Planning A Fun, Healthy First Birthday Party

I was pretty excited to celebrate the huge milestone of Jude turning one this past October! Mostly acknowledging that Lucas and I made it through our first year as parents, and we lived to tell about it. In planning Jude’s party, I wanted it to be fun, casual, and full of snacks, without compromising our health.

And since everyone one year old deserves a smash cake (which I just discovered was a thing), I couldn’t let this party go without a cake. However, a cake doesn’t have to be full of die, food colouring, sugar and other not so nice things. My friend gave me the idea of using a healthy muffin recipe and turning it into Jude’s own little personal cake, plus cupcakes for the guests. So, I decided to use the spiced banana muffin recipe from Joyous Health and topped it with cashew icing from Minimalist Baker. Both the muffins and the icing are sweetened with just a little bit of maple syrup, but they taste amazing. Jude loved her little cake, and I don’t think we had any cupcakes left over!

For those with an extra sweet tooth I picked up some jelly beans from Blush Lane Market here in Calgary made with no artificial flavours, sweeteners, preservatives, or hydrogenated oils. Everything else I put out, I wanted to be both adult and kid friendly!

We are mostly vegetarian in our household, with the exception of wild caught fish, so I often feel a little limited when making meals for our friends and family. It can sometimes be overwhelming trying to have enough options to make everyone happy, so, I wanted to share some of the other snacks we served that hit the spot with our little guests, as well as our big ones.

• Hot Spinach, Artichoke and White Bean Dip - from my good friend, Insightful Bite

• Veggie Salad Rolls with Fried Tofu & Peanut Dipping Sauce

  Ingredients:

  • Rice wraps soaked

  • Carrots julienned

  • Cucumbers julienned

  • Avocado sliced

  • Beets shredded

  • Pan fried tempeh or tofu (you can also add shredded chicken or shrimp if thats more your style)

    Add a little bit of each ingredient into a soaked rice wrap and roll up

  • Sauce:

  • 1/4 cup almond butter

  • 2 tbsp soy sauce

  • 1 tbsp maple syrup

  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar

  • 1 tsp siracha

  • 1 tsp sesame oil

  • Add all sauce ingredients into a blender, or blend by hand with a fork

• Que Pasa Organic Tortilla Chips & Organic Salsa

• Fresh Cut Organic Veggies - I love carrots, celery, tomatoes, cucumber and broccoli (dipped in hummus)

  Hummus Ingredients:

  • 1 15 oz can chickpeas

  • 2 medium cloves of garlic

  • 3 tbsp tahini

  • Juice from 1 lemon

  • Salt & pepper to taste

  • Add all ingredients into a food process, blend and serve

These are just a few simple ideas to help make your kid parties delicious and nutritious. As your little ones pallets become more refined and they explore with new foods and textures, each year you can challenge yourself to add in new fun snacks that everyone will love. Some of my favourite go-to websites for healthy inspiration are Joyous Health, Megan Telpner, Thug Kitchen & Oh She Glows.

Happy snacking!