Healthy kids Birthday Party preparations ~ Mariella

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions! I think that’s a little dramatic, given the circumstances, but it does get the point across! I have full intention to throw a completely sugar, additive, preservative, colourant and flavourant – free birthday party for my Seven year old boy on Saturday! It has to be awesome, delicious, inspiring, the stuff children dream about. And it can’t break the bank! These are my intentions! 

I'm wondering if I'll be able to pull off something like this without the usual suspects, sugar and colourant

Oh, and being the eccentric type, he’s asked for a Black and White Magicians Party, so at least the paper plates were cheap! Unfortunately Plett comes up dry in the Magicians for hire arena, so the entertainment for the day will have to come from me!

Rather relieved this only happens once a year!

So far I’ve come up with pass the parcel, wrapped in newspaper (black and white!), musical statues and a long treasure hunt ending with treats, little gifts and the cake.

When addressing the cake, it’s all about priorities. Most of the children coming to the party eat sugar from time to time and they all eat wheat, so it would be a waste of money and effort to bake a gluten-free cake just because we don’t eat gluten regularly! Last year I made a banana cake with xylatol and honey. It had less than half a cup of flour in it. It was basically a great big banana bread with exotic extra fillings. We made the icing sugar with honey, rice milk powder, turmeric (as colouring), and natural vanilla. It was a hit! But I put a couple of smarties on top for lack of cranberries you see, because I dreaded the thought that my son’s friends should see me in the same light as my daughter’s friends did back in the days when I really didn’t know what I was doing and dished out ‘everything-free’ experiments that not even the dog would touch!

 

So far the menu goes as follows:

-Pop corn

-Lays lightly salted

-Peanuts and raisins

-Sliced veggies with home made dips like hummus

-Veg Sausages

-Black olives

-Cheesie something melted

-Fruit kebabs, thought to chop up the fruit and let the kids make them as a game but there may be blood so i'm still deliberating that!

-Licorice 

-Date squares

-Homemade 'Magnums'

-Lemonade made with honey and organic fruit juice concentrate I get from a friend in Swellendam and ice-blocks with frozen berries inside 

-Pancakes rolled up and cut into slices with honey and cinnamon inside, served in a tray so they don't fall apart 

 
-chocolate date balls

-Something with peanut butter, not sure yet!

How exactly I will be making this black and white is another matter altogether! It's a small party so that helps. I’ll be delving into my usual Mary Poppins bag of tricks as well as hunting for new yummy ideas, I’ll give you the low down on Monday as to how I weathered against the temptingly convenient and very cheap allure of sugar and it’s other buddies! Wish me luck!