Posts tagged under Kids. Show all posts.
It’s tough to come up with new and interesting snack ideas for the kids, but it’s so important that they eat small, healthy meals regularly when those little bodies are growing. The après-school snack is very important in our house (about 3:30) because who knows what they ate for lunch.
I like to have a variety of fruits and veggies with dips and crackers on the counter so the kids can choose what they want to fill up on and get used to making healthy choices. Celery, carrots, cucumbers, grapes (or whatever is in the crisper) with crackers, hummus and cheese are my ‘go-to’ options. It sounds like a lot to prepare, but when the food is in the fridge and ready to go, it’s easy and can be replaced every day.
My kids are ‘dippers’ so I like to try new recipes for them to dip their veggies and crackers into. Here’s a great recipe that they love:
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When preparing lunches and snacks for kids to take to summer camp, I’ve been working to make a conscious effort to ensure that perishable food contents stay cold until lunchtime. Most camps don’t provide refrigeration for their campers, so packed lunches are often left outside in the heat for long periods of time. Harmful bacteria multiply in warm temperatures, thereby increasing the risk of food spoilage and food poisoning.
Here are a few tips I have picked up over the years that come in handy:
If you are looking for some great lunch ideas, take a look at one of our archived lunch articles.
What did you pack in your child’s lunch today?
If you have a kid with a Nintendo DS as I do, you might sometimes feel a little left out of the action as he (or she) is glued to the screen helping Mario and Luigi defeat enemy after enemy. At least I did until I discovered the America’s Test Kitchen: Let’s Get Cooking game. Complete with 300 recipes that have been tested to perfection by the three dozen test cooks at America’s Test Kitchen (that’s the 2,500 square foot kitchen that is home to Cook’s Illustrated and the America’s Test Kitchen TV show), the game cum cookbook helps give everyone the tools and training to make dinner together.
You pick a recipe from the database—by ingredient, cooking time or degree of difficulty—and the software provides the recipe, helpful cooking how-to videos, and a section where the chef can add notes. There is even a rate and review feature so you can remember whether the dish was a family favourite. But since I try to get all the kids involved in cooking dinner together as much as possible, my favourite feature is how the program suggests age-appropriate tasks for each recipe so everyone can help.
If you try it, I would love to know what you think.
My mother is always thinking of fun things to do with my twin daughters. Now that they are two, a few weeks ago she thought it was a perfect time to have them start cooking with Grandma. First on the menu was ‘Worms and Dirt’ (aka chocolate pudding with Oreo Cookie crumbs and gummy worms). It wasn’t gourmet, but it sure was fun!
Here’s how we made this cooking activity toddler-friendly:
Dirt and Worms
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Our EatSavvy Editor, Denise, did a variation on this dessert for her son’s birthday party.
When it comes to making school lunches, I try to incorporate a variety of whole grains in my kids’ sandwiches. But the kids tell me that whole grain sandwich bread gets a little boring day after day, so I try to liven up their lunches by using other types of bread such as pita pockets. Pita bread is easy to eat, easy to stuff and, because it’s thin, easy to pack.
Filling the pita is simple. Our favourites include egg salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, scrambled eggs and cheese, chicken Caesar salad, almond butter and banana slices, veggies and hummus, pizza pockets, Greek salad and shaved turkey and shredded cheese. The possibilities are endless….be creative!
Today I made tuna pockets and the lunch containers all came back empty—always a good sign.
Tuna Pita Pockets
Serves 4 kids
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If you are looking for other ideas or tips for packing lunches, here are a few other great lunch-packing resources.
What are you packing for lunch today?
As we move into the home stretch before March Break, I find myself struggling to come up with quick and healthy breakfast ideas for my family. Over the winter, we have overdosed on our go-to weekday breakfast items—cold cereal, hot cereal, toast, bagels, waffles—and are in desperate need of a change.
Our kids love eggs, and we always have them on the weekends, so I figured why not incorporate them, along with a couple of other nutritious ingredients, into our weekday menu as well—breakfast burritos, a simple and healthy way to start the day. Kids can help out by preparing the tortillas for the oven, whisking the eggs, grating the cheese and stirring the scrambled eggs. And, what kid doesn’t love to roll….
Breakfast Burritos
Serves 3 hungry children
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Good to Know: substitute cooked bacon, sausage, sautéed vegetables or black beans for the ham. Save time by making a few burritos the night before and then warm them up in the microwave in the morning.
Breakfast burritos aren’t just for breakfast—serve them for lunch, dinner or cut into bite-size pieces for an after-school snack.
