Children and healthy eating

By far, the biggest traffic inducer to this blog has been discussing healthy eating for kids. It seems many, many parents are on this venture to know HOW to get their kids to eat better. Let me start by saying that we tend to be really patient with kids learning to walk, read, write, and learning how to ride a bike but want them to eat well NOW. And some kids do right from the start, but for many, it is a learnt skill.

My eldest was about 4.5 when he finally clicked into gear with natural foods. And his eating improved not long after ours, so I do think it was partly modelling. All kids want to be like their parents in some way so if they see you drinking green smoothies and eating salad and veg primarily then they will – eventually – want to do the same.

Mr 3 is still a battle but we are working on colours of food with him. You can present food in rainbows for example and tell them they need to choose 2-3 colours. My youngest LOVES yellow – so matching his yellow clothes, we have grown yellow tomatoes and serve up yellow capsicum, pineapple, banana, and whatever else is yellow.

This is going to be a long post but in the meantime for those desperate for ideas, here are some we have done:

          Vegetarian kids: dippy egg with loads of “sticks” to dip with.

 They will eat anything if it is wrapped up with hommous.

  Anything healthy baked   into  bread scrolls.

     The sensational tomato sauce in pastry scrolls.

  Salads with mango, macadamias and avocado (so they get used to the feeling of eating salad)

And no photo for these (yet) but pasties are a hit (cumin spiced veggies in pastry triangles) as well as nachos. I use ORGANIC corn tortillas (GMO corn is scary),  the sensational tomato sauce (packed full of nutrition) and mashed avocado with lemon on top. The kids ADORE that. Just leave out the cheese and sour cream (they don’t need it), use fresh avocado and a goodness-packed tomato sauce and it is quite an awesome meal. I’ll post pics and a recipe next time I make it!

Also for snacks, the vege chips and carob, oat and banana balls are a hit. And the baci balls disappeared!

Hidden foods
There was a book that came out some time ago about how to hide good veggies in ‘bad’ food for kids. Chocolate, zucchini slice and chicken nuggets dipped in cauliflower puree etc. Part of me does a happy dance when I see the boys eating lovely nutritious food that they don’t know they are eating!

But on the whole, I actually think that if we hide veggies, kids don’t learn that they are a normal part of eating and learn to enjoy their natural flavour. KJ has now started raw broccoli dipped in hommous. I could not believe my eyes at first but it is testament to – if you keep serving it (without fuss), eventually they will try it. It needs to become normal.

Eating out

I detest children’s menus. Chicken schnitzel and chips, fish and chips, hamburgers… apart from the fact that I’m vegan, I just despair that restaraunts don’t see the value in salad and veg for kids. They know what parents want: something salty and fatty that will keep the kids happy and quiet when eating out!

I remember a pizza place in New Zealand served a “Healthy kids platter” and it was totally divine. It was a snack plate of nibbles – carrot sticks, cheese, ham rolled up, celery, bread triangles… that was in our pre-vegan days too but I LOVE that restaurant for valuing a healthy food option for children.

My kids would probably prefer rice, stir fry veg and some veg spring rolls. That’s their ‘norm’ for eating out. I just think we shouldn’t underestimate them.

School

This leads me onto school. What.the.heck is our school thinking calling themselves a healthy eating canteen when they serve hotdogs, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, nuggets and my most horror of horrors, SLUSHIES. NO children need a cocktail of petrochemicals and sugar at school. It is going to inhibit their learning, lead to difficulty in controlling their behaviour and thus, likely to end up getting them into trouble. I will most definitely be tackling the canteen at some point in our life together 🙂

Artificial colours are dangerous for kids. I’ll post  more on that another day.

See spoonfed blog

Fed up with food additives has a HUGE amount of information, this link is particularly to artificial colours/additives numbers to avoid in foods. Print it out, take it with you. And their recipes

Jamie Oliver’s food revolution – recipes included.

In the mean time, see below for a birthday cake we made for my eldest’s 5th birthday. This is done using absolute natural, plant based colours.

Naturally coloured rocket cake

And so was this one for his 4th:

Naturally coloured monster truck cake

The boys have never had a smartie in their life so this was a cheeky first for them. But they are also naturally coloured (although do contain dairy). The rest of it is dairy free and petrochemical free.

There are loads of options available these days where we CAN avoid the nasties in food. It takes a little research when you are getting into it…feel free to ask questions and as you’ve requested, I’ll put some more posting energy into kid friendly food snacks. 🙂

A month of green smoothies

I found a fantastic post today via pinterest. This is from All Things Good – go have a look if you are into green smoothies!

