I have been designing my own website for the last couple of weeks - hopefully you will enjoy it. I am hoping to keep adding to it and am open to suggestions as to how to improve it!
I look forward to seeing everyone over there!
Saturday 8 June 2013
Wednesday 5 June 2013
Sometimes food should just be fun!
These are so easy to make and really very yummy - raspberries with a white chocolate or milk chocolate chip stuffed in the end.
My 13 year old daughter just made these. She doesn't like raspberries normally but she wolfed the lot of these down.......it's called working with what you've got!
I prefer the white chocolate version!
My 13 year old daughter just made these. She doesn't like raspberries normally but she wolfed the lot of these down.......it's called working with what you've got!
I prefer the white chocolate version!
Saturday 25 May 2013
Nut allergy? Chuck out the peanuts and try chickpeas instead!
Chickpeas are a great source of all sorts of nutrients. They're high in fibre and contain 10 different vitamins.
In particular they're a great source of thiamin and B6, which helps the body convert food into energy, so they'd be a great snack on test/exam days when they've been revising into the night before!
Chickpeas provide multiple essential minerals, including calcium, magnesium and phosphorus -- essential to healthy bones and they're higher in potassium than bananas.
A lot of kids love humus, which is fabulously easy to make - just blitz the chickpeas in a blender with some garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and tahini - obviously it's better for them if they'll eat it with raw vegetables but if you can only get them to eat it with toasted pitta, it's still good for them in its own right.
Chickpea curry is a good vegetarian dish - I have a great recipe - if anybody would like it, let me know!
This may not sound appetising, but I promise you it is quite addictive - try warming through naan bread, breaking it open smearing humus inside, tucking in some crispy bacon and some pickled beetroot for breakfast - my mouth is watering just thinking about it!
But my recipe for today is for roasted chickpeas - eat them like nuts or popcorn......oh whoops, this is supposed to be about feeding the kids......you could let them have a taste if you are feeling that way inclined! In the recipe below, I've used tinned chickpeas, they aren't as good for you as the dried variety but they are much more convenient. When I prepare them from dried, I generally do about three times as much as I need and freeze what I don't use. I haven't tried my frozen chickpeas for roasting yet and I'm not sure how the freezing would effect the texture for this recipe - frozen ones are fine in curries and humus though.
- 1 tin chickpeas, drained
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (harissa or ras al hanout also work really well)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1. Pre-heat the oven to 220C.
- 2. Pat the chickpeas dry with a paper towel and place on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper.
3. Bake for 30 minutes.
4. Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and add the baked chickpeas, stirring them to ensure they are all well coated.
5. Transfer to mouth and chew!
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Toffee Tasting Pumpkin Cupcakes - with parsnip!
Two veg in one cake - a great mid-morning snack or even with a glass of milk for breakfast, and they'll never know!
Ingredients:
For the buns:
175g soft butter (this needs to be at room temperature)
200g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Small pinch ground cloves
250g tinned pumpkin puree (Waitrose/Ocado do this year round now)
2 medium sized parsnips, chopped, steamed and pureed
2 tablespoons maple syrup
325g light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Icing:
175g soft butter
225g icing sugar
1/2 tin caramel/dulce de lecce
1. Preheat oven to 190C.
2.
In
a saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat, stirring, until the butter
turns a light golden brown. Pour into a bowl to stop it cooking or plunge the
saucepan bottom into a bowl of iced water.
3.
In
a mixing bowl combine the dry ingredients.
4.
In
another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients including the brown butter.
5.
Add
the wet mixture to the dry and whisk until combined.
6.
Line
a muffin tin with 12 deep paper cases and divide the batter evenly using an ice
cream scoop.
7.
Bake,
rotating the tin halfway through, until a cocktail stick inserted in the centre
comes out clean, which should take about 20 minutes.
8.
Transfer
to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.
9.
To
make the icing whisk the butter with an electric whisk or in a mixer until pale
and fluffy.
10. Add the icing sugar and caramel and continue
to whisk until you have a stiff but fluffy frosting.
11. Swirl the frosting onto the cooled cakes and
then drizzle the rest of the tin of caramel over the top.
3rd June 2013
P.S. I've just tried to buy another batch of ingredients and it seems Waitrose don't do tinned pumpkin year round anymore - it can be bought from Amazon though! It seemed cheaper to buy in a batch of 5 cans so now I need to make up some more recipes!
3rd June 2013
P.S. I've just tried to buy another batch of ingredients and it seems Waitrose don't do tinned pumpkin year round anymore - it can be bought from Amazon though! It seemed cheaper to buy in a batch of 5 cans so now I need to make up some more recipes!
Meal times should be fun times
Sometimes, after a hard day's work and coming home to a bomb site in the living room and a teenager's bedroom with rotting unidentified old food stuffed under the bed, I do wonder why it was that I wanted a family and in that moment, I do take comfort from the thought that there are probably a million other mums experiencing exactly that same thought all over the world that night.
But, I do know why I had a child really - it was because, I like children and I liked the idea of having someone I could love and nurture and watch and help grow into a beautiful grown up who will give me grandchildren!
And the latter is what I want to think about when we sit down to our supper at night. I want to emulate in a small way those wonderful Italian outdoor family meals we see in films, where everyone is laughing and chattering and passing each other fabulous looking food - even if it's only the two of us. I want meal times to be a time where we unpick our day, moan about the ignorant guy in the car park who nicked my space, hear about how her little buddy at school has fallen out with her imaginary friends again, talk about what to wear on mufty day to wind up that stick-in-the-mud teacher and just know about each other's days and lives whilst sharing food and talking about it too.
At the end of a day, I do not want to have to pick a fight. I do not want to fall out with my child and send her off to bed on a bad note whilst I sit in front of the TV with a feeling of disappointment and unease. And, I don't want to put the same plate of food that she won't eat in front of her night after night until she caves in from hunger and eats something that isn't currently in her pallet.
