I’ve been thinking about the best way to celebrate the holidays here at Foodie Tots. It seems that there are already gift guides galore for every man, woman, child and pet on your list, and no shortage of holiday cookie recipes to choose from. As I began hunting for healthier toddler-friendly holiday treats, it occurred to me that I could share with all of you some of my favorite fellow Foodie Mamas (and Grandmas, Dads, etc.). I am delighted that one of my new favorite bloggers, Jenna of Food with Kid Appeal!, agreed to guest post here with some advice on giving your favorite holiday treats a healthier twist. In addition to being mom to two young boys, ages 2 and 4, Jenna is a nutrition educator and her blog is filled with tips for getting your kids excited about the nutritional aspects of their food — who couldn’t use advice on that? Thanks so much, Jenna, for sharing your advice! Be sure to bookmark her blog, and follow her on Twitter.

Tips for Baking Healthier Holiday Treats

Baking sprees are going on in many homes around the holidays. More candy, cakes, cookies and treats are available at school, at parties and at home for your kids to nibble. So how do you make sure they get enough “grow” food during the holidays? Can a treat be healthy? Healthy isn’t the right word, but you can add some “good” to that bad carbohydrate treat. Here are some tips to make tasty treats a little better for kids, when you’re doing the baking. By adding fiber and/or protein you can make those treats a little easier on your little one’s blood stream.

Healthy add-ins for holiday treats:

• Ground flax seed (fiber and protein), substitute ¼ cup for flour, or use as an egg substitute.
• Chopped nuts (fiber and protein) add them into batters or sprinkle on top. Walnuts have omega 3s, why not boost brain function while we indulge in treats?
• substitute ¾ cup, plus 2TBS whole grain flour for one cup white flour (fiber and protein)
• choose recipes that call for whole grains: oats, whole wheat fiber (fiber and protein)
• choose recipes that call for fresh or canned fruit-in water not heavy syrup (fiber)

Other tips:

• Reduce sugar amounts. Most treat recipes are super sweet. I generally omit ½ cup (or more!) sugar from recipes and they are still tasty.
• Add fresh or canned fruit- adding canned pumpkin, crushed pineapple, bananas, carrots, zucchini, etc. to cakes, muffins, and breads provides moisture and natural sweetness and allows you to reduce oil/butter and/or sugar from recipes. See this recipe for Pumpkin Morning Glory Muffins from Blissfully Domestic on how to eliminate ½ the oil from a recipe!
• Icing is high in sugar and often in fat. Reduce icing amounts. Drizzle it on, instead of icing the whole top of the cookie.
• Look for recipes using honey as a sweetener. The body still digests honey as sugar, but when in its raw state is a less refined product than refined white sugar. It also has the health benefit of being anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and in some studies has shown to help treat cough and upper-respiratory symptoms. Be careful with conversions from sugar, honey is sweeter than sugar teaspoon per teaspoon. Click here for tips on baking with honey.
• Using whole grains-oats, whole wheat flour, etc.-will make your loaves and cookies heavier. Their texture will be altered. Most people appreciate an oatmeal raisin cookie even though it is denser than a chocolate chip cookie, you can enjoy your denser cookies and loaves for what they are. Just don’t expect them to be their white flour counterparts.
• Choose recipes that use oil instead of butter. Oil is a little more health promoting that butter. Save butter for a treat on veggies!
• When choosing recipes it’s best to use those that have been created or modified for alternative flours and sweeteners. Each grain has a different combination of gluten, starch and/or fiber, all of which effect the way a baked item rises.
• If budget permits, use natural food colorings in lieu of traditional petroleum-based food coloring (Yes! There are petroleum products in that box of Adams Extract food colors in your pantry). Try Seelect Tea’s or India Tree’s products. Others have purchased Dancing Deer’s product at Whole Foods, but I was unable to confirm they still sell this at the time this article was published.