What do your kids like to make for breakfast?
Next to discussing American Idol and potty-training tips, there isn’t a topic more popular at SavvyMom than our kids’ lunches—what they will/won’t eat, how sick of packing them we are…you know the pain.
So further to my recent review of the SavvyMoms’ lunches, I thought it might be interesting to see what the kids of the SavvyMoms were eating for lunch this week. Not comparing (of course) just looking for inspiration.
I started with the moms of toddlers. Maggie’s kids had grilled cheese sandwiches, carrots & cucumbers, strawberries, and milk, under the watchful eye of her mother-in-law. Robyn’s 3-year old enjoyed scrambled eggs with mushrooms and milk—very high protein! And Leslie’s twins ate a plate with cut-up turkey, a tortilla, medium, cheddar cheese, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, blueberries, grapes and water—talk about a rainbow on their plate!
Then I moved onto the packed lunch crowd.
Angela reported the following lunches were consumed—note Kid 3 did not go with the planned program although he eschewed the chocolate at least.
Holly wasn’t able to report what her high-schooler had (gulp—not ready for those days), but her son had a hefty lunch of a ham and cheese sandwich on Wonder+ bread, an apple/strawberry sauce fruit cup, a Nutri-grain bar, a Chewy bar, and some Easter chocolate that he bought at the store near the school.
Denise packed the following x 3, which she said was not her usual creative stuff, but sounded yummy (and well-balanced) to me: green grapes, Jello chocolate pudding cup, turkey, havarti & lettuce on multi-grain bread, celery sticks & red pepper/grape tomatoes and an orange juice tetra pack
Minnow’s guys took chicken salad sandwiches on croissants with lettuce, an apple and apple juice. No snack—because she had run out of snack bars!
Have you found inspiration from the SavvyMom lunches? Let us know, we love to hear from you.
After an internal poll of what the savvy kids were having for lunch this week, we all agreed that sometimes, creativity is hard. Add morning madness to the mix and no matter how creative you normally are in the kitchen, routine ends up saving your sanity and your time. Unfortunately, that same routine can also result in boredom and brown bag apathy (read: the lunch comes home rather than getting digested).
For inspiration and motivation, we searched for recipes on SavvyMom to remind us of what we already knew but hadn’t made while operating in autopilot. There’s nothing fancy, but they might be a welcome change to whatever lunch rut you’re stuck in.
Here are our 5 favourite recipes to try next week:
What unique ideas do you have for kids’ lunches?
Every busy mom needs a few quick and easy appetizers in her back pocket, don’t you think?
I first spotted these in Martha Stewart’s Weddings magazine and was relieved to find a recipe for something fun and simple that didn’t require me to spend my day in the kitchen.
Using nothing more than a large baguette, some favourite dips and spreads and a few chopped veggies, these little nibbles will make a great starter for any event. They’re a hit with the ladies, hearty enough for the men and they work for the kids too. In fact, I’ve offered these up to my boys for an after-school snack, and they devour the veggies far quicker then if they were just set out on a plate.
Tell us, what are some of your back-pocket appetizers for entertaining?
Individual Crudité in Bread Bowls
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I love getting my kids in the kitchen with me whenever I can and taco salad is one dish that I love to have them help me prepare.
For starters, there are so many jobs for this dinner that kids from ages three onwards can easily be assigned something to do. Whether it’s crushing the nacho chips, grating the cheese or rinsing the beans, little hands can help with almost anything in this recipe.
Most kids like the flavour profile of a taco, so even if they’re a little skeptical of eating the salad, they’re more likely to want to eat it if they’re involved in the process of putting it all together (and choosing what goes inside).
What are your favourite meals to cook with your kids?
Terrific Taco Salad Wraps
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Taco Meat Recipe:
This is an adult job, which can be done in advance.
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The very best thing about this breakfast (besides the fact that it’s delicious and versatile, allowing you to change up the fruit with the season) is the fact that it can be made in advance.
I don’t know about you, but any recipe that can make my mornings flow a little more smoothly is a keeper in my books.
Whenever we have a dinner that calls for a side of baguette, I aim to have extra bread leftover so I can make French toast kebobs. When our dinner is finished, I cut the bread into chunks while I’m cleaning up the kitchen, throw it all into a bowl and cover it with an egg and milk mixture. The kitchen is already a mess, so it really isn’t a big deal to dirty one more bowl.
The bread goes into the fridge where it rests until morning. The next day I heat a skillet on the stove, throw the pieces into a pan and in less than five minutes, breakfast is cooked.
