my 2 year old son is like your daughter, and I have the same concerns about baking so many sugary treats. Last weekend I had him help me make homemade playdough. We then used food coloring. It was messy but satisfied his urge for "baking."

My 16 month old is SO EXCITED about making waffles every Sunday morning. We've been using the King Arthur whole wheat waffle recipe, and I have to say that it makes some pretty yummy waffles!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/whole-wheat-waffles-recipe

Waffles aren't the most interactive recipe, but we have both been enjoying having a stash of waffles in the freezer for a quick breakfast!

You can try crackers - Alton Brown has a recipe for wheat crackers that are better than you buy in the store, and involve rolling and cutting. When I had a bigger kitchen I made them once a week. I have also made a cheese cracker that tastes like a cheez-it, but lighter and less greasy. 101cookbooks also has a few healthy cracker recipes on her site with various flours.

Pancakes are relatively low in fat/sugar to satisfy a baking urge. Pasta is a great idea, and you could go further in savoury baking.. quiche, pies, bread..

I have really fond memories of making wholewheat bread with my Gran when I was under 6 years old.

you can bake loaves of bread for sandwiches or granola for breakfast

How about skewering fruits such as strawberries, melons, grapes and kiwi. You can then drizzle with honey if you wish as well!

whole wheat goldfish crackers...so cute and healthIER.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/03/whole-wheat-goldfish-crackers/

We do a lot of whole wheat bread, often cinnamon raisin or blueberry. She also loves popovers. Waffles and pancakes can also be made with a wide variety of flours.
We haven't done pasta yet, but plan on it soon.

My toddler loves to make bread too. Another non-sweet that's easy to make together is gnocchi - less fussy than any other pasta.

What is it that they like about the process? The mixing? Do the kids get to cut the dough into shapes? The pouring?

I would take whatever they like and apply it to healthier cooking.

For example, if they like cutting dough into pieces, making pasta or cutting bread into shapes for sandwiches might be fun. If it's the mixing, that can be transitioned into making salads or sauces.

Smitten Kitchen has a whole-wheat goldfish cracker recipe on her blog: http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/03/whole-wheat-goldfish-crackers/

love the idea of making handmade pasta. i have wonderful memories doing this with my mom when i was little.

also, from babysitting a very picky eater, i learned that fruit "soups" are great additions to teddy bear tea parties:: OJ with pieces of banana/berries/grapes.

Maybe dried fruit pieces, like apple rings and banana chips. How about granola or trail mix?

I would say bread, bagels (seriously, it is not difficult...see smittenkitchen.com for the recipe)

I think it's great when kids want to bake in the kitchen! My son, now 2.5, is just into eating the dough. I like making quick breads and cutting the sugar, adding fiber and veggies etc. to make it a bit more healthy. Here's a couple of "baby bread" recipes: http://whatjuliaate.blogspot.com/2010/04/baby-bread-redux.html

Kale chips!!

I've made Smitten's bagels and they're really fun.

I was thinking about pizza? Still get to bake the dough, but kids can help chop up toppings, rip up cheese, spread their own sauce. Plus you can make faces, shapes, letters with the toppings...

How about dinner? I'm not great in the kitchen but we all have to eat so I just use whatever easy recipe we have. Fish cakes, pot pies, lasagna and other casseroles are good bets. She gets to mix, pour, shape, whatever, anything except handle raw meat. She's 3.5 now but has been interested in cooking for ages. I let her pick out recipes - she only gets to choose the ones with sugar every now and then.

PS: tonight we had a special treat - baked plantains tossed with cinnamon and a little butter topped with homemade chantilly cream and a little tj's chocolate sauce drizzle. fun, easy, sweet but not over the top. definitely little kid friendly.

Not exactly on the healthy side, but when I was a kid I remember being very impressed with a German pancake. Very easy to make but the big payoff is when Mom takes it out of the oven all puffy and browned. Little kids can get bananas or berries ready to put on top (and make it healthier). Sprinkling powdered sugar on top is a good job too.

And I agree with jello on making dinners together. There are lots of things a very young cook can do to help make a casserole.

