Filling Tummies with Veggies - Part 2

One of my lovely forum buddies left a reply for me on my last post (where I was ranting about kids not eating veggies) and asked some great questions. After writing almost an essay in the reply section I then decided it would be best to post it here. I know many of us parents struggle with the same issues and I thought perhaps some of my other readers may like to leave a comment and/or advice in the section below. Here is the message from my buddy:

Chelsea, thanks for the reminder that it is worth the effort eventually! I am a vegie hider still (love one bowl meals so they can't dodge the vegies), but absolutely have to get past this stage. What are some of your favourite ways of serving vegies? And what are some strategies that have worked for your family? I have one that eats anything, and one that barely eats anything (not just vegies).

What are some of your favourite ways of serving veggies?

We love one pot meals too and they are often easier for the boys to eat. Generally our boys prefer pureed soups over chunky veggie soups. They will eat salad veggies in wraps and sandwiches but struggle with salad served on a plate (although we still serve them at least once a week for them to practice). I try to have basic meat and steamed veg meals a couple of times each week (Baf's chicken meal from the forum and my bangers and mash are two of our favourites). This prepares the boys for meals when we visit other peoples homes. They enjoy steamed veggies tossed in a little honey for a treat. They really love bubble and squeak and pizza with lots of veggie toppings. They like to be involved and are far more likely to eat the meal when they have helped to plan, grow or prepare it.

Sausage and Veggie Pizza

Bubble and Squeak

And what are some strategies that have worked for your family?

Those of you who know my family personally will no doubt agree with me when I say that our boys are two extremely different little chaps (both in personality and looks :-)). Our veggie feeding approach has reflected this difference and has been very different with each of our boys.

Our eldest son hated veggies with a passion from the moment we picked him up from Ethiopia at fourteen months! We really wanted to tread carefully and not force the veggie issue with him as bonding with him was much more important. When he was a little older though we devised a game using a divider bowl. In each section of the bowl we put a small amount of veggies (or main meal) and some little "treats" (crackers, dried fruit, cheese). Our rule was that he wasn't allowed to start eating from another section until he had eaten everything in the section in front of him. With lots of praise and encouragement this worked really well and the treats were gradually replaced with more veggies/main meal. He now eats veggies - albeit rather slowly!

Our second little man was a great veggie eater as a little bub but changed his mind about them when he hit the notorious toddler stage. Our approach with him was to be really firm. We used praise and encouragement but basically he wasn't allowed to get down from his chair until he had eaten a sufficient amount of dinner (and we were very reasonable with our dinners - no sprouts). If he refused to eat there was nothing else on offer - although we did introduce banana slices for supper at the time (totally unrelated to refusing dinner of course :-)). It was hard at times and I wouldn't recommend the approach for all children, but we do now have a little man at age almost 3 who eats really well. I know if we hadn't persisted with him he wouldn't be eating them at all now.

I think the most important thing is to devise a strategy and stick to it for at least a couple of weeks. Oh and never fall into the trap of offering an alternative at the table if they refuse to eat the reasonable meal that you have offered (no milkshakes, bowls of yoghurt etc). If you start doing that you may very well still be doing it when they are teenagers. Introduce supper if you need too just before bedtime, but there's no need to mention to them that it is a replacement for dinner. Decide your level of firmness and stick to it (allowing of course for illness, teething, tiredness etc).

I hope this helps a little. Good luck CB! :-)

Filling Little Tummies with Veggies

My little rant for the day (one of the benefits of having a blog):

This morning I took the boys to our local playground and got chatting with another Mum who was down there giving her little children a play also. We were having a lovely chat when my eldest son came over and announced he had a growling tummy and we had better go home to eat the soup that we had made earlier in the morning. The other Mum looked absolutely stunned and said that I was such a lucky Mum to have children that would eat veggie soup. She told me that her children absolutely refused to eat any vegetables other than fried potatoes.

I smiled politely and loaded the boys into the car, but her words stayed with me. Was I really a lucky Mum??? While I know that children dislike vegetables to varying degrees, I don't think our boys present willingness to eat them has much to do with luck. When I consider the many hours that my husband and I have spent preparing veggies, feeding veggies, "wearing" veggies, working out strategies for eating veggies, encouraging, praising and explaining the benefits of eating veggies - no I honestly don't think I am a lucky Mum (in that regard). My boys certainly wouldn't be big veggie eaters if left to their own devices.

I really cannot understand why eating veggies is a choice in some households. Sure children have strong dislikes for certain vegetables which should be taken into account, but just letting them eat fried potato??? Where is the parent responsibility? I know a lady with grown up children and she told me that her one big failure as a mother was that she didn't persevere and make her son eat vegetables (other than mashed potato). She was told he would eat them in his own time, but he never did. Her son had a very weak immune system while he was growing up and was constantly sick. He is now an adult with chronic health problems and he really wishes his mother had made him eat veggies like other Mum's did. He does eat some veggies now but they are so foreign to his palate that he really struggles to get them down.