Say your child takes the view that vegetables are poisonous - I have a nephew just like that - if you don't want to fight with him (or her!) about it, why not disguise them in a meal he will eat? No need to tell him - just enjoy the food together and feel smugly happy that your child just got something he needed and liked it and don't stress about the fact he also ate a bunch of stuff he didn't need - he was going to do that anyway, whether you liked it or not.
I know this goes against what the current child psychology gurus preach - but gurus have got it wrong before............
So........grate carrot into your bolognese sauce, mash cauliflower into your mashed spuds (with plenty of butter), puree parsnip into banana dishes and start on the road to stealth health!
But, I do know why I had a child really - it was because, I like children and I liked the idea of having someone I could love and nurture and watch and help grow into a beautiful grown up who will give me grandchildren!
And the latter is what I want to think about when we sit down to our supper at night. I want to emulate in a small way those wonderful Italian outdoor family meals we see in films, where everyone is laughing and chattering and passing each other fabulous looking food - even if it's only the two of us. I want meal times to be a time where we unpick our day, moan about the ignorant guy in the car park who nicked my space, hear about how her little buddy at school has fallen out with her imaginary friends again, talk about what to wear on mufty day to wind up that stick-in-the-mud teacher and just know about each other's days and lives whilst sharing food and talking about it too.
At the end of a day, I do not want to have to pick a fight. I do not want to fall out with my child and send her off to bed on a bad note whilst I sit in front of the TV with a feeling of disappointment and unease. And, I don't want to put the same plate of food that she won't eat in front of her night after night until she caves in from hunger and eats something that isn't currently in her pallet.
Say your child takes the view that vegetables are poisonous - I have a nephew just like that - if you don't want to fight with him (or her!) about it, why not disguise them in a meal he will eat? No need to tell him - just enjoy the food together and feel smugly happy that your child just got something he needed and liked it and don't stress about the fact he also ate a bunch of stuff he didn't need - he was going to do that anyway, whether you liked it or not.
I know this goes against what the current child psychology gurus preach - but gurus have got it wrong before............
So........grate carrot into your bolognese sauce, mash cauliflower into your mashed spuds (with plenty of butter), puree parsnip into banana dishes and start on the road to stealth health!
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Avocado Ice Cream
Avocado is technically a fruit and fruit goes into ice-cream doesn't it?
3 medium sized ripe avocados
1 tablespoon lemon juice
375 ml full fat milk
125 g caster sugar
250 ml double cream
250 ml dulce de lecce
1.
Peel and pit the avocados.
2.
Puree the avocado flesh
together with the lemon juice, milk and sugar.
3.
In a mixing bowl, combine the
avocado mixture with the double cream and whisk with an electric whisk until
you have a soft peak consistency.
4.
If you have an ice-cream maker,
process the mixture in the machine for about 8 – 10 minutes until the mixture
starts to set and then spoon in the dulce de lecce caramel to form ripples
through the ice cream and continue to process for another couple of minutes.
5.
If you don’t have an ice-cream
maker, spoon the mix into a clingfilm lined plastic container and freeze for 40
minutes. After that time, remove
and pop the mixture back into a mixing bowl and whisk again with an electric
whisk. Re-line the container with
fresh clingfilm and repeat the freezing then whisking process. As you spoon the mixture back into the
container this final time, gradually add the dulce de lecce caramel so that it
is rippled through the icecream.
Pop it back into the freezer for a further 40 minutes and it should be
ready.
Monday 20 May 2013
Our 5-a-day and the humble pea!
Do we really need to achieve variety with 5-a-day? We’ve all heard the “eat a rainbow”
mantra but that’s not always possible and there is a lot to be said for picking
your battles. Ideally, your
child’s 5-a-day should be made up of 3 portions of veg and 2 of fruit. A portion is about a handful – and
that’s a handful of the person eating, so a child’s portion will be smaller
than your own.
Whilst that variety is the ideal, some of us know that with the
best will in the world, the only thing we’re going to get some children to eat
on the veg side is the humble pea!
The humble pea - we don’t usually think about it as an exotic food
in terms of nutrient composition—but we should, they’re rich in phytonutrients,
low in bad fat and generally nutritious and high in anti-oxidants. Cooked peas contain significant quantities of vitamin K, manganese,
vitamin B-1 and vitamin C. Additionally, peas are a great source of dietary
fiber.
Even though green peas are an extremely low-fat food, the type of
fat and fat-soluble nutrients they contain is impressive. Recent research has
shown that green peas are a reliable source of omega-3 fats in the form of
alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and also omega-6 fatty acid, linoleic acid. They also contain beta-carotene and
small but valuable amounts of vitamin E.
Give yourself a break – if all they’ll
eat is peas, then give them lots of peas!
And you can add them to so much – so if you’re having a meat dish with
rice – boil the peas in with the rice.
If using frozen, let them defrost first and add them to the rice about
half way through cooking – this way any “leaching” of nutrients will be
“caught” by the rice! If you’re
having cottage pie, put the peas in with the mince and make it a one pot meal!
I gave my daughter, as a toddler, a
small bowl of frozen peas as a snack when it was hot outside rather than sugary
ice pops and to this day, when frozen peas come out, her hand is straight in
the saucepan to scoop them up before they cook! I don’t really have many memories of food as a child but I
certainly remember the joy of picking peas in my grandfather’s garden and
eating them fresh from the pod – I preferred them to raspberries as picking
them didn’t scratch my hands up!
Tuesday 14 May 2013
Curry castle and rice moat
When I was a child, I doubt curry would have been on the menu for many
if any picky eaters. Now though,
possibly in an effort to keep up with their peers, it seems that a mild curry
is often a will eat.