It is just a way to organise your smoothies to take the morning stress of preparation out of the equation (if it is a stress). It is  also a way not to have a bunch of kale go feral in your fridge waiting for smoothies 🙂
I’m going to do this. Though I think mixing it up with raspberries or lemon/mint etc would be good too so they are not the same everyday.

Hope this helps.

Asian style mega salad

We were having on of *those* nights and figured today was a day for takeaway. After getting the kids into bed and flicking through the menus, Dave realised that takeaway options really aren’t going to be anywhere near as healthy or tasty as something we would make :).

So this is what he came up with! A colourful, extremely tasty, healthy crunchy salad with a delicious Asian dressing.

What is in the salad you ask?

Mixed leaf lettuce

wombok cabbage

Capsicum – red and yellow

Carrot – slithered

Brocolli – little florets

Almonds

Fried shallots

Dressing:

2 cloves garlic, minced

2cm of ginger, minced

1 leek, diced

1/4 tsp ground chilli

1 T dark soy sauce

1 tsp tamarind paste

1 tsp rice malt syrup

Juice of half an orange

1 t rice wine vinegar (splash of)

Saute the garlic, ginger, leek and chilli in coconut oil. Add in the remaining ingredients and simmer until slightly reduced. Add in some water until you are happy with the consistency of the dressing.

This is a seriously lovely salad. Dave has told me the ingredients of the dressing but I have to say, he’s like me and makes up recipes so feel free to alter it to whatever suits your tastes and requirements. Enjoy!

Vegan raspberry yoghurt ice-cream

I was remembering my early high school days when I loved nothing more than getting a vegemite roll and a frozen yoghurt from the school canteen for lunch. Nutritious, yes? 🙂 We weren’t so worried then about nutrition as we seem to be these days.

But it did give me an idea. As discussed in prior recipes, we buy a non GMO plain Soy yoghurt. I don’t use it much and thus found myself with a large tub that needs to be used up! This yoghurt has some sugar in it but I think in the scheme of things it is the best of a bad bunch! And I quite like the taste of it in breakfasts sometimes.

Anyhow…

Ingredients:

1 cup Organic plain soy yoghurt

1 cup frozen raspberries

2 ripe bananas

1 T Agave nectar

Blend the bananas in a food processor until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and blend.

Freeze!

Alternatively you could freeze the bananas, and if you need an instant icecream, blend yoghurt with frozen bananas and berries and it will be immediately creamy and delicious. I chose to make this one in the day and freeze it again, just for time’s sake.

Baci energy balls

My all-time favourite ice cream back in the day was baci. Baci, in Italian, means “kisses”. I have just started learning Italian so I figure this was an appropriate place to start: I absolutely adore the choc-hazlenut combination.

Let it be said though, this is not a rich, sweet creamy dessert. But they are delicious, healthy, choc-hazlenut energy balls all the same! You could easily press it down into a container and cut it up into brownies too if preferred.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups hazelnuts

1 cup Medjool dates (pitted)

3/4 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup pepitas

1/4 cup raw cacao

1 T rice syrup (or agave nectar)

1 T coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

It really is as easy as putting it all in a food processor and waiting for it to combine. I find the balls work better though if you grind the hazelnuts down before adding anything else, however. I don’t mind if the pepitas are still chunky in the balls, a bit of texture is good I figure.

I add the rice syrup more for moisture than sweetness – if you like extra sweet, you may even need more but if you’re not a huge sweet tooth, you could well leave the rice syrup out and use 1 T of water. It just helps to combine the mixture.

My last tip on making balls is to use a melon baller if you own one? It helps for measuring for the same sized balls and also begins a perfect round shape 🙂

Sunrise breakfast

Healthy sunrise breakfast

This breakfast is a zingy, fresh, gorgeous start to a day: and that is coming from someone who would generally prefer not to eat breakfast!

1/4 cup mashed/blended raspberries

1/4 cup puffed amaranth

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup shredded coconut

1 T chia seeds

1/2 cup almond milk

2 fresh dates, chopped

1/2 cup chopped nuts/seeds

1/2 nectarine, chopped

Place the blended raspberries on the bottom of the glass.

Next, top with combined amaranth,vanilla,coconut, chia and milk (I prefer this to be soaked – even for half an hour but preferably overnight. I like it a little mushy!).

Add a 3rd layer of nuts, seeds and dates.
Add a 4th layer of fresh chopped nectarine!