When it comes to eating veggies I wonder if it is actually our boys who are lucky. Lucky to have parents that are willing to perserve day after day to help them eat their veggies! If you are a fellow veggie pusher don't be afraid to give yourself a pat on the back. It isn't easy, but is so worth doing for your children (and it does get easier)!!!

Just hoping off my soapbox now! :-)

Belated Christmas Greetings

My apologies everyone! I lost track of time on Christmas Eve and didn't get a chance to turn the computer on before we headed away to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I do hope you all had a wonderful Christmas though with lots of love, laughter and yummy goodies to fill your tummies.

We had an absolutely beautiful Christmas - very relaxing and fun. We headed up to my family's beach house at Greens Beach on Christmas Eve and enjoyed a fish and chip picnic (as requested by Hubby for his birthday tea) before heading to church with our family. The church service was lovely and simple with beautiful carols! I really love going to Church at Christmas time. It is too easy to get caught up with Santa and all the preparations and forget what the day is really all about.

Our Christmas Day started very early. Our eldest son attempted to get up at 2.30am and was promptly taken back to bed. We were quite relieved when he then slept through to 6am and then agreed to hop in with us for a little cuddle before waking his brother and Grandparents at 7am. Christmas morning was a delight and our traditional Christmas lunch was a real treat. Not only was the food simply amazing, we were actually able to enjoy it child free. Our two boys (and our dear little niece) were tucked up in bed napping over lunch. Heaven!!! In the early afternoon we had our family present time (Santa presents are in the morning) and we were so thrilled to see our boys so delighted with the presents they received. Late afternoon was spent at the beach, before heading back to the beach house to enjoy a light tea of prawns and salad. It really was wonderful to be able to spend the entire day in one place. It was so relaxing and the kids had a great time playing with their toys and paddling around at the beach.

Today I am back to reality though. Four loads of washing and a big afternoon cooking in the kitchen!!! Hubby is still on holidays so the cooking really wasn't a chore. It is a treat to have a few uninterrupted hours in the kitchen. In just over two hours I whipped up a loaf of soaked rye bread, some soaked khorasan banana muffins, a peach and custard crumble (this recipe with a base of stewed peaches), a batch of choc chip cookies and honey mustard chicken with steamed rice. It was one of those afternoons in the kitchen where everything went to plan and worked out well. Golly I love my thermomix - I wouldn't have got half of that cooking done without it.

Stay tuned over the next couple of days because I will be posting our family's top 10 favourite thermomix recipes for 2010! We are still debating the last couple on the list, but it will be ready soon!

I will leave you with a couple of photos of our boys that were taken by Photographer Angela Craze from inspiretas at our home just before Christmas. We used the lovely photos in calendars that we gave as gifts at Christmas time.

Filling Tummies with Porcupine Meatballs

Gosh I love Christmas!!! Is is such a beautiful time of the year when you have little children. Today we took the boys to a store to have their photo taken with Santa for the first time. Our eldest son was absolutely bursting with excitement and afterward he told us that "today is the most lovely day ever". We hunted for Santa's sleigh around the store after the photo and the boys decided he must have come on the bus. So cute!

Our preparations for the big day are going well and the fridge is now jam packed with goodies. We are keeping things very low key in the meals department this week in readiness for all of the rich treats which will no doubt be filling our tummies on Saturday. One of the simple but nutritious meals that I will no doubt be whipping up this week is Porcupine Meatballs. This simple meal is easy with or without a thermomix and can be made more nutritious be using homemade condensed tomato soup, brown rice and serving them with steamed veggies. Yum!

Porcupine Meatballs

Ingredients:

120g brown rice
500g lean beef mince
1 small brown onion - peeled and quartered
salt and pepper
1 450g can of tomato soup (or make your own using this recipe)
230g water

Method:

Weigh the brown rice into the rice basket and rinse well. Cook the brown rice (with 1L water in the bowl) for 20 minutes at varoma temperature on speed 4. Discard water and rinse rice in cold water.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Add onion to the TMX bowl and chop for 5 seconds on speed 5.

Add the mince, rice and salt & pepper. Mix for 10 seconds on reverse speed 3.

Form the mixture into walnut size balls and place in a baking dish (I use a large glass pyrex dish).

Place the soup and water into the TMX bowl and mix for 20 seconds on speed 3. Pour over the meatballs and spoon a little of the soup mixture over each meatball if they are not completely covered.

Bake for 1 hour (increase cooking time if your meatballs are larger). Take the meatballs out and turn them over after 30 minutes.

Serve with steam veggies and mash potato or fresh bread rolls.

Enjoy!

Filling Tummies with Condensed Tomato Soup

Each summer I buy a 15kg box of sauce tomatoes, chop them up and freeze them in 1kg bags. During the year I then thaw them out when needed to make tomato sauce, relish, passata, pizza and pasta sauces. This year however I am trying to reduce our use of plastic in the kitchen and am therefore going to preserve my fresh tomatoes in one hit (rather than freezing them in plastic).

I have started to get organised and have been busy rounding up suitable jars and bottles from local op shops. I have also started deciding upon my favourite recipes in readiness for my big preserving weekend. Some of my favourites so far include the Ketchup recipe from My Way of Cooking, MJ's Passata, Sally's Relish and my Pizza Sauce.