My boys, Ben and Jackson, love anything that comes served on a stick, so I slide the toasts cubes along a bamboo skewer, along with fresh blueberries, and add a small dish of maple syrup for dipping.
French Toast Kebobs
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I bake more in the fall and early winter than I do any other time of year, and I’m guessing it’s the same for you. From Thanksgiving until New Year’s Eve, you can bet there is something coming out of my oven every couple of days as I make food for family holidays and gatherings, while simultaneously trying to kick-start my Christmas baking and edible treats for gift giving.
What I love the most is that usually one of the kids wants to join in the fun…especially when I’m cooking up something sweet and sugary. My youngest son is the first to step up to the baking plate, and he’s been like that from the time he was able to walk. Baking with kids requires a little planning though, and I’ve learned a few tricks along the way. Here are five steps to successful baking with kids:
Find the Right Project
If the kids are going to help you with your baking, this might not be the time to try your hand at a fancy, elaborate dish (think crème caramel). Instead, invite them to participate in age-appropriate recipes (cookies, brownies), or better yet, let them choose one of their own favourite recipes.
Be Organized
Before you begin, make sure everyone washes their hands (this is a great lesson to learn early in life) and affixes an apron. Drag out a stool or chair, if needed. Read through the recipe and gather your tools and required ingredients. The little red hand-mixer in the photo is a great child-friendly kitchen tool to keep on hand. I picked mine up at an antique market for a few dollars, and the kids still prefer to use it when they need to mix things together.
Assign Tasks
I like to assign my boys tasks. One is in charge of measuring; the other takes care of the mixing. When they were little, I did the chopping and slicing, and now that they’re older I can designate that. With two or more bakers in the kitchen, it’s nice to know who is responsible for what.
Clean As You Go
When the baked goods finally hit the oven, no one will want to spend an hour cleaning up. It’s best to clean and clear as you go. Keep a sink of warm, soapy water on hand and wash bowls as they’re used. Put away ingredients when finished with them, and keep the counters wiped and clear.
Be Patient
This is perhaps the most important aspect of baking with kids. When you’re in the kitchen with kids, it’s important to remember to be patient. Most of us have been baking for years, but our kids are just learning. Expect that there will be messes and mix-ups, and laugh about them instead of crying. This is why those chocolate soufflés should wait another day—the odd egg shell might land in the cookie dough (or the floor) but the chocolate chip cookies will still taste great.
Over on my personal blog, Family Bites, I’ve been running a series known as Soup Sundays. One or two Sundays a month I share a recipe for a new soup, and write about the ways I serve it to my family. I’m passionate about making soups because they’re economical, healthy, easy to make and they basically cook themselves. Despite my love for the homemade variety, I have also been known to serve my kids soup from a can, so last week when I came across an article about toxic BPA’s in canned soup, my interest was piqued.
According to a study conducted by the researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), people who ate canned soup each day for five days showed a more than 1200% increase in urinary bisphenol A (BPA) compared with those who consumed fresh soup daily for the same period.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical compound found in some plastics and resins. It’s used in the production of various types of food and drink containers, and as a liner in some metal cans.
Researchers in the Harvard study recruited volunteers and divided them into two groups. Group A consumed a serving of vegetarian canned soup each day for five days and Group B consumed vegetarian fresh soup daily for five days. After a two-day break, the groups reversed their assignments. “The magnitude of the rise in urinary BPA we observed after just one serving of soup was unexpected and may be of concern among individuals who regularly consume foods from cans or drink several canned beverages daily,” said Karin Michels, who co-authored the study. “It may be advisable for manufacturers to consider eliminating BPA from can linings.”
The presence of BPA isn’t specific to certain brands. In a random sampling of canned products, the chemical was found in 92% of the products tested, regardless of price or organic nature of the content.
Why the concern about BPA? Last year Canada was the first country to declare BPA a toxic material, and Statistics Canada found that 91% of Canadians had the chemical in their bodies. But the debate continues to rage on—how bad is it for us?
Tony Clement, our health minister said his department had studied the effects of the chemical and found that in most instances, negative health effects only occur at levels of bisphenol A exposure much greater than normal. But he was still concerned about exposing infants to the chemical saying “We have concluded that early development is sensitive to the effects of bisphenol A. Although our science tells us that exposure levels to newborns and infants are below levels that cause effects, we believe the current safety margin needs to be higher.”
The debate continues…and we’ll keep waiting to hear something conclusive. In the meantime, are you watching the BPA intake in your home? Do you think you’ll be making some more homemade soups?