For the purposes of this blog, I have actually found a castle shaped
cookie cutter to make a curry castle.
To do this, I placed the cookie cutter on the plate, then wedged the
cooked rice around it, spooned the curry inside the cutter and then carefully
removed it.
I often do curry in the slow cooker so all I have to do when we all get
in is prepare the rice. With this
recipe, I don’t even need to worry about any other accompaniments as the veg
are stealthily hidden in the curry itself!
It's been called curry castle and rice moat in our house for as long as I can remember and don’t now know
where the name came from, it may have been something from my own
childhood. It doesn’t usually get
served as a castle and moat though.
A friend called me in a state of apoplexy one day asking how I managed
to get the chicken to stack up like a castle – she’d been trying all afternoon
as her daughter had asked for the dish by my name for it. I couldn’t help laughing as I explained
that I just serve the rice round the edge of the plate in a circular “moat” and
dollop the curry in the middle – it’s just our name for curry and rice!
For the rice, I use a normal mug full of dry rice for 4 people. Put the rice in a lidded pan and cover
with two of the same sized mugs full of freshly boiled water and add a knob of
butter. Bring back to a simmer
then cover and cook over a low to medium heat for about ten minutes or until
all the water has absorbed and the rice is cooked. If the water all disappears before the rice has cooked add a
little at a time – about 25ml – until the rice is tender.
A good tip with making rice in advance is to drain it and hold it in a
strainer/sieve under cold running water until it is cool throughout – this
stops it cooking and turning to a mush.
You can then pop it into a bowl and cover it and refrigerate to heat up
later. Don’t keep cooked rice in
the fridge for more than a few days though. To reheat, simply put it back in the sieve and pour over
boiling water.
For the curry: (serves 6)
2 tablespoons rapeseed oil
800g filleted chicken thighs
1 large onion, finely chopped
250g can of white beans
250g steamed cauliflower
2 tablespoons plain flour
250g can of chopped tomatoes
4 tablespoons ground almonds
4 tablespoons coriander
1 tablespoon cumin
½ teaspoon chili powder (or more to your taste)
½ teaspoon allspice
2 cloves garlic crushed
1cm cube ginger, finely chopped or grated
2 tablespoons turmeric
2 tablespoons garam masala
1 teaspoon tamarind paste (use Worcestershire sauce if you don’t have
tamarind)
200g block of creamed coconut
1.
In a flame proof casserole, heat the oil and gently
fry the onion, ginger and garlic.
2.
Using a
slotted spoon to allow the oil to drain back into the pan, transfer to a food
processor and blend to a fine puree together with the cauliflower and white
beans.
3.
Brown the chicken gently in the remaining oil for
about 5 minutes.
4.
Mix together the remaining dry ingredients and then
add to the pan with the chicken and continue to cook gently for a further 5
minutes
5.
Add the canned tomatoes and the puree and bring to a
gentle simmer.
6.
Add the creamed coconut and stir through until it
has dissolved into the sauce.
7.
Add 250ml of hot water and bring back to the boil.
8.
Cover and transfer to the oven (or put the lot into
your slow cooker) and cook at 130C for 2 hours, checking and stirring
occasionally.
Friday 10 May 2013
Aloe, Aloe, Aloe!
Sorry - couldn't resist the title!
I'm a huge fan of aloe vera - so much so I think my daughter has caught the bug as she now carries a tube of aloe gel around with her all the time and swears by it for numbing and healing the various cuts and sores she gets from her brace.
So when my nephew, who is probably the fussiest eater I know and part of the reason for me starting this blog and writing my book, had his tonsil removed and was in an awful amount of pain from it, I sent aloe to the rescue, which he said really helped until the pain subsided but at that point his gag reflex came back and he couldn't deal with the taste anymore.
In truth, however good it is for healing (and it is the best for sun burn) it does taste pretty rank.
Apparently, ice-cream is no longer recommended when tonsils are removed - it has something to do with dairy products being mucus inducing or something. But ice-lollies and sorbets are still ok.
So, I set to and came up with this - dairy free but (apparently) very soothing
500ml hazelnut milk
100ml maple syrup
5 tablespoons dairy free dulce de lecce
200ml aloe vera juice
Simply whisk the ingredients together and either put them in an ice cream maker or put them in a plastic tub, large enough to be able to use an electric whisk in, and put it in the freezer. Leave for 30 minutes and then remove and with an electric whisk, whisk for about a minute. Put it back in the freezer for a further 30 minutes and repeat. After another 30 minutes, I added a couple of spoonfuls more of dulce de lecce and forked it through to give it a ripple effect.
This was very sweet but you couldn't taste the aloe at all.
I'm a huge fan of aloe vera - so much so I think my daughter has caught the bug as she now carries a tube of aloe gel around with her all the time and swears by it for numbing and healing the various cuts and sores she gets from her brace.
So when my nephew, who is probably the fussiest eater I know and part of the reason for me starting this blog and writing my book, had his tonsil removed and was in an awful amount of pain from it, I sent aloe to the rescue, which he said really helped until the pain subsided but at that point his gag reflex came back and he couldn't deal with the taste anymore.
In truth, however good it is for healing (and it is the best for sun burn) it does taste pretty rank.
Apparently, ice-cream is no longer recommended when tonsils are removed - it has something to do with dairy products being mucus inducing or something. But ice-lollies and sorbets are still ok.
So, I set to and came up with this - dairy free but (apparently) very soothing
500ml hazelnut milk
100ml maple syrup
5 tablespoons dairy free dulce de lecce
200ml aloe vera juice
Simply whisk the ingredients together and either put them in an ice cream maker or put them in a plastic tub, large enough to be able to use an electric whisk in, and put it in the freezer. Leave for 30 minutes and then remove and with an electric whisk, whisk for about a minute. Put it back in the freezer for a further 30 minutes and repeat. After another 30 minutes, I added a couple of spoonfuls more of dulce de lecce and forked it through to give it a ripple effect.