Recipe links from my fellow healthy foodies:

• Meal Makeover Moms has a bunch of recipes using less sugar, oil instead of butter and including fruits, veggies (shhhh!), whole grains and/or nuts. Their Sugar Plum Fairy Treats recipe was published in a Kiwi article about a healthier cookie swap (pdf). They are packed with nutrition using two kinds of whole grain cereals, omega 3 nuts and plenty of dried fruit for a super natural sweetness. Now that’s a fruit cake made for kids! Thanks Liz for all the great suggestions!
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies- I have already made these and they were a hit with the family and playgroup. Thanks Cookie Madness!
• Black Bean Brownies- Thanks Karin! Haven’t tried these yet, but I like the idea of protein packed beans in dessert.
• Roasted Pears -This delicious fruit treat is simple enough to make for a family dinner. Thanks to Michelle at What’s Cooking! Sprinkle some nuts on top for a little protein.

Jenna Pepper teaches Kid’s Nutrition classes for parents in Houston, TX. Jenna is on a mission to bust the myth that good food tastes bad. The Kid Appeal! blog can inspire the parents of even the pickiest eaters to help their kids make better food choices. The Kid Appeal! Forum is a place for parents to ask questions about concerns they have about their kid’s diet.

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Somehow I missed reading about the pie challenge at The Kitchn until about 9pm tonight. I’d been planning to roast my beautiful Cushaw pumpkin tonight, so why not throw together a pie? After a mad rush to roast, bake and blog by the stroke of midnight, I completed my entry form at 11:59pm on the dot … only to have my internet connection drop and return a few minutes later to the “error: the entry form is now closed” message. Nooo! Oh well, now that I have this pretty blog post prepared, hopefully you all will enjoy it even if it’s not a prize winner.

To complement my pumpkin, from our Potomac Vegetable Farms CSA in Virginia, I decided to keep it simple and use a few other quality, local ingredients, namely my South Mountain Creamery butter and Hilldale Farms organic eggs.

This summer I tried the Cooks Illustrated vodka pie crust, to rave reviews. It was perfectly light and flaky. This time, I made it with all (local, natural) butter since I generally prefer not to use shortening, and found the resulting dough a little less moist and easier to work with. It still requires chilling, though, before rolling it out, and I rolled it out between two pieces of plastic wrap to facilitate getting it off my cutting board and into the pie plate in one piece.

For the pumpkin puree, I split my pumpkin in half and roasted it cut sides down on parchment paper at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. This pumpkin is more yellow than your traditional pumpkin, but the cooked flesh was so luscious and creamy it barely needed blending. I used a hand blender just to smooth it out. I like my pumpkin pie custardy with a little creaminess, but instead of using condensed milk I used a little local yogurt instead.

Recipe: Rustic Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 9-inch pie crust (Cooks Illustrated, half the recipe)
• 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 organic eggs
• 1 teaspoon organic vanilla
• 3/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 cup plain, unsweetened whole milk yogurt

Instructions: Prepare pie crust and set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, stir together pumpkin puree and sugar until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk to combine. Stir in seasonings, then yogurt. Blend completely, then pour into prepared pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook until set, about 35-40 minutes more. Makes 8 servings.

Pour yourself a glass of fresh milk (ours was delivered this morning!), and enjoy the perfect midnight snack! Or, you know, save it for a holiday like a normal person. Either way, enjoy!

This is the first in a four-part series of FoodieTots Thanksgiving favorites - starting with dessert first, of course! Stay tuned for a few other turkey day recipes.

I had been suffering a serious case of foodblogger envy watching others whip up homemade ice cream treats this summer, so finally broke down and bought the KitchenAid ice cream attachment. I’ve gushed before about the wonderful local ice cream/custard/gelato treats we have available, but I’ve been wanting to experiment with healthier variations. Since the toddler seems to have inherited my family’s ice cream addiction — seriously, he woke up one morning recently requesting, “i skeem? i skeem?” — I wanted to try out some low sugar options. Using the sweet, ripe fruits at market right now makes that easier as they don’t require much added sweetener. For my first attempt, I decided to try a sherbet - the full fruit flavor of gelato, but with 2% milk instead of eggs. So it’s low fat too! I used honey under the theory that it requires less to match the sweetness of regular sugar, and was pleased that this turned out pleasantly sweet even with the tart blackberries. I was worried that the berries might overpower the peach flavor, but it turned out wonderfully balanced. It’s not as creamy as ice cream, but still a luscious summer treat.

