Healthy Kids Birthday Party

Today we celebrated my daughter's 3rd and son's 2nd birthday!   I made every effort to make this day as healthy as possible for the kids and adults that attended.  

Back in the day, I used to have pizza delivery, chips and dips, and store bought cake, plus favor bags equipped with even more sweets (candy).  I chocked it up to, well it's a special occasion!  I used to feel so gross by the end of the parties, not to mention a little guilty.  The kids get sweets so often, even on not-so-special occasions.  At school, at the bank, at the store, at other kids birthday parties, at holidays, etc....  The pictures of their faces covered in artificial coloring (icing) started to bother me when I learned about these chemicals.  They are well-known to cause ADD/ADHD and other behavioral issues in children.  So I decided to make their birthdays as healthy as possible.  I knew this was going to be more time consuming but it is worth it to me.  

So, here is a re-cap of what I had today at their party:

1.  Homemade whole wheat chocolate cake with whipped cream topping.  Instead of the berry sauce, I cooked berries (strawberry for pink and blueberry for purplish)  on stovetop until mushy, then pureed.  I mixed the pureed berries with some extra whipped frosting.  I had some cake decorating tools I got last year to use to make the design around the edge.  

**Note on the whipped cream.  You will need to mix this with your hand mixer for about 8-10 minutes for it to reach the desired consistency.  

The cake turned out REALLY good.  Usually those store bought cakes are SO incredibly sweet.  This was light and the whipped cream made it.  I will seriously make this just for a special occasion fruit dip or for other desserts.  

2.  For snacks, I had:

• Boom.Chick.Pop. popcorn
• Homemade trail mix (with raisins, almonds.sunflower seeds, sesame sticks, whole grain pretzels, and dark chocolate chips
• Annie's Organic Bunnies.  I wouldn't normally buy these but they were on sale at Target and the little ones like these.  

• Fruit tray with dip (plain traditional Greek yogurt with a little swirl of local honey)

For the main meal, I had a "make your own pizza" party.  I bought some whole wheat pitas (which only had a couple ingredients) and bought some toppings.  I had lots of fresh veggies, homemade super easy pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and applegate (nitrite/nitrate free) pepperoni.  

I think everyone enjoyed choosing the toppings and making the pizza!  It was at least a nice change!  I bought a bunch of pizza pans at the dollar store and we were able to fit up to 3 mini-pizzas on a tray at a time.  I had the toaster oven and regular oven cranked up to 400 degrees and we were able to pump out the pizzas in about 5-6 minutes!

 So, I think it was a success!  We all had a great day and I don't feel bloated and gross, which is a huge bonus.

Happy birthday Sophie & Baby Chris!!