more baking with my big guy:)

I love cooking and I'm learning to love cooking with my toddler helping me...in part because of it's great for one-on-one time for us and also because he really, really loves it! This week, I took a new approach and prepped while he was napping for a bit of baking post nap. Here's what I did:

When we bake, it is usually more than one recipe at once...if I'm going to get the kitchen messy, might as well make several things! What did we make?
First some blondies:

I used a recipe from a healthy desserts blog because I was intrigued by her promise that these gluten free protein rich blondies would actually taste good...but instead of chickpeas, I used white beans because that's what we had in the fridge...all my big guy did was pour all the ingredients in the Vitamix and press on...easy for him and easy for me to clean:)
The results: Big Robert didn't even guess that it was made from beans! That's success to me...I ate mine last night with some ice cream, it was very yummy...it's even better today since it's hardened a bit and become a bit more "bar-like"

Next recipe was some animal crackers

Just had Robert add all ingredients to the food processor and blended it right up, then waited for the dough to firm up and just rolled it out for him to go to town with my noah's ark cookie cutters (bought at Michaels, BTW, with a 40% off coupon for a whopping $2)...he had a great time once he got the hang of it.

The results: they have a bit different flavor to the store bought variety, in part because I only use whole wheat flour in my baking...but Robert gobbled them up, and since they're bigger than the store bought version, they take up more room in the bowl so he actually eats less of them overall.

After making some sweets this way with him, I can't forsee going back anytime soon. It was easier, cleaner and faster for both of us...he didn't lose interest and also didn't get upset when I wouldn't let him scoop out the flour...a messy experience that I'd rather not repeat:)