Have A Good One!

Is it just me or has this year flown by?! July already, things are hotting up and what a perfect way to enjoy some summertime treats.

Ideas and recipes to follow soon...if you have any thing you wish to share with other followers too, do post your comments on this blog.

Bring on a fun filled summer, full of new experiences, ideas, great food and joy!

Pinterest!

Exciting news, My Fruit And Vegetable Friends is now on Pinterest! You can use this link My Fruit And Vegetable Friends for more great recipe ideas and photos.

See you there!

Vegetable Skewers



Vegetables skewers are always a fun way of presenting vegetables to  children*, being perfect for barbecues, parties as well as adding some fun to normal mealtimes. Vegetables can be roasted in the pan, on the barbecue or the oven and served with some delicious homemade barbecue sauce - guaranteed to go down a treat!

BBQ Sauce

Mix 1 heaped tablespoon of cornflour with 1/2 a cup of water in a saucepan. Add a generous teaspoon of Mugi or Genmai Miso, 1 tablespoon of juice from grated ginger and 1 tablespoon of apple juice concentrate. Mix well and bring to the boil and simmer allowing the sauce to thicken (continue stirring well throughout to minimise any lumps).

This works well with vegetables and fish...and not just for the little ones!

Enjoy :-)

*provided that they are old enough not to harm themselves with the sticks!

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The 7 levels of Cooking

Our body’s needs. Why, what, how and how much

The modern way of eating and its effects

The move towards a healthier way of eating

Transitional steps. Changing for the better

Quick cooking for busy people

The inner journey of digestion – achieving its maximum potential

Creating good quality blood

Activating our body’s natural ability to detoxify

Breakfast – start a day with harmony and vitality

Introduction to the Energetics of our daily foods

Simple menu planning for daily use -theory & practise

Mastering the art of daily balance

Cooking for individual energetic needs

Learn about our Constitution

Self-diagnosis and its practical application in daily cooking

The wheel of life: our needs at different stages of life

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Seasonal cooking – how to achieve balance in each season

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Begin this summer with increased energy, health and wellbeing!

Pasta

Children LOVE pasta and whilst emphasis on whole grains is preferable for daily, long lasting energy and to strengthen the nervous system, pasta can also be a great way to integrate vegetables. Try using wholemeal pasta for a healthier alternative.

You can add vegetables to pasta in the following ways...

• STIR FRIED: Stir fried vegetables mixed with noodles or pasta work well. Try adding a few walnut chunks for older children -added nourishment! 
• PASTA AND PESTO: Delicious pesto recipe coming soon!
• PASTA BAKE: Saute some onions, grated carrot, mushrooms and herbs with some tuna/smoked tofu/lentils or chopped seitan. You can add some cauliflower bechamel sauce on top with some almond powder and bake until golden.
• LASAGNE: Same recipe as above but using lasagne pasta sheets and you can always add a little beetroot sauce to the mix too - see Recipe section of blog for sauce recipe.
• PASTA SALAD: Add chopped lightly boiled vegetables such as diced carrots, courgettes, sweetcorn, and cherry tomatoes. You can always add some chunks of smoked tofu, pitted olives, fresh herbs etc.
• NOODLES AND BROTH: This is great for older children and teenagers - a simple nourishing broth can made adding a strip of Kombu sea vegetable to boiling water, sliced onions and carrots, soya sauce and apple juice concentrate to season, a slice of fresh ginger and even a few leaves of coriander or chopped spring onion before serving. Smoked tofu chunks or prawns work well with this.
• BEETROOT PASTA SAUCE: (See Recipe section of blog) Contains plenty of vegetables and you can always add some chunks of courgettes and mushrooms to add more vegetables.
• PASTA IN SOUP: Pasta shapes such as shells, letters, stars etc are great for adding to vegetable soups. They add interest, fun and help children to eat the veggies! See the Recipe section of this blog for details on ABC vegetable soup.

Enjoy!

Pan Fried

Add more interest to vegetables this springtime...

We can serve bright, colourful, crunchy, sweet and delicious vegetables which will be far more appetising to children than mushy, over boiled vegetables that do no favours in getting kids to eat vegetables.

Try this:

Pan fry some lightly steamed carrots (cut once length-ways), sliced cooked beetroot and asparagus or green beans with a little olive oil and few drops of soya sauce or tamari. This is great served with avaocado pate and as part of a meal (see recipe section of this blog for the avocado pate recipe).

A delicious, colourful, and appetising way to serve vegetables that will go down well with all family members!

Mmm Pancakes!

Pancake day on Tuesday!
Here are a few healthy and delicious ideas to try...pancakes are so versitle and a great way to get children involved with fruit and vegetables.

Savoury Pancake Fillings:

• Stir fried vegetables
• Stir fried vegetables with walnuts
• Stir fried vegetables with prawns
• Stir fried vegetables with braised tofu
• Scrambled tofu and sweetcorn
• Scrambled tofu, leeks and smoked salmon
• Pan fried asparagus and bechamel sauce (see earlier posts for cauliflower bechamel recipe)
• etc...

Sweet Pancake Fillings:

• Rice syrup and lemon juice (just like the traditional sugar and lemon but a healthier version without bringing hyperactivity to your kids!)
• Rice syrup, lemon juice and cinnamon
• Apple compote and caramelised nuts
• Rice Syrup and caramelised nuts
• Strawberries and rice syrup
• Mixed berries and rice syrup
• Banana and carob sauce (Carobella spread found in health food shops works great as a chocolate alternative without sugar and caffiene)
• Banana and caramelised nuts
• Pan fried banana and cinnamon
• Pan fried sliced apples, cinnamon and raisins
• etc...

