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Grandparents Teach, too

Sabin, DaVIS, HETRICK, ANDEREGG, Macalady, walker, darling and Katers

“Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food.”

— Hippocrates

With all of the engineered snacks tempting children there is a Super Nutritionist to the rescue. Jessica Penner a certified nutritionist found at Smart Nutrition has fifteen easy no-bake energy sphere recipes most children can make on their own or with an older sibling looking over their shoulder. These can be called nutrition spheres, truffles, rolls, bites, or rolly -pollies rather than balls to avoid frequent eye rolls, smirks, and jokes by older children and teens and puzzled looks by younger ones when you suggest this snack– your call. It makes for a jolly kitchen, though.

Ingredients

The basic recipe for any nutrition sphere is 1 cup regular or quick oats, 1/3 cup nut, seed butter or tahini, 2 tablespoons sweetener like honey or syrup, 3 tablespoons chunky add-ins like tiny chocolate chips or chunks, raisins, craisons, or coconut, and 2 tablespoons fiber like flax, sesame, chia or other small seeds, 2 tablespoons protein powder like whey (optional), and a few drops to 2 teaspoons water, only if needed to help hold everything together. Milk powder is not recommended because it makes the mixture gritty.

Spheres can be made with or without a food processor. Preschool children will enjoy mixing and smashing all the different textures in the bowl. An ordinary food processor or mixer is usually not powerful enough and makes an ugly glob that is difficult. A processor can make the oatmeal, seeds, and other dry items smoother. You can food process ingredients separately, set each aside, then add one at a time.

Directions

To hand mix, add all of the ingredients except the water in a large bowl and mash/stir with a wooden spoon. Children like using their super clean unlicked or plastic covered hands to mix this food. Use no water or just a few drops of water if the mixture is too crumbly and will not hold together well.

Make and place the individual spheres on a flat surface covered with waxed paper and chill in the refrigerator or freezer for 10-30 minutes. Then keep refrigerated in a tightly covered container. They probably won’t last long enough to dry out.

Variations

Once the children have their technique down, they can experiment like food scientists.

Instead of oats, children may use buckwheat groats which are are not a grain or wheat. For the nut butter Older children can grind up roasted sunflower seeds (sun-butter) or roasted pumpkin seeds with no water in a food processor. They can substitute mashed dates (a little hot water to soak and soften dates and mashed with a fork) for honey.

For more, see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com, wnmufm.org/Learningthroughtheseasons, Pinterest and Facebook every week since 2009.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Grandparents Teach, Too is a non-profit organization of elementary and preschool teachers from Marquette, Michigan. The writers include: Jan Sabin, Mary Davis, Jean Hetrick, Cheryl Anderegg, Esther Macalady, Colleen Walker, Fran Darling, and Iris Katers. Their mission since 2009 is to help parents, grandparents, and other caregivers of young children provide fun activities to help prepare young children for school and a life long love of learning. They are supported by Great Start, Parent Awareness of Michigan, the U.P. Association for the Education of Young Children, Northern Michigan School of Education, the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum and the Northern Michigan University Center for Economic Education.

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