Recipe: Peach Berry Sherbet

Ingredients:

• 1 c water
• 1/3 c honey
• 1 c berries (used 2/3c raspberries & 1/3 c blackberries)
• 2.5 cups peaches
• 1 c 2% milk

Instructions: Bring water and honey just to boil in small saucepan over high heat, stir to dissolve honey. Add berries, crushing with back of spoon and reduce to low simmer for 10 m. Remove from heat and strain through fine mesh sieve. Chill while preparing peaches.

Peel and dice peaches. Puree in food processor or blender until smooth, add milk and berry syrup and pulse until blended. Chill for at least 1 hour. Process in ice cream maker as instructed, freeze and enjoy! Makes about 1 qt., 4-6 servings.

Blend peaches, milk and berry syrup in food processor. Chill 1 hour. Freeze in ice cream maker.

Food Miles: This was 100% local! South Mountain Creamery milk 63mi., Toigo Orchards honey 114mi., Papa’s Orchard’s donut peaches 87mi., Harris Orchard’s supersweet peaches 24mi., Westmoreland Berry Farm black & raspberries 71mi. All but the milk (delivered) and Harris peaches were from Alexandria farmers markets — this recipe is being shared with the Farmers Market Report at the new “To Every Meal There is a Season”.

I’ve never been a huge cherry fan, but after getting reacquainted with fresh Rainier cherries I thought maybe I’d give some other varieties another try. This past weekend at the market, I picked up a quart of yellow-tinged Queen Anne cherries, slightly tart like the Rainiers. Another stand had signs saying last week for gooseberries. I’d never had gooseberries, so I snatched them up. Fortunately I read a well-timed post from The District Domestic warning about the tartness of green gooseberries before biting into one too eagerly. I decided to combine them with the cherries for yet another new-to-me experience, a cherry clafoutis. This French baked custard recipe has numerous intrepretations to choose from. I decided to start with The Garden Apartment’s fusion of Julia Child’s and Foodbeam’s recipes… I used buttermilk and more eggs, so it turned out something like this:

Recipe: Cherry-Gooseberry Clafoutis
Adapted from The Garden Apartment and others.

Ingredients:

• 2 T butter, melted
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 t almond extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 cups berries (1/2 ea. gooseberries and Queen Anne cherries, halved and pitted)
• 1/4 and 1/3 cup sugar
• powdered sugar

Instructions: Toss berries with 1/4 sugar and let stand (adjust to taste; I’d use less with sweeter cherries). Preheat oven to 350*. In mixing bowl, thoroughly whisk butter, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, almond extract, sugar, salt and flour. Pour a 1/4 inch layer of the batter into buttered baking dish and bake 4 minutes or until batter begins to set. Remove from oven and spread berries over batter, then pour on rest of batter. Bake for another 50 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and enjoy! (Makes 6-8 servings.)

Notes: Next time I will probably use less or omit the butter, as it turned out a little oily. Also, I would use a tart pan next time as the pan I used was much too deep. (Didn’t affect taste, but not as photogenic as it could have been!) This not-too-sweet clafoutis would be a great base for other fruits or berries too - I might try it with blackberries later this summer.

Farms/Producers: Ingredients from Dupont Circle Farmers Market, including cherries from Toigo (PA) and eggs from Smith Meadow (VA).

Much has been written lately about gourmet, fanciful and decidedly adult popsicles, but this simple version is suitable for toddlers on up.

I bought these little swizzle stick molds at Target, as they are just the right serving size for a toddler. You can of course use regular popsicle molds for bigger kids.

Recipe: Berry Yogurt Pops

Ingredients:

• 1 c. yogurt (Pequea Valley Farm, PA, 132 mi.)
• 1/2 c. fresh berries (cherries here, Toigo Orchards, PA, 114 mi.)
• 1 t honey
• 1/2 t vanilla

Instructions: Blend ingredients and pour into popsicle molds. Freeze for several hours, take outside and enjoy!