This was very sweet but you couldn't taste the aloe at all.
Thursday 9 May 2013
Please feel free to add comments......
I've noticed that there are lots and lots of people reading my blog which is great.......please continue.
But nobody is talking to me :-(
Seriously, please feel free to leave comments or feedback - I want this to be an open forum to discuss the issues of dealing with picky eaters as well as a place others can share their recipe ideas on this subject too.
But nobody is talking to me :-(
Seriously, please feel free to leave comments or feedback - I want this to be an open forum to discuss the issues of dealing with picky eaters as well as a place others can share their recipe ideas on this subject too.
A note about maple syrup!
I use
Maple syrup rather than honey in most of my recipes.
This isn’t just a personal preference (although I do prefer
maple syrup if using it in the raw). Maple syrup is actually better than honey for what I am trying to achieve!
Here goes with some science - for a starter, and I for one was quite
surprised by this, maple syrup is lower in calories than honey. It's quite a significant amount - over 10%!
Also the
carbohydrate content in maple syrup is primarily sucrose, which is a complex
sugar that your body breaks down into equal parts of fructose and glucose
whereas honey’s carbohydrate content is pretty much pure fructose and the
problem with that is that too much fructose is detrimental to heart and liver
health.
Honey is however higher in
vitamin content but maple syrup is much better on mineral content. So I suppose that's a balancing act as to what you are trying to achieve.
On the whole, I tend towards maple
syrup as I don’t use it in my recipes for the "what is good for me" content. I use it as it adds
sweetness, so the concern for me is much more about avoiding what is bad for me.
One final thing to really keep in mind
is that you should never give honey to babies or to children with a vulnerable health profile due to
the risk of botulism. That's a risk you don't run with maple syrup. The botulism content of honey is very real - it isn't anywhere as insignificant as the risk of say salmonella with raw eggs.
Cooking with your child
This is by no means a guaranteed way of getting your child to experiment with what they'll put in their mouths but having fun with making food is a great way of getting the dialogue going.
To start with, rather than getting into battle mode and cooking things that are good for them, try something silly. Maybe green eggs and ham - it doesn't matter if they don't eat it, it gives you a chance to talk about the food - how could we make the eggs green? Experiment - what happens if we tip some green food colour in before we fry them? Is there a way of making green eggs without scrambling them? If we scramble them, what vegetable purees could we add that taste ok and make them go green?
There are two absolutely brilliant books available which base all their recipes on the foods mentioned in Roald Dahl's books - the first is called Revolting Recipes and the second Even More Revolting Recipes. They aren't about anything nutritious at all - they are purely about having fun with food. I think that's a really fabulous first step.
Some years ago, on a rainy weekend, I used to let the kids each choose a recipe they wanted to try from these books, then I'd go to the supermarket and grab all the ingredients and let each of them have their own time with me making their chosen recipe whilst the others watched t.v. or played games. We all then dug in to what could be described as a somewhat eccentric and unhealthy tea with all sorts of "eeeyew"s and "yuck"s.
We took photos of the food and made it into a folder, the kids wrote out the recipes of the successes to go in their folders and began their own recipe books. I only have my own daughter's one left now and she continues to add to it. For her 18th, amongst plenty of other more expensive must haves I'm sure, I think I shall have it printed into a book for her.
To start with, rather than getting into battle mode and cooking things that are good for them, try something silly. Maybe green eggs and ham - it doesn't matter if they don't eat it, it gives you a chance to talk about the food - how could we make the eggs green? Experiment - what happens if we tip some green food colour in before we fry them? Is there a way of making green eggs without scrambling them? If we scramble them, what vegetable purees could we add that taste ok and make them go green?
There are two absolutely brilliant books available which base all their recipes on the foods mentioned in Roald Dahl's books - the first is called Revolting Recipes and the second Even More Revolting Recipes. They aren't about anything nutritious at all - they are purely about having fun with food. I think that's a really fabulous first step.
Some years ago, on a rainy weekend, I used to let the kids each choose a recipe they wanted to try from these books, then I'd go to the supermarket and grab all the ingredients and let each of them have their own time with me making their chosen recipe whilst the others watched t.v. or played games. We all then dug in to what could be described as a somewhat eccentric and unhealthy tea with all sorts of "eeeyew"s and "yuck"s.
We took photos of the food and made it into a folder, the kids wrote out the recipes of the successes to go in their folders and began their own recipe books. I only have my own daughter's one left now and she continues to add to it. For her 18th, amongst plenty of other more expensive must haves I'm sure, I think I shall have it printed into a book for her.
Wednesday 8 May 2013
Fresh or Frozen
I'm a big fan of frozen veg.
The thing about it is that frozen veg is ripe when it is harvested and therefore has drawn maximum goodness from its environment and it is then frozen very quickly so very little chance to lose that natural given goodness.
Ripening before harvest is why vine ripened tomatoes taste so much better than those flacid horrid things in the "Value" pack.
Food that is harvested and not frozen will often ripen after it has been picked, when it has nothing but thin air to draw on for that process.
Don't beat yourself up about not buying fresh veg - think about how long it takes from picking to plate and how much of its nutritional value is lost in that process.
I'm a big fan of thinking about food miles and buying local. I'm also a big proponent of buying British where you can. It isn't just a political preference either - buying local food means that you are eating food stuffs which have the same environmental influences as you do and gives you the opportunity to buy fresher. It isn't always possible of course - if you want asparagus in December, you're unlikely to get it just up the road. For me though, that's when to turn to frozen.
I read an article the other day where they called people with this view point "localvores", I think I'm not unhappy with that label.
