Ooey, Gooey, Yummy! These are the words that come to mind when I make these heavenly breakfast treats. These aren’t like those Mc-whatever sandwiches; filled with all sorts of unhealthy additives and saturated fats, these are the real deal, only much more fresh and healthy.
You could even wrap them up, roll over to the park and have the perfect picnic.
These wee-muffins only took me minutes to prepare, and we all salivated in the test kitchen when we took the first bite. I was a little wary about giving Kenya such a mountain of a
sandwich, so I cut it into bite size pieces for him. He and I sat out in our front yard (our version of a picnic) and he let out a big “mmm’s” bite after bite.

Egg Wee-Muffins (Makes 2 Sandwiches)

2 Eggs
1 Tbsp Milk
2 Slices Canadian Bacon
1 Tsp Butter plus extra for English Muffin
2 slices cheddar cheese
2 Whole Wheat English Muffins

1. Whisk the egg and milk in a bowl.
2. In a saute pan over medium heat, cook canadian bacon 2 minutes on each side.
3. Remove to a plate add 1 tsp of butter to the pan
4. Cook the eggs for 2-3 minutes, forming the eggs into the shape of an omelette.
5. With a knife, cut the omelette in half.
6. Place cheese slices on top of each omelette in the pan and cover. Cook over low heat for 1-2 more minutes.
7. Toast english muffin and spread with butter
8. Place bacon, egg, & cheese in the English muffin and serve.

Gobble, gobble! Enjoy every bite today. See you tomorrow!
xx Kenya & Catherine

People often ask me why I make so many vegan recipes. There are actually tons of reasons, one being that I have several vegan friends, so I frequently cook for them.
But the second reason is that so many kids today have allergies to a variety of foods, many specifically to dairy and eggs. Since vegans don’t eat any animal products or foods made by animals such as honey, these dishes are good for some kids with specific allergies.
I made these pancakes for a bunch of friends who aren’t vegan and they didn’t know that they were dairy and egg free until they had cleaned their plates . Light as feathers, but with tons of depth of flavor and added texture from the spelt or buckwheat, these pancakes are a real treat. I actually served them for dessert later that night and the kids had a blast eating them with their hands and dipping them in syrup. See, pancakes really can be enjoyed morning, noon and night!

Vegan Pumpkin Pancakes (Makes 18 Pancakes)

1 Cup White Flour
1/2 Cup Buckwheat or Spelt Flour (I tested both versions and they were equally delicious)
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 1/4 Cup Rice Milk (you could also use soy or almond milk)
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup, plus extra for serving with pancakes
1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil, plus extra for greasing the pan
1/2 Cup Pumpkin Puree, canned

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk to combine (don’t over mix, some lumps are fine).
4. Heat a griddle or large saute pan over medium heat and lightly
grease with oil.
5. Ladle as many pancakes as possible (about 2 tbsp of batter for each one) on the griddle and cook 2 minutes or until bubbles start forming on the surface and the bottom is golden brown.
6. Flip the pancakes and cook another 2 minutes.
7. Repeat the process until you run out of batter (you can hold the finished pancakes in a 250 degree oven while you finish making the pancakes).
7. Serve with maple syrup and enjoy.

*Allow to cool, place in a ziploc bag, label and freeze. When ready, place in toaster oven or oven at 300 and heat for 10 minutes or until heated through.

We used these to make this recipe:

Chef’s Design 20-Inch Double Burner Reversible Grill/Griddle

I’ve rarely met a kid (or an adult for that matter) that doesn’t like carrots. I couldn’t resist buying these adorable miniature stumpy carrots I found at the farmers’ market. You can use any type of carrot you find for this recipe, but I just thought these were so funny looking and had to try them.
Carrots are packed with fiber and beta-carotene which the body converts into vitamin A, necessary for healthy skin and vision. When the carrots are sauted with the sweet orange juice in this recipe, they become coated with a delicious, sweet glaze and no sugar is needed. These
are perfect for a quick and easy holiday dish or any time of the year for that matter.