Growing up, we had an annual Strawberry Shortcake Festival every Father’s Day weekend in June, at the country grange* just down the road from us. This was *the* event of the year on our dusty little mountain, with people coming from miles away (from The City, even, so you know it was a big deal) and lines stretching for hours around the grange. They had the good sense to also host a craft fair, so folks could browse as they waited in line. There was also a walk-up window when you could get your shortcake to go. From an early age, I couldn’t wait for the year I’d be old enough to be a shortcake waitress. I think the minimum age was about 8 to bus tables (you got to share the tips!) and maybe 11 or 12 to be a “real” waitress. (Apparently child labor laws didn’t apply that weekend.) Since the only menu options were cake or biscuit and small, large or family, it didn’t require too much experience. Waitresses got to wear the official strawberry aprons, sewed by the old ladies of the neighborhood, with a pocket to store our precious tips. I remember the legend of a girl a few years old than us who once made $80 in a single day. A lot when you consider tips came in dimes and quarters. (Okay, I swear I didn’t grow up in the Depression, just a rural mountain in Oregon…)

Oregon (Hood) strawberries, for those who’ve never been fortunate enough to taste them, are juicy, sweet and flavorful — a far cry from the bland California creatures found in supermarkets across the country. There’s an easy way to identify the imposters, too; an Oregon berry hull pops right out with a pinch of the stem, no silly huller required. The key to a good strawberry crop is a rainy spring (which Oregon most definitely has) followed by a dry spell to let the berries ripen. Miraculously, it almost never rained Festival weekend and the berries were at the peak of ripeness. The biscuit was actually shortcake, while the cake option was more of a spongecake. Both baked from scratch by neighborhood women in the kitchen. Others would hull, slice and sugar the berries (this was one of the few areas men were allowed to participate in), whip fresh cream, and then assemble the plate. A “small” was the size of a regular salad plate, large a dinner plate, and family size came on a platter. Think turkey platter. Something like eight biscuits piled sky high with berries and cream, it was literally a meal for a family of eight.

Needless to say, Father’s Day and strawberry shortcake is inextricably linked in my taste memories. My husband, however, is more of a chocolate dessert guy and doesn’t really get my obsession with not-too-sweet shortcake doused in sweet red berry juice, cream flowing down the sides …. sorry, tastebuds were getting carried away there. So on Father’s Day I took him out for more manly indulgences, and saved the shortcake for later in the week. Rather than forcing my culinary traditions on his day, I’m declaring a new tradition: Summer Solstice Shortcake.

Because our Virginia berries just aren’t quite as flavorful as the ones from my childhood, I like to give them a boost with balsamic vinegar. One of my favorite summer salads is strawberries with balsamic, cracked pepper, basil and honey - this take on shortcake infuses some of the fresh basil taste into a classic summer dessert.

Recipe: Summer Solstice Shortcake

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe shortcake, using your favorite recipe.
  I used Betty Crocker’s, but I’m not in love with it.
• 1 pt strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced
  (Westmoreland Berry Farm, VA, 71 mi.)
• 1/2 pt other berry of your choice, optional.
  Used black raspberries here. (also Westmoreland)
• 2 T basil syrup
• 2 T sugar
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• 1 c heavy cream (Trickling Springs Creamery, PA, 104 mi.)
• 1 t sugar

Instructions:

Toss berries with basil syrup, sugar and vinegar and let stand at room temperature for an hour. Make shortcake (or biscuits) and cool. Whip cream and sugar into soft peaks. Assemble: slice shortcake in half, place bottom half on plate and cover in berries with lots of juice. Top with cream and top half of shortcake. Garnish with basil leaf (optional), and enjoy!

* I used to babysit the boy who won the scholarship this year!! Wow. I really am old.

strufoli! Originally uploaded by dcaCRL

I couldn’t resist the “Tastes of Italia” Christmas issue this year, which contained a recipe for this festive treat, Struffoli. A traditional Christmas Eve dessert, we served it for our interfaith Italian-Jewish “Chrismukkah” brunch — a perfect latke complement as strufoli is also fried in oil.

Tastes of Italia doesn’t have their recipes online, but this is the same basic recipe. The dough is a simple mix of flour, salt and eggs, and then you roll it into ropes, cut into small pieces and fry. After frying, the dough balls are tossed in warm honey and then garnished. I used colored sprinkles and candied cherries for a colorful presentation. This will definitely be a regular on our holiday menu!

(In searching for a similar recipe, I came across Mario Batali’s much more elaborate version, which contains limoncello. May have to give it a try.)