If you buy British frozen peas, they will have been flash frozen in minutes from being picked. Let's think of what happens in winter when you buy fresh peas from say Chile.
They are picked in Chile and packed into boxes. The boxes are then packed onto a lorry - no hurry, they have all day to fill the lorry. The lorry then takes the peas to an airport, the drive takes several hours. They wait at the airport to be loaded onto a plane, whilst various checks are made to make sure it really is a box of peas being transported and eventually they are loaded onto a plane. It takes a while as there are other consignments to be shipped on the same plane. Some hours later the plane takes off. How many hours do you reckon it takes to fly from Chile to London (assuming of course that there isn't a change of plane at another Chilean airport because the first one was just a small local air strip) - let's say the trip takes 17 hours.
Then we have British customs and more paper work as the peas are unloaded. Eventually they get put on a lorry and taken off to a big warehouse where they are repacked for the supermarket. Then, once they've been repacked and some quality control checks have been undertaken, they are packed onto further lorries and sent out to distribution centres where they change lorry and get taken to your local Tesco, where some hours later they will eventually find their way to the food shelf. Now take a look at those Chilean peas and see what the sell by date says - bet your last dollar it's more than a few days away. So all in all if you are lucky from vine to plate that's likely to be at least a week, during which time many nutrients have faded away.
So next time you get out a packet of frozen peas - don't beat yourself up - congratulate yourself on choosing what is probably the healthier option!
The thing about it is that frozen veg is ripe when it is harvested and therefore has drawn maximum goodness from its environment and it is then frozen very quickly so very little chance to lose that natural given goodness.
Ripening before harvest is why vine ripened tomatoes taste so much better than those flacid horrid things in the "Value" pack.
Food that is harvested and not frozen will often ripen after it has been picked, when it has nothing but thin air to draw on for that process.
Don't beat yourself up about not buying fresh veg - think about how long it takes from picking to plate and how much of its nutritional value is lost in that process.
I'm a big fan of thinking about food miles and buying local. I'm also a big proponent of buying British where you can. It isn't just a political preference either - buying local food means that you are eating food stuffs which have the same environmental influences as you do and gives you the opportunity to buy fresher. It isn't always possible of course - if you want asparagus in December, you're unlikely to get it just up the road. For me though, that's when to turn to frozen.
I read an article the other day where they called people with this view point "localvores", I think I'm not unhappy with that label.
If you buy British frozen peas, they will have been flash frozen in minutes from being picked. Let's think of what happens in winter when you buy fresh peas from say Chile.
They are picked in Chile and packed into boxes. The boxes are then packed onto a lorry - no hurry, they have all day to fill the lorry. The lorry then takes the peas to an airport, the drive takes several hours. They wait at the airport to be loaded onto a plane, whilst various checks are made to make sure it really is a box of peas being transported and eventually they are loaded onto a plane. It takes a while as there are other consignments to be shipped on the same plane. Some hours later the plane takes off. How many hours do you reckon it takes to fly from Chile to London (assuming of course that there isn't a change of plane at another Chilean airport because the first one was just a small local air strip) - let's say the trip takes 17 hours.
Then we have British customs and more paper work as the peas are unloaded. Eventually they get put on a lorry and taken off to a big warehouse where they are repacked for the supermarket. Then, once they've been repacked and some quality control checks have been undertaken, they are packed onto further lorries and sent out to distribution centres where they change lorry and get taken to your local Tesco, where some hours later they will eventually find their way to the food shelf. Now take a look at those Chilean peas and see what the sell by date says - bet your last dollar it's more than a few days away. So all in all if you are lucky from vine to plate that's likely to be at least a week, during which time many nutrients have faded away.
So next time you get out a packet of frozen peas - don't beat yourself up - congratulate yourself on choosing what is probably the healthier option!
Students' Cottage Pie
I remember cooking this in a dingy flat in Chalk Farm in our little Baby Belling oven that looked like something you would take camping rather than have in your home! Every time I see Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen, I'm transported right back there!
This recipe is so cheap to make and yet it's packed with goodies and really has a comfort value. If I was feeling extravagant I sometimes added bits of bacon or ham and on poorer days a can of spam of corned beef! Salivating just thinking of it - this will be tomorrow night's supper in our house so that I can post a picture!
With the cheese and potato the cauliflower disappears and yet it retains all of its goodness because it's been steamed. This isn't gourmet cooking but there's 5 of your 5-a-day in this.
So you will need:
4 large potatoes (King Edwards or Caras are my favourites for mash) peeled and diced into 1inch cubes
1 head of cauliflower or 5 handfuls of frozen cauliflower
50g butter
200g cheddar cheese, grated
2 tins of beans
1 tin of sweet corn
4 sweet potatoes peeled and cubed into 1 inch pieces
2 large tomatoes- sliced
Serves 4
Preheat your oven to about 200C
1. Boil the potatoes in a large pan of salted water (I generally don't do salt but I'm afraid mash needs it).
2. Chop about an inch off the bottom of the cauliflower stalk and remove all leaves then cut the cauliflower, including any stalk into about 12 pieces and place in a steamer over a medium heat for about 10 minutes.
3. Put the sweet potatoes in the steamer above the cauliflower and cover.
4. Drain any liquid from the sweetcorn.
5. Mash the sweet potato with a little of the butter.
6. Mix the mashed sweet potato with the sweetcorn and beans and put in an oven proof dish.
7. Mash the cauliflower and potatoes together with the remaining butter (add a little more if needed or some milk or leftover cream).
8. Mix half the cheese with the potato/cauliflower mash then spoon the mash mixture over the beans and corn.
9. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and arrange tomato slices on top of that. A dash of Worcestershire sauce over the top is good but maybe not for some picky eaters.
10. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes when the cheese should be golden on top and the beans bubbling away underneath.
