We all find excuses, why our kids don’t
like to eat vegetables and fruit. Yes, it’s a tough job to convince these little monsters to eat
something, what they see as disgusting, soggy and tasteless. My mum always used
to say:
“Put it in your mouth, and if you
don’t like it, just spit it out.”
Luckily, she didn’t have to use
this sentence very often. My children are used to eating vegetables and fruits
from their early years. But I completely understand many of you out there, who
try the impossible without any progress. All I can do is recommend an easier
way to convince your kiddos to eat more veggies and fruit.
Two things you should try –
involve them while cooking, and try to “hide” every ingredient they could moan
about – mix it, mash it, wrap it, make it look better!
FISH
& GREENS FOR KIDS
1 big
sweet potato
4
carrots
1
fennel
bunch
of young spinach
1
onion
1
clove of garlic
bit of
fresh ginger
½ cup
of veg. stock
herbs
– thyme, sage
salt
pepper
From
the freezer:
1 cup
of frozen young peas
10pc
of king prawns
1 slice of salmon filet
If you have
fresh prawns & salmon even better –
in that case they’ll need 2-3 minutes
less for cooking!
Start with the sweet potato.
Peal it, and cut ¾ into thick potato fries, use baking paper and put them on a
hotplate. Addonion sliced into large chunks (onion will get nicely sweet and
soft) to the plate. Add virgin olive oil, salt & pepper. Use your hands to
stir the mixture. You want the oil to be all over the potatoes – that will make
them crispy and they won’t dry out. Pre heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Place
the potatoes inside and roast for approx. 15. minutes.
Clean the carrots, cut into small
pieces (smaller pieces will cook faster). Heat extra virgin olive oil in a pot.
Add the second half of the cut onion. Wait till it gets “glassy”. Then add
carrots, 1/3 of sweet potato, garlic, herbs and grated ginger over the top. Let
is sizzle for 2-3 minutes. Then add frozen peas and stir for another 2 minutes.
You should still have a little bit of sauce in the pot – but just a tiny bit!
Add prawns and salmon. Don’t worry that they are frozen. They will soften and
the juice from prawns and fish wil prevent the dish from burning! Give it a nice
stir, but be careful with the salmon. Don’t turn it too much – you want to have
a nice fillet of fish. Add a bit of stock, put the lid on the pot and let it
cook for 5 minutes. Then take the fish and prawns out of the pot. Your potatoes
should be ready in the meantime. Turn off the oven; add the fish and prawns to
the potatoes hotpan, and let them rest in the oven. It will take only a few
minutes for the dish to be ready
Now you have a pot full of yummy
greens. Since I know that my eldest doesn’t like to eat spinach that much, I decided
to divide the greens into pots. Add the spinach in one half, and let it cook -
only for one minute – it doesn’t need more. Turn of the heat and mix both
“sauces” – you will end up with kind of orange and green sauce. To make it even
more yummy for children – you may add cheese or fresh cream – but it’s not
necessary.
Take a plate – and make your own
design for dinner. You may try to make a funny face or kind of animal on the
plate. Kids love such surprises. But if you are in a hurry – don’t worry. As I
wrote before – let them cook with you. They will slowly start bulding a relationship
with every ingredient. Have fun with it!
For the salad – just cut fennel into
nice thin slices, add a bit of brown sugar or honey, fresh lime, salt, pepper
& olive oil. Stir well, and let the ingredience work together for 5 minutes. So simple and delicious…
So! Good
luck to all the mamas out there……
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