I actually think this would be a beautiful dessert as well. But for now, breakfast sunrise it is 😛

Plant based eating with kids

It can be a struggle. My 5 yo now is right into spinach, celery, cucumber, carrot etc but it has taken us years to get him there. Our 3 year old…not so much. He likes cucumber without the skin and he likes carrot…cooked. But that’s about it.

So this is what I am trialling. Snack plate trays they love! Colour, texture, size, crunch, taste…all sorts and they can choose. The deal is though, they have to eat at least 3 different colours.

This night they had the Roast tomato soup (which has lentils in it), baked carrot chips (carrot slithers, baked like the vege chips), baked pita bread, carrot/celery/capsicum/cucumber strips, basil pesto, cashew cream, and baked cauliflower. On the whole it was great! My 3 yo would still prefer to live on air but he got there with some coaxing from my  his brother, who actually loved the soup, and LOVED the cauliflower. Normally he refuses to touch cauliflower so I was happy with this development and he announced that this is the ONLY way he will eat it. Baked? Fine by me!

Baked, spiced cauliflower

It really shouldn’t be hard to believe that this could be yummy but I was reserving judgement until I tried it. I love raw cauliflower, you see. Why mess it up with an oven? My kids, on the other hand, don’t love raw cauliflower – but this was a hit with my 5 yo! (Hence, his hand is in the photo 🙂 It’s proof!).

I cut the florets off half a cauliflower but it really shrinks – so I would suggest using a whole one.

1 cauliflower

salt and pepper

rice bran oil

and other seasoning if you wish. I used Jamie Oliver’s szechuan seasoning. S&P would be fine on it’s own or you could use garlic (fresh or powdered), chilli flakes, paprika, cumin, ground coriander – anything would be lovely.

Cut the florets off and toss in oil and seasoning.

Then bake for 1.5 hours at 175 degrees C. Bake until brown and crunchy! The crunchy bits were the best!

Rustic roast tomato soup with cashew cream and pesto

 

Today is windy and cool and I had a sudden urge for a rustic, filling, homemade soup. I tend to like chunky vegetable soups but my husband, Dave, prefers smooth creamy ones. So I thought I’d try to meet us in the middle somewhere.

Ingredients

• 2kg vine ripened tomatoes (or 1kg plus 1 large tin crushed tomatoes)
• 1 fresh red chilli (or less, depending on your capacity for chilli)
• 4 cloves of garlic, smashed
• 2 small spanish (purple) onions, diced
• 4tbsp red wine
• 1/2 cup red lentils
• 1-2 T balsamic vinegar
• A small bunch of fresh basil

Directions

Quarter the tomatoes , toss in some oil, salt and pepper and roast them with the garlic cloves for 2 hours on 160 degrees C.

Dice 2 spanish onions, saute them with the chilli and add in the red wine. (If you are not a wine drinker, leave this out).

Add in the tomatoes (if you are using a tin, add this at this point also), balsamic vinegar and basil.

Add in lentils and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Pour soup mix into a blender or food processor and blend!

Served with cashew cream and basil pesto – delicious!

Cashew cream

1 cup of cashews soaked in 1 cup non dairy milk for 2 hours.

Blend and refrigerate.

Basil pesto

For the pesto, see here.

Basil and pine-nut pesto

Vegan basil pesto

1 bunch basil leaves

1 large clove of garlicc

1/4 rice bran oil

1/4 cup pine nuts

salt and pepper

Blend and refrigerate :). Lemon juice can also be a lovely addition to the pesto if desired.

Breakfast mash

What else can I call a picture like this? 🙂

gluten free, vegan

This actually is the general standard breakfast in our house.

You choose the quantities you like but here’s what I mash together:

1/2 cup Puffed Amaranth

2 T raw cacao

1 banana, mashed

2 T pepitas

1/4 cup chopped almonds

1/4 cup coconut (shredded)

1/4 cup rasberries

2 T chia seeds

Yummy! Here is what it looked like before mashing:

It’s tasty, light, and a good start to the day. I adore raspberries so that works for me – my husband always has blueberries (frozen btw) instead. Each to their own 🙂

This is such a great resource for anyone with plant based questions, just had to share.

Roast tomato and green beans with mustard dressing

I’m kicking myself for not remembering where I got this idea, but nevertheless, this is something I saw somewhere and of course, ran with it, played with it, and this is what I came up with. I’m not a huge fan of green beans (much prefer snow peas) so anything that gets them into me in interesting and delicious ways suits me! I like FLAVOUR.