This recipe is so cheap to make and yet it's packed with goodies and really has a comfort value. If I was feeling extravagant I sometimes added bits of bacon or ham and on poorer days a can of spam of corned beef! Salivating just thinking of it - this will be tomorrow night's supper in our house so that I can post a picture!
With the cheese and potato the cauliflower disappears and yet it retains all of its goodness because it's been steamed. This isn't gourmet cooking but there's 5 of your 5-a-day in this.
So you will need:
4 large potatoes (King Edwards or Caras are my favourites for mash) peeled and diced into 1inch cubes
1 head of cauliflower or 5 handfuls of frozen cauliflower
50g butter
200g cheddar cheese, grated
2 tins of beans
1 tin of sweet corn
4 sweet potatoes peeled and cubed into 1 inch pieces
2 large tomatoes- sliced
Serves 4
Preheat your oven to about 200C
1. Boil the potatoes in a large pan of salted water (I generally don't do salt but I'm afraid mash needs it).
2. Chop about an inch off the bottom of the cauliflower stalk and remove all leaves then cut the cauliflower, including any stalk into about 12 pieces and place in a steamer over a medium heat for about 10 minutes.
3. Put the sweet potatoes in the steamer above the cauliflower and cover.
4. Drain any liquid from the sweetcorn.
5. Mash the sweet potato with a little of the butter.
6. Mix the mashed sweet potato with the sweetcorn and beans and put in an oven proof dish.
7. Mash the cauliflower and potatoes together with the remaining butter (add a little more if needed or some milk or leftover cream).
8. Mix half the cheese with the potato/cauliflower mash then spoon the mash mixture over the beans and corn.
9. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and arrange tomato slices on top of that. A dash of Worcestershire sauce over the top is good but maybe not for some picky eaters.
10. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes when the cheese should be golden on top and the beans bubbling away underneath.
Monday 6 May 2013
Gender and the picky eater
I have been on the research trail and have noticed how difficult I find it to stop once I get going. The topic is food neophobia (fear of trying new foods).
I realise that not all fussy eaters are neophobic - some of them are just plain old stubborn and playing mind games with mum!
I was really surprised to learn though that in the studies I could find, girls are more prone to food neophobia than boys. Maybe that means that boys are more prone to being just plain fussy and it isn't a fear related thing. I have read in the past that boys are generally wired to be less risk averse so I suppose it makes sense.
Really interesting to find that early incidence of ear infections seem to be linked to picky eating though. I know I've now got a few weeks worth of reading to work out why that is - wish my mind wasn't always quite so enquiring!
I realise that not all fussy eaters are neophobic - some of them are just plain old stubborn and playing mind games with mum!
I was really surprised to learn though that in the studies I could find, girls are more prone to food neophobia than boys. Maybe that means that boys are more prone to being just plain fussy and it isn't a fear related thing. I have read in the past that boys are generally wired to be less risk averse so I suppose it makes sense.
Really interesting to find that early incidence of ear infections seem to be linked to picky eating though. I know I've now got a few weeks worth of reading to work out why that is - wish my mind wasn't always quite so enquiring!
Wednesday 1 May 2013
PS3 or Xbox time!
Chatting to a mum at the school gate yesterday, I mentioned how I got my picky eater step-son to eat up and she suggested it might be worth sharing that tip here, so here goes.
He's one of those kids who uses food as a weapon for attention and his particular speciality if he doesn't get pizza at every meal is to eat painfully slowly. From what his mum says, I think going slowly is his way of showing his displeasure in all sorts of things actually.
I hate electronic games but like most young boys, he loves them and given his way, I think he'd fester in front of the TV with his Xbox or PS3 24/7, in dirty clothes, unwashed, munching on the odd pizza and drinking coke.....I'm guessing he'd not be alone in thinking that was an OK way forward either!
So, last time he was staying with us, I devised a new rule. Lunch time was going to be at 1.30 sharp and PS3 time would be for half an hour from 2pm sharp. So if he wanted to take forever eating his lunch, that was fine, but it would cut into his PS3 time and come 2.30pm, the PS3 was being unplugged.
It was the most pain free week of meal times I've spent with him in 6 years. He finished quickly, cleared his plate, stacked it in the dishwasher, drank his drink (he usually acts as though I'm trying to poison him when it comes to drinking water or juice) and was polite and friendly throughout meal times.
Some will call this bribery - they may be right. But it worked for us and I'm guessing it'll work for at least some others too!
Tuesday 30 April 2013
Banoffee Pie......but not as you know it!
OK, so let's deal with the sugar Nazis first - I am not suggesting that anybody should feed their child on puddings alone and I am not promoting a diet that consists only of cake. My suggestion is that if your child will only eat a very limited number of things, that you use those things they do like to hide things in that are good for them. That is to say if they are going to eat cake, let's try to work with what we've got and give them cake that has a few hidden extras.
Now whilst I blow a big fat raspberry at the sugar Nazis, I am an unashamed salt Nazi. I avoid salt in pretty much everything - I don't add it to anything at all whilst cooking and think there is more than enough of the stuff in pretty much all commercially made products to give us what we might need in our diet. I am a hypocrite though when it comes to chips - I can't see the point in them without salt and vinegar. I will probably have a rant about salt and the amount celeb chefs use at a later date.
For now, if your fussy eater will eat Banoffee Pie, then why not try it this way.......
I haven't quite got my food photography thang together, but here's one I made earlier!
I've used a blind baked pie crust here in the picture - that's because I'm from Sussex, just up the road from where banoffee pie originated, and they get sniffy in these parts if it has a biscuit base! Actually, for the purposes of Secret Cheffing, a biscuit base is actually better. The recipe below is designed to be a quick fix - this isn't about learning to be a gourmet cook, it's an idea on which I'm going to build all sorts of ways of sneaking in veg to an otherwise nutrition black hole!
