Preparing to Party

Jax turns two tomorrow (when people say "they grow up so fast," they really mean it! It feels like he was just born!) He's been all about the fire trucks these days, calling them "Woo-woo chucks!" and playing with his wooden woo-woo chuck almost exclusively for weeks. To celebrate his birthday we're heading over to our friendly neighborhood fire station for a tour with half a dozen of his toddler buddies and their assorted adults, and I can't wait to see Jax's face when he sees the fire truck up close! They'll even pull out the fire truck so we can have snacks and cupcakes in the station.

What kind of snacks and cupcakes will be enjoyed at our little guy's party, you ask? It is a menu of tried-and-true toddler favorites in our house: finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off, carrots and celery with hummus, and melon, with chocolate-zucchini cupcakes for dessert.

Finger sandwiches that Jax has known and loved
Chicken and apples with yochee-cream cheese on raisin bread - Soul Food Farm chicken, apples from my CSA box
Carrot, raisin, and sunflower seeds with yochee-cream cheese on raisin bread
Low-fat Egg salad on rye - Soul Food Farms eggs
Smoked salmon and caper spread on rye
Cucumber and cream cheese on wheat - cucumbers from the farmer's market
Peanut butter and jelly on wheat (it is a 2 year old's birthday party, after all!) - Peach jelly from a neighbor, who canned it with peaches from her own tree

Carrot and celery sticks with hummus - hummus made from Phipps Country Store chickpeas
Melon Trio - watermelon, cantaloupe, and a mysterious yellow melon from my CSA box
Chocolate-zucchini cupcakes - I've never made this recipe before. If it comes out well, I'll post the recipe.

The entire menu is home made and organic. Just about everything in the finger sandwiches is local, with a few small exceptions like sunflower seeds, peanut butter, and cream cheese. (With all the local dairies, I'm surprised that local cream cheese isn't available!)

The cupcake ingredients are not local, other than the zucchini from a neighbor's garden and eggs from Soul Food Farm. I'm making an extra dozen cupcakes for the fire fighters; they deserve chocolatey goodness with a little healthy zucchini mixed in!

Yochee-cream cheese is a half and half mix of strained plain fat free yogurt (the yochee) and low fat cream cheese. It makes a nice low-fat substitute for mayonnaise, with the creamy texture and mild tartness of mayo but significantly lower in calories, fat, and cholesterol. I'm using the yochee-cream cheese in the egg salad, but also add about a tablespoon of real Canola mayo to a round out the flavor. The Canola mayo, made by Spectrum, has such a strong mayo flavor that a little goes a long way.

Here is one of Jax's favorite sandwiches. It's not CORE, but is very healthy, full of fiber, and is very tasty. My mom made a similar carrot-raisin combo with cream cheese when I was young, and that's another yummy combination.

Carrot, raisin, and sunflower seeds with yochee-cream cheese on raisin bread

1 c. shredded carrots - mine are from Earthbound Organics
1/3 c. raisins - mine are California Thompsons from Sigona's farmer's market
1/4 c. sunflower seeds - mine are organic from the bulk bin at Country Sun
1 t cinnamon
1 T honey
1/2 c. yochee (about 1 c. yogurt, strained overnight through a coffee filter) - mine is Wallaby
1/2 c. lowfat cream cheese - mine is not local, bought at Country Sun
raisin bread - I'm using Alvarado St. Bakery bread

Mix together everything but the bread. Spread a thin layer on the raisin bread, cut off the crusts, and enjoy. If you're not a picky toddler, you can leave the crusts on. :) This is also tasty with pineapple tidbits, but that's WAY outside local, so we're skipping those this go around!