Cut 2-3 tomatoes into wedges, drizzle them with balsamic vinegar, and roast them at 150 degrees C for 2 hours.

Cut the tails of your green beans (use however much depending on the size of your salad!),

1/2 spanish (purple) onion sliced finely

1/4 cup pine nuts (roasted if you prefer)

and mix those 4 ingredients together.

In a bowl, mix 2 T balsamic vinegar, 2 T rice bran oil and 1 T seeded mustard. Stir until combined and drizzle over the salad. It’s zingy, refreshing, tasty and nutritious 🙂

Breakfast parfait

Firstly, apologies for the ordinary photo, I was in a hurry to try these 🙂

Breakfast parfaits are awesome. It makes you feel “fancy” 🙂 and has unending options of what your favourite tastes and textures could be. This is what is in these particular parfaits:

1/2 cup amaranth (puffed)

1/4 cup raw cacao

1 cup almond/oat milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 T chia seeds

—> make this and leave in the fridge the night before so it soaks into a delicious chocolate porridge.

In the morning, layer the amaranth porridge with nut spread, banana, pepitas, strawberries, plain soy yoghurt, blueberries and coconut. I would have loved fresh raspberries (I love chocolate and raspberries together!) and slithered almonds if I had them.

Delicious, delicious. You could also freeze a banana the night before, whizz it in a blender before putting it in the parfait and it is a beautiful, creamy ice cream texture. I steered away from dates because I didn’t want this one too sweet but dates and agave are of course always possible if you want the sweetness hit.

Passionfruit would be another tasty addition too!

Enjoy, and tell me what your creations are!

Raw hazelnut chocolate ‘cheesecake’

Oooooo are you going to looovvee this one 🙂 I happened to make this for Valentines Day and my husband actually went back for more cheesecake (so, so rare, he’s a health nut but hey, this dessert is as healthy as it gets) while I flopped on the couch and announced that I could die happy after eating that! It.is.SENSATIONAL.

This time I was sure I was going to follow a recipe to the letter. And once again couldn’t help myself! So this amazing raw vegan desserty goodness comes from here at Vegan baking but yes, below is my slightly altered version… The original uses Maple syrup and cocoa powder which is ok but I think not technically raw and not technically *as* healthy. But that’s being fussy. And I’ve added in some dates as an alternative sweetener to agave and messed with some quantities. I don’t think you can go too wrong with this though. It is a beautiful recipe and easy to alter and adapt – for everyone. Use what you have!

Crust                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

1 cup ground hazelnuts

1/4 cup raw cacao powder

1 T Agave nectar

3 Medjool pitted dates

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pinch sea salt

Filling 

2 cups raw cashews, soaked and rinsed

¼ cup nut spread (I used brazil, cashew and almond but you can use peanut or hazelnut butter)

½ cup coconut oil, melted

½ cup agave nectar

½ cup raw cacao powder

½ cup water

½ teaspoon salt

Chocolate Sauce 

⅓ cup coconut oil, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼  cup agave nectar

¼ cup raw cacao powder

I used a flexi muffin pan to make individual cheesecakes but you could, as the original recipe suggests, use a flexi/silicone pan to make one big ‘cheesecake’. The silicone just pops it straight out when you push up, no worries.

1)

Blend all crust ingredients together in a food processor until it starts to come together. Press the crust into the bottom of desired pan, about ¼ inch thick. Set aside while you make the filling.

2)

In a food processor or mixer blend together cashews, agave, water and salt. Mix until totally smooth, scraping down the sides of the processor as necessary. Add cacao, nut butter and coconut oil to the cashew mixture and blend them all together, scraping down again, until mixture is uniformly combined.

3)

Spoon or pipe the filling on top of the crusts. Stick the cheesecake in the freezer until solid all the way through (at least 2 hours for individual cheesecakes, 4 for a large cheesecake).

4)

Once frozen, remove the cheesecake from the pan. If using a silicone mold they will easily pop out. If you have a muffin tin, run a sharp, hot knife around the edges of each cheesecake, flip the tin upside down and give it a few good whacks against the counter. They should start to slowly side out at this point. Be patient, gravity is on your side. If a few minutes have passed and the cheesecakes are still refusing to drop, use a lighter to heat the bottom of the tin briefly; the heat will help release the cake.

5)

Place the cheesecakes in the refrigerator and make the chocolate sauce by stirring ingredients together.

6) I topped the little cheesecakes with fresh strawberries and drizzled the chocolate sauce over the top. I think the fresh fruit was beautiful with the density of the dessert. Yum!