As well as 3 of their 5-a-day, this provides a good dose of their Omega 3 brain food too. For the ground mixed seeds, I use about a tablespoon each of pumpkin, sunflower, linseed, sesame and hemp with a teaspoon of poppy seed and blitz it to a fine powder in a coffee grinder. You can use just the pumpkin and sunflower though alone.
You'll see that I tend to steam vegetables - this is because they lose less of their nutritional value in steaming than in boiling - when you boil a vegetable, it leeches a lot of goodness into the water, which then gets discarded.
Ingredients: (serves 4)
For the biscuit base:
12 digestive biscuits
50gms butter
1 heaped tablespoon ground mixed seeds
2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons Nutella
(Alternatively, you can just use a shop bought pie crust - M&S do great individual portion ones)
For the topping:
125gms chopped dates
4 medium sized parsnips
4 large bananas
400 gm can of caramel/dolce de lecce
Can of squirty cream or any cream whipped (enough to top four ramekins)
Small bar of chocolate to grate
Method:
1. Blitz the biscuits in the food processor or put them in a food bag and bash them with a rolling pin or pan base until broken into crumbs.
2. Over a low heat melt the butter and Nutella together.
3. Tip the biscuit crumbs, mixed seeds and walnuts into the melted butter/Nutella mixture and stir through until combined.
4. Divide this mixture into four and press into the bottom of four large ramekins or small individual pie dishes and refrigerate to set.
5. Peel the parsnips and cut into small chunks and either steam until tender (usually about 10 - 12 minutes) or nuke them in the microwave in a little water for about 6 minutes.
6. In a small pan, simmer the chopped dates in about 3 tablespoons of water (add more if it all evaporates) until they form a caramel like mush, usually about 5 - 6 minutes.
7. Allow the parsnips and dates to cool for 10 minutes and then puree them together with three of the bananas.
8. Stir about half the dolce de lecce into the puree, taste and add as much more as you feel you need for taste.
9. Spoon this mixture over the biscuit bases and then refrigerate again for 10 - 15 minutes.
10. Finely slice the remaining banana (feel free to add more if you think you can get away with it) and layer over the toffee mixture, so that the surface is completely covered and then squirt cream over the top to cover the whole thing. Grate some chocolate over the top to decorate.
If you find the caramel mixture too rich, try it without the dates next time - most kids don't then notice the parsnip is there at all!
Now whilst I blow a big fat raspberry at the sugar Nazis, I am an unashamed salt Nazi. I avoid salt in pretty much everything - I don't add it to anything at all whilst cooking and think there is more than enough of the stuff in pretty much all commercially made products to give us what we might need in our diet. I am a hypocrite though when it comes to chips - I can't see the point in them without salt and vinegar. I will probably have a rant about salt and the amount celeb chefs use at a later date.
For now, if your fussy eater will eat Banoffee Pie, then why not try it this way.......
I haven't quite got my food photography thang together, but here's one I made earlier!
I've used a blind baked pie crust here in the picture - that's because I'm from Sussex, just up the road from where banoffee pie originated, and they get sniffy in these parts if it has a biscuit base! Actually, for the purposes of Secret Cheffing, a biscuit base is actually better. The recipe below is designed to be a quick fix - this isn't about learning to be a gourmet cook, it's an idea on which I'm going to build all sorts of ways of sneaking in veg to an otherwise nutrition black hole!
As well as 3 of their 5-a-day, this provides a good dose of their Omega 3 brain food too. For the ground mixed seeds, I use about a tablespoon each of pumpkin, sunflower, linseed, sesame and hemp with a teaspoon of poppy seed and blitz it to a fine powder in a coffee grinder. You can use just the pumpkin and sunflower though alone.
You'll see that I tend to steam vegetables - this is because they lose less of their nutritional value in steaming than in boiling - when you boil a vegetable, it leeches a lot of goodness into the water, which then gets discarded.
Ingredients: (serves 4)
For the biscuit base:
12 digestive biscuits
50gms butter
1 heaped tablespoon ground mixed seeds
2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons Nutella
(Alternatively, you can just use a shop bought pie crust - M&S do great individual portion ones)
For the topping:
125gms chopped dates
4 medium sized parsnips
4 large bananas
400 gm can of caramel/dolce de lecce
Can of squirty cream or any cream whipped (enough to top four ramekins)
Small bar of chocolate to grate
Method:
1. Blitz the biscuits in the food processor or put them in a food bag and bash them with a rolling pin or pan base until broken into crumbs.
2. Over a low heat melt the butter and Nutella together.
3. Tip the biscuit crumbs, mixed seeds and walnuts into the melted butter/Nutella mixture and stir through until combined.
4. Divide this mixture into four and press into the bottom of four large ramekins or small individual pie dishes and refrigerate to set.
5. Peel the parsnips and cut into small chunks and either steam until tender (usually about 10 - 12 minutes) or nuke them in the microwave in a little water for about 6 minutes.
6. In a small pan, simmer the chopped dates in about 3 tablespoons of water (add more if it all evaporates) until they form a caramel like mush, usually about 5 - 6 minutes.
7. Allow the parsnips and dates to cool for 10 minutes and then puree them together with three of the bananas.
8. Stir about half the dolce de lecce into the puree, taste and add as much more as you feel you need for taste.
9. Spoon this mixture over the biscuit bases and then refrigerate again for 10 - 15 minutes.
10. Finely slice the remaining banana (feel free to add more if you think you can get away with it) and layer over the toffee mixture, so that the surface is completely covered and then squirt cream over the top to cover the whole thing. Grate some chocolate over the top to decorate.
If you find the caramel mixture too rich, try it without the dates next time - most kids don't then notice the parsnip is there at all!
Monday 29 April 2013
Picky Eaters.....take the battle away!
