The Gourmet Mama

I was playing around with new muffin recipes the other day and found one that was completly addicting! I had a hard time not eating all of the batter, let alone the actual cooked muffins. So I thought that I would share it with you.

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 t. vanilla

4 cups flour (the recipe calls for white but I used 2 cups white and 2 cups whole wheat)

1 cup milk

4 t. baking powder

4 cups berries (I got one of those frozen bags of berry mix…strawberry, blueberry, raspberry and blackberry)

Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and milk. add flour and baking powder and mix everything together into a smooth batter. Add the berries and gently fold in. If the berries are still frozen, you don’t have to worry about being too gentle but if they are thawed or fresh, you want to be really careful. Put a spoonful of batter into each cup of a greased muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the tops brown. These muffins are to die for!!! Enjoy!

In today’s world of preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, and a long list of chemicals, its hard to tell what to feed your kids anymore without poisoning them. Most of the snacks that are made for kids and claim to be healthy are full of sugar and preservatives that actually do more harm than good. So before you feed them cheese strings, yoghurt tubes and those little dishes of applesauce, read the labels carefully and then take a look at these other alternatives for healthy snacks for kids.

1. Cheese Cubes - This is a snack that you can make up days ahead of time and keep them in little zip lock bags or tupperware containers in the fridge. You can choose which kind of cheese you like, or mix and match several different kinds.

2. Grapes - These are another great snack that you can wash and package up ahead of time so that you can simply grab a little container of them on your way out the door.

3. Apple slices - These go brown if you do them up ahead of time unless you store them in some water with a tiny bit of lemon juice added. Healthy and tasty, these are always a good choice.

4. Almonds - If your child doesn’t have a nut allergy, then this is a great crunchy snack for them thats good for on the go or at home!

5. All natural yoghurt - There are so many different yoghurts on the market now a days that its easy to find one that is tasty and healthy. Get one with as few preservatives as possible.

6. Sliced up smokies - Kids love the taste and you can get ones that are fairly natural and good for you but still get them some protien to help build up their energy…as if they needed any more.

7. Bananas - There are very few children who don’t like the taste of this fantastic fruit and its easy to pack around because it comes in its own packaging!

8. Raisins - These are a great snack to munch on at any time of day and kids love the sweetness to them!

9. Whole Grain Crackers - You can get some tasty yet healthy whole grain crackers at nearly every grocery store and they are a good source of fibre. They are great paired with the cheese cubes and smokies.

10. Fruit popsicles - Instead of feeding them ice cream all summer long, find some good natural fruit juices and make your own popsicles. You can even add chopped up fruit or yoghurt to them to make them extra special!