Sure, I buy packet snacks, but I also aim for 80% of the snacks we eat to be made from wholefood ingredients. And lunchboxes, well they are always nuuuude!

Like these Unicorn Bliss Balls. (Nude) unicorn bliss balls! They are perfect for morning or afternoon tea or in a school lunchbox.

They are ridiculously easy to make and once you learn a base recipe that the family likes, you can mix and match it with seasonal ingredients.

They are perfect for bulk making and freezing. I always have a container in the freezer.

Below I have included three different versions that we use in our house, literally all the time, depending on what is in the pantry. If you have a nut friendly school, these are DELICIOUS with nuts.

I also love to add other fancy ingredients such as chia seeds or buckwheat groats for extra nutrition and also texture. Again it really depends what is lying about.

I have also included a PER CHILD recipe which is perfect for childcares and preschools where the children can touch every ingredient and be part of every step of the process, without wasting 2 cups of pitted dates. #littlepeoplecooking at its finest.

An a FYI. The acronyms I use for dietary requirements are:

NF – Nut free

EF – Egg free

DF – Dairy free

GF – Gluten free

Veg – Vegetarian

 

NF, EF, DF, Veg and Vegan

Serves 20

  • 2 cups of pitted dates
  • 1 cup of rolled oats
  • 1 cup of shredded coconut
  • 1 tbs of tahini

Or

GF, EF, DF, Veg and Vegan

Serves 20

  • 2 cups of pitted dates
  • 1 cup of cashews
  • 1 cup of shredded coconut
  • 1 tbs of tahini

Or

GF, EF, DF, NF, Veg and Vegan

  • 2 cups of pitted dates
  • 1 cup of puffed rice
  • 1 cup of shredded coconut
  • 1 tbs of tahini

 

Colour free sprinkles for rolling in.

 

What you do is:

  1. Boil some water and soak your pitted dates in it for at least 5 minutes.
  2. While they are soaking, prepare your “filler” ingredients. If you have chunkier coconut, oats, or puffed rice, pulse them in the blender to break them up into smaller pieces.
  3. When the dates are ready, drain them. You could pulse them in the blender as well, but you also can simply break them up using your fingers. This is so much fun for the kids as well.
  4. Add in the dry ingredients and massage them altogether to make you dough.
  5. Roll them into golf ball size pieces and the best part….roll them in some colourfree sprinkles to unicorn-ify them.
  6. Eat them (naturally) or freeze them for later.

Per child recipe

If you are in a childcare or would like to make these with little kids,  a super simple way to get them to touch a feel every step is to reduce the recipe down to one child. I do this a lot in my Little People Cooking videos.

  • 3 soaked and drained dates
  • 2-3 tbs of filler ingredients

Mish and mash it together with their fingers and they can make 1 large ball or two smaller balls.

Unicorn-ify the balls by rolling them in the sprinkles.

And eat! ?

This is a perfect activity for morning tea or afternoon tea at a childcare or preschool.

 

If you are interested in more childcare or preschool activities, you might want to stick around as in November 2018, we are launching our first Summer Childcare Menu Plan, which will be filled with recipes as well as cooking activities and food play activities for the little ones. We truly believe in nurturing the love of food in children and what a perfect way to influence the development of their relationship with food in their early learning environment.