Kindergarten Fun

Today I had such fun visiting Vivienne's classroom. What a wonderful bunch of children! And Elana and Jo are amazing, nurturing teachers. I love this class. I feel so grateful for the time I get to spend in there. Since we are having the most magnificent days of autumn, I focused on celebrating the season. We read one of my favorite books, The Apple Cake by Nienke van Hichtum. Then we made leaf children. I helped the children in small groups, while the others made leaf rubbings with beeswax block crayons. The kids were so proud of their beautiful creations. I also brought in some teeny apple cakes (made in mini-muffin tins) for an after-lunch snack. It was a wonderful healthy recipe I adapted from the vegetarian cookbook Better than Peanut Butter and Jelly. Since I have seen similar recipes online, I am going to share my adapted version.

Yummy Apple Cakes

1 cup grated apple

1 cup grated carrot (or fresh grated pumpkin)

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 c. all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs

1/2 cup agave syrup or maple syrup

Butter mini muffin tins and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine syrup with applesauce, oil and eggs. Stir in grated apple and carrot. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Stir dry ingredients into wet, until just combined.

Bake until toothpick comes clean when inserted in the muffin. I think the time was about 12 minutes, give or take a bit. Other nice additions, would be raisins or chopped nuts. Or for a special occasion, perhaps a sprinkle of powdered sugar on top. Enjoy!

~Warmest Autumn Blessings!~