healthy baking

[robinpud]

I tend to bake for my kids so that there is something sweet to go in the lunchbox and to have when they get home from school any ideas for healthy alternatives to fairy cakes, flapjack etc ?

I make a lot of American-style loaf cakes. Pumpkin loaf, banana bread, that kind of thing.

www.allrecipes.com is good for these sorts of recipes.

Funnily enough, I'm been searching around for a recipe for sugar free banana muffins all day - if I find it, I'll post it.

I do a lot of American style loaf cakes - b/c they're dead easy! I agree w/NQC's suggestions. I also do brownies and homemade truffles. DD1 loves 'biscuits' so I just make what we Americans call 'sugar cookies' often. I make the dough and then freeze it so I always have some to hand to slice and bake.

think I'll try these later from NQC's site. Sound really nice!

Sugar (in moderation) is not actually all that bad for kids - and neither is the butter or eggs in a good homemade cake.

But I do tend to stick to things like banana bread, carrot cake or Nigellas courgette cake recipe here as at least I am getting some fruit and veg in them at teh same time

agree Prufrock - i'm just heavily moderating sugar as cleaning DS's teeth (12 months) is a bit of a hit and miss affair at the moment

QSS, it's worth noting that fruit sugars are not actually different from refined sugars, and particularly in dried form, are really sticky. So from a tooth-cleaning perspective, dried fruit and processed sugar are not much different.

Also worth noting that the acidity in fruit juice is really bad for the teeth.

All that being said, I tend to moderate my kids' sugar intake, too. Hence the homemade biscuits and cakes. That way, they're organic, or mostly, and I know what's in them.

Allrecipes does have a lot of fat-free recipes (that replace the fat with applesauce - no idea if that works), but I don't bother with those. The search-by-ingredients facility is very useful, particularly if you need to avoid anything because of intolerances or allergies. You do need to mentally translate the ingredients to American. If you run into trouble with that, ask, I'm used to translating now.

I have a few lovely healthy cake recipes which I will post later when ds is not shouting in my ear...

I did wonder about that NCQ, but managed to brush it to the back of my mind - oh well... heavy flanneling and brushing regardless of the alligator wrestling from now on then!

Oh, I should have added, my dentist says that you really don't need to worry too much about brushing milk teeth as long as their diet is healthy. DS1 (4) still doesn't brush his teeth every day, and I'm ok with that. He does brush his teeth before bed, if he has something sweet (e.g. cake) after dinner.

Brushing early is more about getting good habits in place, for when they've got their permanent teeth, I think.

(I realise lots of mums stress lots about brushing little kids' teeth, but I just don't think it's worth annoying yourself, and them, over.)

I get very hung up about tooth brushing as ds is breastfed to sleep. Apparently the milk pooling in the mouth overnight can be a cause of decay, particularly if they have had something sweet, (fruit included as NQC points out), beforehand. I agree it's also a good habit to get into. I know it's partly genetic luck of the draw as well, but think if ds does have rotten teeth at least I will know I've done what I can.

NQC, also think that I would rather p*ss ds off by insisting he has his teeth brushed, rather than risk forced treatment at the dentist...

My boys aren't BF to sleep, and don't BF in the night, so I don't stress about that.

I guess I'm hoping they have great teeth, like DH, rather than crappy teeth, like me.

I can see why you'd choose to stress about toothbrushing, I'm just pointing out that it's not mandatory per se.

how about scones? carrot cake? date cake? (making me hungry just thinking about it!)

Ok, here are my two best sugar free recipes:

Banana cake

4 oz s-r wholemeal flour
half tsp mixed spice
2 oz butter
3 oz raisins
8 oz banana
1 beaten egg

Mix flour and spice, rub in butter and stir in raisins. In another bowl, mash banana and egg. Stir into flour mixture and put in greased loaf tin. Cook at 160 / GM 3 for 1 hour.

For a special occasion I 'ice' it with a topping made from whizzing philadelphia cheese and fruit spread.

Muffins

8oz wholemeal s-r flour
pinch cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
2oz chopped pecans (I have leave these out, or put in ground almonds, it's fine)
2 oz desiccated coconut
6 oz grated carrots
6 oz grated apple
3 oz chopped dates
2 beaten eggs
4 fl oz sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl and all wet in another, then combine and mix thoroughly. Spoon into muffin cases and put on a baking tray. Bake for 20 mins at 180 / GM 4.

I can vouch for both of these as being delicious.

Just had a look allrecipes.com and went to kids meals - some weird ones there, eg, Cheeseburger and fries casserole, Fast & Easy Hamburger Casserole.

Does casserole mean something different in American terms?

Oh, Mercy, allrecipes is full of scary scary American food. I think casserole means the same thing there as here. But remember, America is the country that invented spray cheese. Also, the twinkie.

NQC. Can (just) about imagine what spray cheese is, but what is a twinkie?

It's like, hmm, really synthetic sponge, filled with cream. Which sounds very good. And actually, it tastes pretty good. But it keeps for years, unrefridgerated, so is hence pretty gross really.

An English friend calls willies twinkies, which confuses me no end.

Ta!

Just done a variation on your muffins Franny... (opted out of carrot and coconut and swapped for bananas). Very very nice indeed! Can see that I will be playing about with the ingredients of that recipe for a while.

I've just found, then lost, a recipe for some really nice biscuits. They're fairly basic with a mixute of choc chips and raisons so that you don't need as much sugar to sweeten them. You can also make them with wholemeal flour which I love.

Homemade flapjacks are so easy and quick too. You can experiment with different dried fruits and nuts (if allowed at you school) and seeds.

i'm with the banana cake my kids don't eat banana's but love banana cake.