Serves 6

Instructions:

1. Grind all the spices together. Voilà you've made a masala mix.
2. Heat the oil in a medium pot over medium heat and fry the garlic and ginger (3 minutes).
3. Add onions and peppers, cover the pot and “sweat” the veggies until they're soft and translucent, but not mushy (about 5 minutes).
4. Add masala mix and keep stirring until a crust starts to form on the bottom of the pot (1 minute).
5. Add coconut milk, stirring until crust is removed from the bottom of the pot.
6. Add the pumpkin and chickpeas and mix well.
7. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Source: Real Food for Real Kids

Serves 4

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place your cut pumpkin pieces in a baking dish, pour over the oil and toss to coat. Roast for around 20 - 30 minutes or until flesh is soft. Scoop flesh out of the skin and set aside.

2. Heat butter in a pan over medium-low. Sauté the leek, garlic and ginger for around 6 minutes or until soft and fragrant.

3. Add 1/4 cup of whole cashews, roasted pumpkin and apple, stir to combine. Add the chia seeds and stock. Bring to the boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer for around 15-20 minutes.

4. Remove the mixture from the heat. Place in a food processor and process until smooth. Stir through the cream (optional).

5. Top this soup with toasted cashew crumbs, fresh chives and parsnip crisps (see below).

Recipe and photo source: One Handed Cooks

Makes 6

Instructions:

1. Cut the bananas into thick slices (approx. 9 rounds per banana)
2. Peel the carrot and cut into small triangular slivers for a pointy nose
3. Trim the stem from the strawberries and then cut in half. You should get two hats out of each strawberry
4. Cut the grapes in half. (We only used the smooth half and ate the stem end)
5. To assemble, thread three slices of banana on to each skewer followed by a strawberry hat and grape half. Gently press the currents into the banana slices to create eyes and the buttons on the body then add the carrot nose
6. Serve immediately

Tip: Chop everything up, place all the bits in separate bowls and then have the kids assemble the snowmen.

Recipe and photo source: One Handed Cooks

Makes 18

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Bake sweet potato for 35-45 minutes in a covered baking dish or until fork tender. Mash with a fork.
3. Reduce heat to 325F. Line a rimmed 9x9inch baking dish with parchment paper.
4. In a large bowl combine mashed sweet potato, almond butter, maple syrup, eggs and applesauce. Make sure there are no lumps in the almond butter. Pour all the dry ingredients on top. Combine with a rubber spatula. The trick is to eliminate all the clumps but not to overmix. If you mix too much the baking soda will activate early and the brownie won't rise.
5. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Gently remove from baking dish, tightly wrap in plastic and freezer. After about an hour use a hot, wet knife to cut evenly into 18 brownies. Serve chilled.

Recipe and photo source: Joyous Health

Serves 4-6

Instructions:

1. Slice and dice your carrots and squash. After peeling, of course.
2. Steam carrots until they're very soft (about 20 minutes). Quickly transfer them to a blender while still hot. Purée those bad boys.
3. Bring water and spices to a simmer. Add squash and return to simmer. Stay here (simmering, covered) until squash is quite soft (about 25 minutes). Stir as little as possible to avoid breaking the squash up.
4. Gently (this is key) stir in coconut milk and carrot puree and return to simmer. What you'll have is a deliciously thick and chunky soup. You can lighten it to your heart's content by simply adding water.
5. Bang pots, pans and cupboard doors around. It's important your family knows how hard you're working in there. Then serve.

Recipe and photo source: Real Food for Real Kids

Serves 8-10

Instructions:

1. Carefully chop watermelon into large chunks.
2. Add watermelon and fresh herb(s), and freshly-squeezed lemon and/or lime juice into a blender – blend!
3. Once you've reached the desired consistency, pour into a pitcher and chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
4. To enjoy immediately, add ice cubes.

Recipe source: Lulu Cohen-Farnell, founder of Real Food for Real Kids. As a real food advocate, speaker and fooducator, Lulu loves to share ideas on the magic of food, health and physical activity.

Serves 4

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper.
2. Saute onions and mushrooms in oil until tender.
3. Using your food processor, add chickpeas, chickpea flour, cumin, chili powder, garlic, lemon juice, parsley, sea salt and black pepper. Blitz until well blended.
4. Add mushrooms and onions, blitz again until blended.
5. Take 1 1/2 tbsp of mix and form into balls. Don't worry if they are sticky and don't form into perfect balls. Mine didn't :)
6. Bake for 30 minutes. At 15 minutes flip them. I used a spatula and flattened them a bit so they weren't such a wonky shape.

Recipe and photo source: Joyous Health

Makes 18-24 pieces

Instructions:

1. Add rice and water to a rice cooker, and turn it on until cooked (i.e. when the indicator of the rice cooker indicates “Keep Warm” from “Cook”).
2. Place the eggs in a small saucepan, cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Turn off the heat, and let it sit for 10 minutes on the hot burner.
3. While the rice and eggs are being cooked, cut the red bell pepper, celery sticks, cucumber, and avocado into small strips, and tear the cheese strings into small strips.
4. Cool the boiled eggs under cold running water, peel the shell, and slice into small strips.
5. Stir rice to cool and mix in the sugar and the rice vinegar, blend well.
6. Put one sheet of nori seaweed on a sushi mat, and spread a thin layer of rice to cover half of nori sheet.
7. Lay strips of red bell pepper, celery sticks, cucumber, avocado, cheese string, and egg on the other half of the nori sheet.
8. Roll the nori sheet and squeeze to make sure the roll is tight.
9. Cut the roll into 6 -8 equal pieces.
10. Repeat steps 6-9, each time with a new sheet of nori seaweed.
11. Arrange the sushi rolls on a plate and serve.
12. Optional: mix a small amount of wasabi and soy sauce as a dipping sauce for the sushi roll.