I've been lurking on Mumsnet and Netmums reading various threads about fussy eaters.
In some respects its music to my ears, or rather eyes to read how many mums struggle to get their kids to eat a varied diet or indeed anything healthy at all but in other respects its really quite heartbreaking to read page after page of frustration, knowing that these are loving families who just want what's best for their kids and yet are constantly told to do battle.
I've almost finished writing my book on feeding fussy eaters and am in the slow process of taking forward to publication now but I can see that much of the advice is needed NOW! So, I've decided to start a blog. I'm not sure how this works or whether this will be the final location and format even but it's a start, at last!
I've been reading a lot about neophobia, which is where kids are quite literally terrified of trying new things and this is apparently behind many fussy eaters. There seems to be a huge school of thought which says not to pander to a fussy eater and to keep giving them whatever the rest of the family are eating and eventually they'll come round rather than starve. I find that quite Victorian and barbaric to be honest. If your kid was afraid of heights you wouldn't dangle him by his toe from the top of a sky-scraper to teach him not to be, would you? So why make a child confront the fear of new foods?
There are also quite a few techniques put forward by various experts which take a lot of time and effort by the families and probably schools involved too - let's face it a kid who won't eat what you give him at home will probably fill up on what they do like elsewhere. I find these techniques to be completely unrealistic and they ignore the fact that many of us are working mums who simply don't have the time or the energy to do battle each day with our off-spring.
OK, so less of where everyone else is going wrong and on to where I think I can help you to get it right.
The first step is to sit down with your fussy eater and talk about it - this is probably more productive with older children than with toddlers but even with very small children they can usually express some preferences, even if they can't give reasons for them. Most fussy eaters realise that they are fussy and different - they probably dread going to friends' homes for meals and finding they can't eat anything on offer, and would love to expand their food repertoire. So acknowledge with them that their is a bit of a problem and that you want to help them with it.
Then, get down to what it is they do like. Grade those things, working out the things they really like down to those things they really just tolerate. Then look at why - is it the taste, the look, the texture, the smell, the fact that they had that food the day they first saw their favourite movie...........and focus on the things they like most.
Next go on to things they know they don't like - specifics and they must be things they have actually tried as opposed to foods they just think they wouldn't like. Again, grade them and try to work out what it is about these foods they don't like.
Ask them if they would be willing to play a game of blind tasting - they wear a blindfold and they have a bucket or large bowl in front of them and are allowed to spit out foods they don't like. They need to have a glass of water or something similar to be able to rinse tastes away too. Try them on foods you know they like as well as sneaking one or two in that you think may be similar in taste but which aren't currently in the "will eat" list. This should give you an idea of how discerning their taste buds really are!
It can be interesting for them to learn how smell effects the tastebuds - so let them taste foods blindfolded whilst holding their nose - see if they can tell the difference between broccoli and cauliflower!
Once you've got a fair idea of the things they do like, you can start to embark on secret cheffing.......
And that'll be the subject of my next post!
In some respects its music to my ears, or rather eyes to read how many mums struggle to get their kids to eat a varied diet or indeed anything healthy at all but in other respects its really quite heartbreaking to read page after page of frustration, knowing that these are loving families who just want what's best for their kids and yet are constantly told to do battle.
I've almost finished writing my book on feeding fussy eaters and am in the slow process of taking forward to publication now but I can see that much of the advice is needed NOW! So, I've decided to start a blog. I'm not sure how this works or whether this will be the final location and format even but it's a start, at last!
I've been reading a lot about neophobia, which is where kids are quite literally terrified of trying new things and this is apparently behind many fussy eaters. There seems to be a huge school of thought which says not to pander to a fussy eater and to keep giving them whatever the rest of the family are eating and eventually they'll come round rather than starve. I find that quite Victorian and barbaric to be honest. If your kid was afraid of heights you wouldn't dangle him by his toe from the top of a sky-scraper to teach him not to be, would you? So why make a child confront the fear of new foods?
There are also quite a few techniques put forward by various experts which take a lot of time and effort by the families and probably schools involved too - let's face it a kid who won't eat what you give him at home will probably fill up on what they do like elsewhere. I find these techniques to be completely unrealistic and they ignore the fact that many of us are working mums who simply don't have the time or the energy to do battle each day with our off-spring.
OK, so less of where everyone else is going wrong and on to where I think I can help you to get it right.
The first step is to sit down with your fussy eater and talk about it - this is probably more productive with older children than with toddlers but even with very small children they can usually express some preferences, even if they can't give reasons for them. Most fussy eaters realise that they are fussy and different - they probably dread going to friends' homes for meals and finding they can't eat anything on offer, and would love to expand their food repertoire. So acknowledge with them that their is a bit of a problem and that you want to help them with it.
Then, get down to what it is they do like. Grade those things, working out the things they really like down to those things they really just tolerate. Then look at why - is it the taste, the look, the texture, the smell, the fact that they had that food the day they first saw their favourite movie...........and focus on the things they like most.
Next go on to things they know they don't like - specifics and they must be things they have actually tried as opposed to foods they just think they wouldn't like. Again, grade them and try to work out what it is about these foods they don't like.
Ask them if they would be willing to play a game of blind tasting - they wear a blindfold and they have a bucket or large bowl in front of them and are allowed to spit out foods they don't like. They need to have a glass of water or something similar to be able to rinse tastes away too. Try them on foods you know they like as well as sneaking one or two in that you think may be similar in taste but which aren't currently in the "will eat" list. This should give you an idea of how discerning their taste buds really are!
It can be interesting for them to learn how smell effects the tastebuds - so let them taste foods blindfolded whilst holding their nose - see if they can tell the difference between broccoli and cauliflower!
Once you've got a fair idea of the things they do like, you can start to embark on secret cheffing.......
And that'll be the subject of my next post!
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