Orange Glazed Carrots (Makes 6 Big Kid Servings)

1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 Lb Carrots, peeled and chopped
3/4 Cup Orange Juice
1/2 Tsp Orange Zest
1 Inch Piece Ginger, grated
Sea or Kosher Salt, to taste

1. Heat oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the carrots and cook for 3 minutes.
2. Add the orange juice, orange zest and ginger.
3. Bring mixture to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Cook until carrots are tender and orange juice mixture becomes a glaze.
5. Serve.

Stuffing is one of those Thanksgiving foods that I’ve found you don’t have to twist a kid’s arm to eat. I mean come on, the base of it is bread!
This recipe is sweet, savory and truly delicious. There are tons of variations on the ingredients you can put in your stuffing. Cornbread, wheat or white bread, fruits, vegetables, herbs, the list goes on…But the mixture of ingredients in this apple sausage stuffing is truly geared for little ones taste buds (and secretly mine, too!).

Kids Apple Sausage Stuffing (Makes 8-10 Servings)

3/4 Pound Bread Cubes (I use 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white bread cubes, but you can also buy other types of bread cubes that are already dried out and skip step 1).
3 Chicken Apple Sausage Links (or 1/2 pound ground sausage)
2 Tsp Oil
2 Tbsp Butter plus more for greasing
1 Apple, peeled and chopped (Gala, Fuji and Golden Delicious or any other sweet apple)
2 Celery Stalks, chopped
1/2 Onion, chopped
1 Tbsp Fresh Thyme, chopped
1/2 Tsp Salt
3 Eggs, beaten
1 1/2 Cups Chicken Stock

1. Toast bread cubes in a 300 degree oven for 8-10 minutes.
2. Turn the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
2. If using sausage links, remove casings.
3. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a large saute pan over medium heat and cook sausage for 3-5 minutes or until cooked through. Remove to a plate.
4. Heat butter in the saute pan over medium heat and cook the apples, celery, onion, thyme and salt for 6-8 minutes until soft and tender.
5. Place the bread cubes in a bowl with the sausage, vegetables, eggs and chicken stock. Combine thoroughly.
6. Grease a 11 x 7 baking dish. Place the stuffing mixture in the dish.
7. Bake for 40 minutes.
8. Serve.

Some people look forward to Thanksgiving and to eat turkey for the stuffing or the gravy. Not me. I’m a total cranberry sauce girl. Since we’ve been on a roll roasting turkeys every week this month testing holiday recipes, Kenya’s has acquired a real taste for it, too. He’s just like his mommy — he wants some turkey and a pound of the sauce to go with it.
That’s part of the reason I started making this sauce with agave nectar. Most cranberry sauces call for a cup of sugar for each bag of cranberries. It makes my teeth feel like they are going to rot just thinking about it. Granted, cranberries are uber sour, so they do need something to sweeten them up and agave does the trick. I also love adding oranges and orange juice to add not only citrus flavor, but also their natural sugars.
Cranberries are packed with the antioxidant vitamin C, which helps protects kids against infection, and antibacterial substances that can help prevent digestive and urinary infections.
We sat down for lunch last week and I’m not kidding when I tell you that Kenya kept pouring the sauce on his plate and eating spoon after spoonful. He loved it and hopefully so will your family this Thanksgiving.

Cranberr-Wee-Sauce (Makes 2 1/2 Cups)

1 Bag of Cranberries, washed and bruised cranberries discarded
2/3 Cup Orange Juice and or the orange pulp, removing the seeds and sections between the pulp
1/3 Cup Agave
1 Cinnamon Stick

1. Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. When they reach a boil, turn the heat to a simmer and cook for
10-15 minutes or until the berries start to pop.
3. Turn off heat and cool. Remove the cinnamon stick.
4. Serve warm or chilled.

