Dirt Cup Swap
My kids don’t eat any processed sugar or food dye so I get asked a lot how I handle treats when other kids are having them, and my answer is simple: I do my best to make something as close as possible that I can feel good about giving my kiddos. Last month they had a bug day at school and enjoyed the classic Dirt Cup dessert. I wont even go into the fact that there are 100 ways to talk about bugs with kids that don’t include dessert but here we are. The classic dirt cup is made with chocolate Jelly pudding, crushed Oreo cookies and gummy worms. Not only does the homemade version contain 5 times as much protein but also has half the amount of ingredients and no food dye. The sugar though is really the big difference. That classic dirt cup comes in at a whopping 38 grams of sugar. For reference, the American Pediatric Assocation recommends no more 25 grams of sugar per day for children and the new Dietary Guidelines actually recommend zero added sugar per day. That one “treat” far exceeds the daily recommendation. While I understand the appeal of making foods look like something else, it’s fun, I get it, I very strongly believe that food, especially sugar filled treats should be left out of the classroom but I know that is an uphill battle for parents wanting to avoid processed sugar and aritifcal dyes for their kids so here is my version. Which, just for the record, my kids LOVED! And I think tasted even better.
Homemade Dirt Cup:
Pudding:
1 cup cottage cheese, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons pure maple syrup. Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth
Dirt:
¼-½ cup Seven Sundays sunflower cereal, 1 tablespoon raw pumpkin seeds. Grind all ingredients in food processor or coffee grinder until a fine powder. (If you want darker dirt you could use one of Seven Sundays chocolate cereals or add cocoa powder)
Worms:
1 cup apple juice, 3 tablespoons beef gelatin, dash of turmeric. Full Recipe here
*The added sugar in the homemade version comes from pure maple syrup which has a much lower glycemic index than regular processed white sugar and other added sugars like high fructose corn syrup found in the original version.