Recipe and photo source: Kenny, Brendan, Charley, and Eric from Mazo de la Roche Public School who won York Region's You're The Chef Cook Off contest.

Makes 6

Instructions:

1. Slice sweet potato lengthwise about 4 millimetres thick. Depending on the size of the potato, you may get 6 toasties.
2. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Grease or place parchment paper on a baking sheet. Place sweet potato toasties on a baking sheet.
3. Depending on which toastie recipe you may below, you can decide whether you'll season with cinnamon or sea salt and pepper. Give a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes until they are fork tender. You may wish to cook them longer to get them crusty or you could simply pop them in your toaster just before you dress them up. They will cook faster if they are cut thinner so check them at 25 minutes to make sure they don't burn.
5. Choose how you want to top your sweet potato toastie to your customized taste!

Recipe and photo source: Joyous Health

Makes 1 loaf

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF.
2. Grate the zucchini into a large bowl (everything is fair game: zucchini shreds, juices, and end scraps).
3. Add sugar, eggs, and oil, and mix with a wooden spoon until smooth. This will be your wet mix.
4. In another bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients (your dry mix).
5. Pour the wet mix over the dry mix and combine well with the wooden spoon.
6. Pour batter into a greased and floured bread pan. Bake for about 45-60 min (until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out dry).
7. Allow it to cool completely inside the pan. Heads up: this loaf is ultra delicate and will break if you try to remove it while it's still warm.

Recipe and photo source: Real Food for Real Kids

Makes 6 servings

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF.
2. Grate the zucchini into a large bowl (everything is fair game: zucchini shreds, juices, and end scraps).
3. Add sugar, eggs, and oil, and mix with a wooden spoon until smooth. This will be your wet mix.
4. In another bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients (your dry mix).
5. Pour the wet mix over the dry mix and combine well with the wooden spoon.
6. Pour batter into a greased and floured bread pan. Bake for about 45-60 min (until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out dry).
7. Allow it to cool completely inside the pan. Heads up: this loaf is ultra delicate and will break if you try to remove it while it's still warm.

Recipe and photo source: Real Food for Real Kids

Makes 20 balls

Instructions:

1. Reserve 1/4 cup (60 mL) shredded coconut in a shallow dish for rolling.
2. Place remaining ingredients in a high-powered food processor (you won't have to pre-shred the carrots if you have a high power processor) and process until fully combined.
3. Form mixture into 1-inch (2.5 cm) balls and roll in reserved shredded coconut, coating balls completely. Transfer to a baking sheet and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
4. Keep chilled, or freeze in an airtight container for a few months (though I guarantee they won't last that long).
5. Enjoy 1 or 2 as a snack or dessert.

Recipe and photo source: Joyous Health

Serves 1 - 2 people

Instructions:

1. Stir in salt, 1 tbsp. flour into 1 cup water and bring it to a boil.
2. Allow the mixture to boil rapidly.
3. Add the rest of the flour.
4. Set the pot aside, away from the stove and stir well to prevent any lumps.Put it back on the stove and cook until it thickens. Scrape off the sides and get the dough to the center of the pot.
5. Cover and cook on a low flame for about 2 to 3 minutes, make sure you are not burning it.
6. Take the pot off the stove and let the dough rest for few minutes. Keep the pot covered since it still gets cooked.
7. When the temperature comes down, grease or rinse your palms and roll the dough to balls. Serve with any dal or gravy curry.

Always have an adult help you when handling hot items.

Makes 2 individual pizzas

Instructions:

1. Preheat Oven to 450F/230C
2. Slice the English muffin in half.
3. Put the two halves on a small baking sheet.
4. Top the muffins with the tomato sauce.
5. Add cheese.
6. Add the tomato/pepper/mushroom slices .
7. Add basil.
8. Bake until the cheese is brown, the sauce is bubbly and the vegetable is cooked.
9. Serve immediately.

Serves: 6

Instructions:

1. Preheat over to 350F/ 180C
2. Pierce pie crust base with a fork
3. Place pie crust in oven until lightly browned (10-15 minutes) – use oven gloves.
4. Allow to cool
5. Cook fresh spinach until wilted and water is gone in a pan (medium heat) or defrost and squeeze out water from frozen spinach
6. Chop onion up finely
7. In another bowl mix eggs, milk, salt and spices
8. Mix onion and spinach into egg mixture
9. Pour into pie crust
10. Top with the cheese
11. Cook in oven until cooked through and a knife comes out clean from the centre – about 40-50 minutes.

Makes about 10 muffins

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C and place muffin cases in muffin pan
2. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl
3. Blend with an immersion blender for 1 minute (You can ask an adult to do this for you)
4. Spoon into muffin cases leaving space to rise
5. Sprinkle on some oats
6. Place in oven for 15 – 20 minutes until top is not wet and springy to the touch (An adult can test this for you)

Makes 4 wraps

Instructions:

1. Preheat the grill to 450F/225C.
2. Toss all the vegetables in a pan with the oil, salt and pepper
3. Bake for about 30 minutes until cooked through (Ask a parent to help you get things in and out of the oven)
4. Spread 1/4 cup of the hummus over each wrap bread
5. Top with 3 slices of zucchini, 2 pieces of red pepper, 1/2 cup of the spinach, a few sliced onions, 5 mushroom halves
6. Roll each of them up and cut in half on a diagonal.

Serves: 7 to 8

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in a pot
2. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes
3. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 30 minutes on a medium heat uncovered
5. Season and top with a basil leaf or some oregano