I am definitely making more homemade soups and I’ll be going to Jan’s blog for some fabulous recipes.
Last week, The Globe and Mail ran an article on the perils of dining out with kids, and the war being waged between parents and restaurants when it comes to dining out ‘en famille’.
Sadly, it seems as though families are losing the battle, as last month a pizzeria in Atlanta posted a note on their menu banning crying children. Last summer, a restaurant in Pennsylvania banned all children under the age of six regardless of any teary outbursts.
My brother-in-law owns a popular sports bar in Toronto. He is a father and restaurateur, and completely supports the idea of keeping kids out of his establishment. He doesn’t allow anyone under the age of 19 in the space without an accompanying parent, and would prefer kids don’t come in at all, if possible. He says that the issue isn’t really with the kids, but more with the parenting (or lack thereof).
In his experience, many families come in for dinner, or to meet up with another family, and the parents get caught up in eating and drinking, while the kids carouse the small dance floor, play at the pool table or tour the restaurant with their siblings/friends. It all seems harmless, but servers carry trays of hot food and pitchers of beverages—it’s all just an accident waiting to happen. (Not to mention the fact that adult conversations carry on regardless of kids being within earshot, and there is no way to control what they might overhear.)
He suggests that if you decide to take your young kids into a restaurant, you should arrive with a bag of items that will keep them distracted while they wait for their meal—books, paper and pencils, iPads, etc. It’s not ideal, but it usually helps to keep the kids in their seats.
I’m curious: do you dine out with your kids? Do you stick to kid-friendly restaurants or do you choose fine-dining options as well? How do you feel about the idea of banning kids from restaurants? Let’s discuss!
My four year old has gone out for dinner with us since she was an infant to all kinds of restaurants. We have an expectation that she will behave and remain seated (unless going to use the facilities). My husband and I come prepared with books, colouring supplies and quiet toys if she doesn’t want to participate in adult conversation. We respect the other patrons and their desire for a quiet dinner, so we work hard to ensure that she is occupied and doesn’t become anxious out of boredom. The result: a happy well-behaved child. We beam with pride when patrons and staff approach us to compliment our child on her patience and manners.
If I am going out to socialize with friends and have an option for babysitting, I take it! This way I can give them the full attention they deserve.
I understand the need for some fine dining establishments to make restrictions, but it is unfair to generalize that all kids run around and cause havoc.
It is such a tough topic, because although people whose children can sit quietly through a meal are not a problem, you really can’t say “No noisy, energetic children allowed.” We take our three noisy, energetic kids to restaurants where we are reasonably sure there will be more of the same. I would not be relaxed with my kids in a fine dining establishment. And there are times when my husband and I get a babysitter, and go for a romantic dinner in a quiet, nice place. At those moments, we don’t necessarily want kids running around. Having said all that, restaurant owners are in business, parents spend money, it’s their choice.
I love reading as much as I love food, and discovering a great new cookbook worthy of some space on our family bookshelf makes me insanely happy. I almost always have a cookbook wish list tacked up somewhere in the house, and it’s the most common Mother’s Day gift I get from my kids.
With over 100 cookbooks already in my possession, I now try to be fairly selective about which ones I add. A recent one almost didn’t make the cut because I wasn’t crazy about the title or the cover photos, but after spending some time turning the pages, I’m happy to say that I’m glad I gave it a chance (it’s true what they say about judging a book by its cover).
The Mom 100 Cookbook is a collection of recipes based on a formula the author put together: take 20 real-life cooking dilemmas, come up with five solutions for each, and the end result is a book full of 100 tasty recipes.
The book, like the title, could have been gimmicky, but thankfully it isn’t. Instead, the dilemmas are common for most moms, making the solutions real.
For example:
The Dilemma: Finding snacks that don’t come in a crinkly bag.
The Solutions (Recipes): Edamame Several Ways, Seasoned Pumpkin Seeds, Chickpea Poppers, Old-Fashioned Stovetop Popcorn, Baked Pita Chips
In addition to the problem-solving recipes, the book is also peppered with cooking tips, sidebars with ideas on what the kids can do to help, variations that allow you to customize the recipes for your fish-phobic family, and secrets to successful make-ahead meals.
I’m planning on sharing one of the above recipes next week—which one would you most like to see?
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Ha ha ha…......... When I am baby i have also done same. Thanks ;)
A perfect toddler dessert! I believe Maddie and Riley are more than ready to move on to bigger and better culinary delights - perhaps Lemon Meringue Pie or Black Forest Cake??