Spreading The Love This Christmas!

Christmas is a time for giving, receiving and playing games so why not tie it all in together and spread a little love this Christmas with the hug game! Something for all the family to enjoy.

 

Here are Good Vibrations Barcelona Matthew and Peter explaining the instructions...

Hug Game

Enjoy!!

Happy Christmas

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas, full of laughter, fun, and great memories to be treasured with the family!

 

What does Christmas mean to you and your family?

What message about Christmas are you giving to your children?

 

May this be a wonderful end to 2013 to pave the way for a fabulous year to come in 2014!

 

Happy Christmas everyone :-)

Brussels Sprouts

Love them or loathe them they are one of the most popular components to a British Christmas meal. Full of goodness, the green chlorophyll helps to cleanse the liver from all the over work during the festive season, rich in fibre and vitamins they are a wonderful addition to the meal.

Here are a few alternative ways to present or cook them for added interest for kids...

• Line up onto a kebab stick for older children with homemade BBQ sauce (see previous posts for details).
• Saute onions until soft and sweet and add halved Brussels Sprouts.
• Brussels Sprouts sauteed with cooked peeled chestnuts.
• Boiled 4 minutes and served with tangy orange dressing (orange zest and juice, tahini, white miso and apple juice concentrate).

Let us know how your kids respond!

Healthy Christmas Treats

Christmas can be a wonderful time of year, celebrations with the family for whatever the season may mean to you, delicious food, snug evenings in around the fire place playing games as well as a little bit of magic for the little ones too.

Christmas can however cause a lot of unnecessary stress especially when doing the supermarket runs. We seem to be bombarded with junk food and sugary treats at every aisle, mainly aimed at children. Not only do these foods on a regular basis harm the health of growing children, they can also increase stress levels as the body fights the toxins, saturated fats and refined sugars.

This is not to say we cant enjoy some chocolate, sweets or other festive goodies out there. However just notice the wide range of variety of more wholesome brands available. If you are counting the pennies, wonderful homemade treats can be great fun to make involving the children too.

A few healthier Christmas snack options (some of which can also be used as stocking fillers)...

• Tangerines, Satsumas, Mandarins...what a better way to bring in one of their 5 a day!
• Homemade carob treats (simply melt a bar, mix with dried fruit and nuts and leave to cool before cutting into chunks). This can be wrapped in little bags as a tasty stocking filler.

• The same mixture can be made with added orange rind and rolled into a ball shape when cool enough to handle. Wrap in foil and add to stockings as a tasty chocolate snowball.
• Use the previous carob mixture and mix with a little desiccated coconut, rolling into small truffle shape balls and coating with more coconut. Mini snowballs!
• Check out your local health food shop for tasty sweets free from sugar, gelatin, artificial colours and preservatives...and yes they taste great!
• Melt a carob bar into a lovely rich thick sauce and allow kids to dip their tangerine segments  or nuts into the sauce.
• Dried fruit and nuts in mini bags.
• Mini packets of raisins.
• Fruit leathers, fruit snack bars.
• Homemade popcorn with a few drops of umeboshi seasoning...kids will love this!
• Vegetable sticks and tortilla chips with dips (avocado, hummus, beetroot...)
• Kids non alcoholic mulled wine: red grape juice, orange juice and a few mulled wine spices.
• Roasted chestnuts in the oven.
• Sweet potato wedges
• Sweet potato and apple cake. The touch of cinnamon makes this cake a perfect festive treat.

The Season To Start Growing

Once winter passes and the ground starts to thaw this is the perfect opportunity to start preparing the garden for planting summer crops. If you don't have a garden or space for a few pot plants outside, even some fresh growing herbs in the kitchen will be great for children to begin learning where food comes from and the wonder of growing your own food.

What More sweet Treats?!

I tend to use carob more than chocolate for children's recipes as quite often with the sugar and caffeine found in chocolate they can become very hyper. I am not saying that chocolate should be banned completely - just be aware of the effects. Try it for yourself and see! 

Why make life more stressful for yourself this Christmas? And why not give them an alternative which is healthier for them in the long run?

For these carob chunks all you need is 1-2 large bars of carob (naturally sweetened with no added sugar), some chopped nuts and dried fruit such as raisins, rice syrup, orange rind and cinnamon.

• Break the carob bar/s into chunks and place in a glass dish. Place this dish in a saucepan with simmering hot water and continue to simmer until the carob has completely melted.
• Caramelise the nuts in a pan with the syrup, cinnamon and orange rind (1 minute in the pan is plenty) set aside to cool and harden.
• Lightly grease a dish with a small amount of olive oil, pour in the carob and then start placing the caramelised nuts and dried fruit on top. Gently press ensuring that they are all pressed into the carob.
• Leave to cool (cools best in the fridge) and then remove from the dish and cut into chunks.
• If you have difficulty removing the carob from the dish you can use grease proof paper before hand or turn the dish upside down (with a plate underneath to catch the carob) and gently pour a little hot water onto the base of the dish - this will melt a little of the carob helping it to slide out easily.

Children with supervision can help chopping the nuts with a child safe knife and gently pressing the nuts into the carob.

Perfect Christmas treat for all the family. Even the fussy ones!

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...