My 3 year old daughter and I had so much fun baking these dinner rolls. She loved mixing in all the ingredients, rolling the dough into little balls and basting them with olive oil.
http://dinnertime.typepad.com/blog/2011/02/no-knead-dinner-rolls.html

Our five year old has been cooking with me since she was a toddler. For her, it doesn't matter whether it's sweet or savory, she just loves the process. Gathering ingredients from the kitchen or cupboard, measuring and dumping, stirring, any and all prep work, she loves it all. Besides baked goods, we've had great luck with having her make salads & salad dressings, pizza and calzones, fruit salads, and soups.

In terms of making dishes healthier, when we make baked goods I always sub out white whole wheat flour for regular white flour, and use applesauce for at least half of the butter/oil called for. We regularly add a spoon or more of wheat bran to baked goods and always add in nuts, dried fruit, and/or flax seeds as appropriate.

Have fun!

When I was little I use to help make fruit crisps

The topping is made from almond meal or oatmeal (I powder the oatmeal in a blender) with a little flour, some brown sugar, cinnamon
or vanilla extract and some butter.

You can use any berries, cherries, peaches, apples or what ever you have on hand.

It works with fresh, canned or frozen fruit.
Just arranged the fruit in a baking dish, put the Topping on and bake at 350'

I use to have so much fun blending the topping together with my fingers and sprinkling it over the fruit. :)

Look at the techniques you want to teach. Squeezing citrus fruit is fun, and can lead into a salad dressing or a juice. Slicing (we have the easy cutters from Pampered Chef, and my 2yo can cut safely with them) can lead to salad, snacks and soup. Whisking can be a batter, like yorkshire puddings, a dutch baby or a clafoutis. At 2, most of my children have been allowed to stir a pot AS LONG as they are the only child in the kitchen and I'm right there with them- but obviously, YMMV.

These!!!! http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/roundup-food-blogs/look-savoury-broccoli-cupcakes-128583

Surprise broccoli trees in a muffin! They look so fun and a way to get veggies into your baking :-)

trail mix is always a hit around here and easy to do with little kids. also a good pantry-cleaner-outer. you can pretty much throw in whatever you have - cereal, dried fruit, choc chips, nuts, pretzels, etc etc.

smoothies - same concept.

fruit salad - use a plastic knife and she can cut soft fruits herself. someone else suggested skewers - we enjoy those too.

Granola! It would be a fun thing to make once a week together - trying out new recipes each week (different nuts, dried fruits, spices).

How about baking bread? You can experiment with adding things like nuts or sunflower seeds ect.

My son loves to help me egg and bread chicken cutlets

My daughter digs making almond butter balls and the like.

Sounds like a sweet activity! My son is only 14 months so we're not to the "help in the kitchen" stage yet, but my nephew is 2.5 and my SIL just recently started doing breads from the Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day book with him (there's also a Healthy Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes book that uses whole grain flours). She makes a half batch and he helps her mix the dry ingredients. Then each day they bake off a fresh loaf and he helps shape it, helps time the rising, etc. When the batch runs out, they mix up more. Fresh healthy bread every day without too much time in the kitchen, since my nephew still has a short attention span.

I see someone else suggested Smitten Kitchen's goldfish crackers, those look yummy! What about baking gifts for other people too? Might be a good lesson in showing appreciation and being generous, and it avoids the problem of eating all the goodies yourself.

I still eat the peanut butter balls from this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Kinder-Krunchies-Healthy-Snack-Recipes-Children/dp/B000PGAY28
It's actually one of the just 2 cookbooks in my kitchen (other being an old betty crocker), simply for the nostalgia of it.

Mostly very basic, designed so that it can be used in classes I think (includes questions to get kids to think, teach kids to cook). The recipes and layout are set up so that kids would be able to do many of them with just a bit of help, including reading the recipes. Recipes range from more complex like bread, granola, etc to juicing oranges and grapefruit together (something a kid could probably do themselves once you cut the fruits in half for them), and so on Everything is at least somewhat healthy- most of the recipes are more "healthy [but tasty] snack" and not so much dessert.