The lists are endless...

Enjoy!

Beat The January Blues

Do you want something to nourish and warm your family from all this snow and cold weather so many of us are having?

Well keep posted, delicious recipes coming up...

Cauliflower is a much overlooked vegetable, often over boiled into mush where it can be bland and unappetising - no wonder kids don't want to eat it!

Why not try this recipe, gently steaming cauliflower florets until just soft, and then covering with a dressing made of peanut butter - smooth or crunchy choose whichever your family prefers (be sure to look for sugar free whole nut versions in supermarkets), white miso, touch of warm water (not too much as we want this dressing to be thick and creamy) and a little apple juice concentrate. Mix well and pour over the steamed cauliflower and grill until nice and crispy.

A great side dish which all the family will love!

Happy New Year!

So how was Christmas? And New Years Eve?

I hope you all had a wonderful festive break and just to help you all ease into 2013 with a bit of fun I will be posting new recipes very shortly.

Whether you have a New Years resolution to try something new, eat more healthily, encourage your children to eat more vegetables, have fun in the kitchen etc there will be something for you on this blog so watch this space!

Do get in contact if you have any food related questions or want recipe ideas for a particular vegetable...and I will post answers on this blog.

So Happy New Year, welcome to 2013 and lets make it a good one!

Sweet Potato Treats

Have some fun in the kitchen this Christmas with your little ones and made some sweet potato treats for the whole family to enjoy. This is an alternative to the traditional Spanish sweets called 'Panellets' usually made with potato flour and sugar.

In this recipe all you need is the flesh of some oven baked sweet potatoes that have been baked in a low-medium oven until soft inside (the drier the consistency the better), orange rind, and ground almond powder.  Mix together and create little ball shapes and roll into some toasted pine nuts or other nuts. (If you find they are not sweet enough for your liking you can add a little rice syrup to the mixture).

You can also create different flavours by adding some carob powder and rolling the balls in desiccated coconut.

Have fun!

ABC Soup

Recipe for this soup can be found on the recipes page - perfect way to get children involved with vegetables and warm them up this winter!

Getting into the spirit

Whether you are one of those people who is relishing in all the festivities or one of those who trying to ignore everything until the 24th December, without a doubt Christmas day is approaching fast!

I found myself wrapping a few presents last night (one of my favourite things!) and was thinking about Christmas food alternatives for this blog. Its a day usually filled with many sweet treats often containing lots of refined sugar, which we all know tends to leave the kids hyper, parents exhausted and a quite a lot of chaos in the family home (more information about refined sugar will be posted shortly).

Here I want to offer some alternatives, easy to make treats that children will love helping with the preparation. This gives the family some bonding time, fun in the kitchen and best of all, some yummy goodies to eat in the end!

Recipes coming soon...

Comfort Food

Ok so the blackberries may have disappeared by now but any fruit will do for homemade compotes. Apple and banana work really well together, making a delicious and comforting dessert - especially with the homemade granola and custard!

The trick is to use eating apples instead of cooking apples, which means you don't need to add any sugar (thus removing the hyperactive behaviour afterwards!) Bananas too add a wonderful sweetness and a tiny pinch of sea salt will bring out more of the natural sweetness of fruit.

Simply peel and chop the fruit (children can help with this with supervision), and season with some orange zest, little rice syrup, (tiny pinch of seas salt as previously mentioned) and a little Kuzu or Maize flour as a thickener and cook until soft. Perfect!

For the homemade granola, mix a packet of sugar free muesli with some rice syrup with a little olive oil and orange zest and bake until lovely and golden. Perfect on top of compotes and porridge etc.

This dessert is wonderful for the little ones around an hour or two before bedtime, as the natural sweetness will have relaxing effect on them by the time they need to go to bed.

Second Spring

I read a beautiful quote the other day which I thought was worth sharing...

Autumn... a second spring when every leaf is a flower - Albert Camus

So with the leaves beginning to change, the landscapes filled with hues of red, orange, yellow and gold its the perfect time of year to sample some of natures delights. Over this month I'll be focusing on a few of those delights, one of which is the humble pumpkin.

Pumpkin and squash are much over looked, often only used at Halloween as lanterns but they are one of the most versatile and delicious vegetables there are. Not to mention a great source of natural sweetness, something that tends to be lacking in modern day diets, often leading to cravings of the sugary stuff!

So lets wrap up warm, enjoy the second spring of colour around us and delight our senses with the delicious recipes to come. Your children will love them for sure!

Back to School

Its back to school time! This brings back many memories of stationary shopping before starting school. Always one of the highlights!

So with all this talk of school, I thought it would be fitting if this month we focused on the big topic...the big topic that is LUNCH BOXES!

I will be featuring ideas and tips to bring a little fun to lunch. To make lunches both appealing for children as well as healthy and nutritious so they can get the best out of school.

Lets get started!

Yum Yum Yum

Add some fun in the kitchen and get your children involved!

Why not melt a few spoons of carob spread with a little water and your children can dip strawberries or other fruit into the delicious sauce. Carob spread (naturally sweetened versions available) can be found in health food shops and is great if you find your children become hyper with regular chocolate, as unlike chocolate it does not contain any stimulants.

YUM!

Dips Dips Dips!

Vegetable sticks and dips!

Children are growing FAST and one of the things they need as well as fresh fruit and vegetables is a constant source of excellent quality protein. So why not combine the two and make some of the delicious pates (see recipe section on this blog) to go with some fresh vegetables cut into sticks?

For example carrot sticks and hummous or cucumber sticks and Tofu and walnut pate? All great for growing children.

More pates will be added shortly...