from the freezer bag into bowls and everyone enjoyed some samples, dipping cut vegetables into the dip
The basic recipe:
all the recipes included:
garlic (a few cloves and a sprinkle of salt smashed into a paste)
olive oil (about 2 tbsp.)
cooked navy beans (about 1 cup)
For dipping we used:
cucumbers
cherry tomatoes
yellow and green zucchinis
red, yellow and orange bell peppers
The variations:
Bean Dip #1 – the peach adds a nice natural sweetness
fresh, chopped basil (about 3 large leaves)
1/4 of a fresh peach, diced
Bean Dip #2
fresh, chopped sage (about 3 leaves)
1/4 of a fresh yellow pepper, seeded and diced
Bean Dip #3
fresh, chopped oregano (1 large stem, leaves removed)
2 inches of cucumber, diced fine
4 cherry tomatoes, diced fine
rounded out with a few sprinkles of cherry wood smoked sea salt (optional)

preparing the vegetables for dipping

let the smashing begin!

sampling the bean dip

more sampling

the bean dip