*Allow to cool, place in appropriate container or ziploc bag, label and freeze.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I tested this recipe out on several little ginuea pigs. I made these for a recent “kid’s dinner party” that my friends and I do every week and I can’t even tell you how hard I laughed when I pulled these sweet potatoes out of the oven and three of the kids simultaneously yelled “cupcakes”! No matter what we said they decided the orange and white “cupcakes” were a holiday treat and scarfed them down. The only “oops” moment came when one the little girls looked at me with a huge hunk of orange peel in her mouth and said, “I don’t like the wrapper”. Whoops!
These heavenly treats only take minutes to prepare, and they made quite a visual and edible impact on the kids and adults alike. I’m a big fan of cooking this dish with evaporated skim milk because it makes the potatoes really fluffy without the added fat of heavy cream. I usually don’t like to use foods that have a ton of sugar, but just a few mini marshmallows really take this recipe to the next level for kids and makes it fun for them. After all, it’s the “icing”! They’re not essential to the recipe, so you can easily leave them out.
This recipe is also a time saver when you’re cooking Thanksgiving dinner, because the orange pulp that you scoop out goes right into the weelicious cranberry sauce recipe! A green vegetable, some succulent turkey and you have a perfect meal for the entire family with a few leftovers for the next day.
*Check out the Thanksgiving article and pictures on one of my favorite websites, CafeMom:

Sweet Potatoes in Orange Cups (Serves 6 Big Kids)

2 Lbs. Sweet Potatoes (you want to use potatoes that are really orange, also known as yams)
2 Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
1/2 Cup Evaporated Skimmed Milk (you can substitute it with regular milk)
1/2 Tsp Kosher or Sea Salt
3 Navel Oranges
Mini Marshmallows

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Poke the yams several times with a fork or knife to pierce the skin.
2. Place on foil or a sheet tray in the oven and bake for 1 hour.
3. Let yams cool for several minutes, cut in half and scoop out the fluffy insides (I love eating the high fiber skin as a snack).
4. Mash the yams with butter, maple syrup, evaporated milk and salt until creamy and fluffy.
5. Cut the oranges in half and slice a very thin disk from the bottom so they rest flat. The skins are actually going to be the “bowls”.
6. With a pairing knife cut around the inside rim of the orange removing the orange sections and pulp. Place any of the orange juice and pulp in a bowl and discard the white membranes and seeds. Save the juice and pulp for cranberry sauce recipe or just enjoy as a snack.
7. Fill each orange cup with 1/4 cup of puree and top with several mini marshmallows (you can cover and refrigerate these overnight).
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
9. Place on a sheet tray and bake for 20-25 minutes.
10. Serve.

I think I was the only kid in the world that loved brussel sprouts. I loved biting the leaves off the tiny cabbages one by one. Somehow these little green orbs are known as the bane of kids’ dinner plates everywhere, but I guarantee this healthy and delicious recipe will change their tune.
Brussel Sprouts are high in fiber and vitamin C which aid in healthy skin and immune function and those yummy little poppy seeds are a fantastic source of calcium.
This dish only takes minutes to prepare, especially if you have a food processor to quickly chop the brussel sprouts. You can even prepare most of the ingredients ahead of time and just cook the dish at the last minute.
Even your little one (or your big child, aka your spouse) who always declares “I don’t like brussel sprouts,” will come back for seconds and thirds for this scrumptious side dish.

Shredded Brussel Sprouts with Lemon & Poppy Seeds (Makes 6 Servings)

1 Lb. Brussel Sprouts, stem ends trimmed
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 Tbsp Oil
1 Tbsp Butter
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Lemon Zest
2 Tsp Poppy Seeds
1/4 Cup Chicken Stock

1. Finely chop the brussel sprouts with a knife (or in a food processor) and into small pieces.
2. Place in a bowl with lemon juice and toss to coat (this should prevent the leaves from losing their bright color). At this point you can cover the brussel sprouts and refrigerate for several hours until you’re ready to cook them.
3. Heat butter and oil in a saute and pan over medium heat. Saute the brussel sprouts for 2 minutes. Add the salt, garlic, zest and poppy seeds and continue to cook an additional 2 minutes.
4. Pour in the chicken stock and cook 1 more minute.
5. Serve.