There is another recipe that I have also recently added to my favourites collection and that is my preserved condensed tomato soup. This recipe actually came about due to a major "oops-a-daisy" in the kitchen where I turned some still frozen tomatoes into sorbet in my thermie. I didn't have a hope of making the relish that I was planning on, but with some major adjustments I managed to turn it into some lovely thick condensed tomato soup. I have since adjusted the sweetness and reduced the vinegar and am now rather proud of this little recipe. I have used the condensed soup to make macaroni beef and echidna meatballs (which I will have to post the recipe for soon). It is so nice to be able to use condensed tomato soup in recipes again. I refuse to buy it due to the preservatives, but I do miss the sweet, rich flavour it brings to dishes!

Condensed Tomato Soup

Ingredients1 large brown onion - peeled and quartered
1 large green apple - cored and quartered
1kg quartered and frozen tomatoes (slightly thawed)
80g red wine vinegar
50g water
150g rapadura (or a little less sugar)
1 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp curry powder
pinch cayenne pepper

Method:
Place onion and apple in TMX bowl and chop for 5 seconds on speed 5. Set aside.

Place tomatoes in TMX bowl and chop on speed 9 using the spatula to assist. Continue stirring and chopping until the tomatoes reach a sorbet-like consistency.

Add remaining ingredients (including apple and onion) and mix for 10 seconds on speed 4.

Cook for 40 minutes at varoma temperature, speed 2.

Blend for 1 minute on speed 9 (turn dial slowly to speed 9 in case of splatters).

Pour into hot sterilised jars (I use two 500ml jars for each batch) and seal.

Use in casseroles, pasta bakes and any other recipe that calls for a can of tomato soup. :-)

Notes:I haven't tried making this with fresh tomatoes, it may very well work the same though.

Treading Lightly - Disposable Laundry Scoops!!!

One of my absolute pet hates are the little plastic laundry scoops that come in boxes of laundry powder. I can't for the life of me see why we need them. Surely we are all capable of keeping a tablespoon or small cup in the laundry for measuring powder or liquid. We can all measure ingredients in our kitchens (we don't need disposable scoops in our flour bags) so surely we can transfer those skills into our laundries. I know they are tiny and probably don't contribute enormously to our country's landfill (although there must be millions going in every year), but they are just so ridiculously wasteful and unnecessary.

Earlier in the month though I had a very pleasant surprise. I decided to forgo our regular "ecostore" laundry powder and instead decided to trial the slightly cheaper "Aware" brand (endorsed by Planet Ark). The Aware product is similar to ecostore in many environmentally friendly ways and doesn't contain the nasty chemicals that assist in whitening (a good thing I know - sigh!). What pleased me so much about the Aware brand though was that it doesn't contain a scoop. Hooray!!! When I opened our first pack of Aware I hadn't read the box (of course) and I spent a little while digging around in the powder feeling for a scoop. I was so elated when I actually read on the box that it doesn't contain a scoop that I was actually tempted to ring Hubby at work to tell him. He has listened very patiently to my rather ridiculous laundry scoop rants over the past decade - bless him. So anyway this is what the box actually says:

PLEASE NOTE: A plastic scoop in every pack is wasteful. You can help the environment by dedicating a small measuring cup to the laundry.

I don't think it would happen often that a company would actually save money by making their product more environmentally friendly. Common sense prevails! Woohoo!!!

Filling Tummies with Gingerbread

Well Christmas is now in full swing at our house. The tree is up, the carols are playing, the boys are excited and I am busy cooking. I'm not cooking for the big day yet though. Just getting organised for all of the parties and break-ups that fill the calendar at this time of year.

This Christmas I have simplified my end of year baking somewhat to save both time and money. I made a large batch of gingerbread dough and froze it in 3 large pieces. That way it only needs to be thawed, rolled, cut out and baked the night before we need to "take a party plate". I bought some tiny M&M's that can be baked (in the choc chip section of the supermarket) to decorate them with. They look quite cute and have been very popular with the little tots!

Here is a photo of our gingerbread stars that we took to a party earlier in the week:

Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:
190g treacle (or molasses if you like the flavour)
85g butter (room temperature)
1 large free-range egg
160g-170g brown sugar (or rapadura and a pinch of stevia)
450g plain flour (I used spelt - about 520g)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground cloves
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp allspice

Method:

Add treacle, butter and egg to TMX bowl and beat on speed 4 for 1 minute.

Add remaining ingredients and mix on speed 4 for 30 seconds or until mixture is well combined and stiff. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and remix if necessary. You may need to add a little extra flour and remix to achieve a stiff mixture.

Divide the dough into portions, wrap in plastic and freeze for later use.

Or

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface and cut out your desired shapes (re-rolling the excess dough). Place the shapes on a greased or lined tray. Press on decorations (M&M's etc) if using. Bake cookies at 180 degrees for 8-10 minutes depending on thickness. Don't overcook - the cookies will become firm on standing.

Decorate with icing if desired. Enjoy!

Notes:
This is a large batch - it makes approximately 95 medium sized star shaped cookies.