healthy

articles

• Roasted Butternut Risotto recipe
• Watercress, Bacon and Kumquat salad
• Cajun Chicken and Greek Salad Wraps
• Would you accept a C- when it came to your child’s health?
• YOU are what your child eats…
• Healthy food tips for your schoolchild.
• Chocolate Hazelnut Cake Recipe (gluten Free)
• A meaty issue
• Fast food made healthy
• What is a balanced nutritious diet for kids

supplied by Geraldine Fynn-Green, Hospitality & Catering lecturer, mom-of-one for now (eek!) and nagging wife to a patient man. Food in our house is always prepared with family in mind and that means no separate meals for our little 15 month old foodie, Gia.

“Until I discovered cooking, I was never really interested in anything.” ― Julia Child

While this method for preparing risotto may not be very traditional it frees you up from standing in front of the stove throughout the cooking time. Time better spent watching ANOTHER episode of Teletubbies or getting splashed on during bath time.

Ingredients:

300 g diced butternut

80 ml olive oil

2 garlic cloves, roughly crushed

2 cinnamon sticks

1 onion, chopped

2 tsp roughly chopped parsley

375 ml risotto rice

1 ½ litre chicken stock (if using stock cubes or powder use one with low sodium if you can find it)

2 tbls butter

Method :

Various additions can be made i.e. adding prawns, mushrooms and even roasted peppers.

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Supplied by Megan Huber,  qualified chef, who traded in her apron to be a teacher, constantly looking for fun recipes to play around with & ‘Jazz up’. Based in Bryanston, she offers kiddies & domestic cooking classes. 

-for the salad
1 pkt. watercress, with any large stems removed
1/2 cup of cooked streaky bacon, cut up into small pieces
1/2 cup kumquats, sliced thin and seeded
1 avocado, sliced
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
fresh ground pepper
red pepper flakes

-for the dressing
½  cup kumquats, rinsed and small stem removed
1 large clove garlic, crushed
¼  cup water, or more if needed
½  cup olive oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
½  teaspoon sea salt
½  teaspoon fresh ground white pepper
½  teaspoon tabasco sauce

Method:

dressing-

salad-

*Any leftover dressing should keep well in the fridge for a few days.

Supplied by Catherine Speedie, owner Gingko Good Food restaurant in Parkview

Summer seems to have stepped across the portal, so we’ve given you a few fresh takes on the eternal question of what to put into your precious one’s lunch box. Wraps are a great alternative to sandwiches and are fun to eat too. Feel free to play around with the ingredients in the two recipes we’ve given you. Almost anything can go into a wrap, so depending on what your child eats, you can also throw in the remnants of that chicken curry you made last night, with some crispy ice berg lettuce for example!

CAJUN CHICKEN WRAPS

1 tbsp Cajun spice mix

1. Sprinkle the spice mix evenly over the chicken. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the  chicken breasts and fry for 4 mins on each side until cooked through. Rest for 2 mins before thinly slicing. Alternatively grill the breasts then slice.

2. Meanwhile, mix the sweetcorn with the chilli, lime zest and juice to make the salsa. Set aside until ready to serve.

3. Warm the tortillas/wraps in a pan/directly over the gas. To serve, assemble each wrap by spreading with a little soured cream, then pile on some sliced chicken and add a spoonful of corn & lime salsa. Roll up and cut on the diagonal.

574 kcalories, protein 42g, carbohydrate 75g, fat 14 g, saturated fat 2g, fibre 4g, sugar 9g, salt 1.79 g

GREEK SALAD WRAPS

Serves 2
Prep 10 mins
Ready in 10 minutes

1/3 of a cucumber

1. Roughly chop the tomato, cut the cucumber into chunks and split and stone the olives (if using)

2. Chop the flat leaf and leave aside to marinate in some olive oil.

3. Now heat the tortillas/wraps. If you have gas, put each one for 10 seconds on a lit gas ring – then turn it over quickly, using tongs, and heat the other side for another 8 seconds or so. The tortillas will be slightly charred in places, which adds a fantastic flavour. If you don’t have gas, warm a pan to a medium heat before quickly tossing in your tortillas one at a time. You don’t need to have any oil on the pan.

4.Make a row of the filling down centre of each warm tortilla/wrap. Now spoon the hummous on top. Fold in the sides to seal in the ingredients and roll up tightly to make a big cigar. Cut in half on the diagonal.

297 kcalories, protein 10g, carbohydrate 25g, fat 18 g, saturated fat 5g, fibre 3g, salt 2.08 g

by Lindsay Grubb, wife & mom to a nearly 3 yr old daughter and owner of L Communications where she helps you get the right message across to the right audience. Follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn

My daughter will eat anything you put in front of her with no arguments. She adores vegetables, happily munches away on broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas and carrots. My friends,(who sneakily try to blend vegetables and hide them in bolognaise sauces and stews), sit dumbstruck as she polishes off a big plate of salad at our weekend braais.

She is happiest when she’s running round the garden, treating us to a game drive, pointing out the animals in her imaginary zoo. At nearly three, she understands the importance of sunscreen and wearing hats, and why she has to stay out of the fenced pool area unless she’s with mom and dad. She is delighted when I carry her candy-pink plastic table and chairs outside, and layout the recycled purity bottle lids and fill them with paint so she can get her fingers and paint brushes busy on our recycled office paper.

None of these things have been particularly conscious steps we’ve taken in her upbringing, they just evolved naturally. I suppose we draw on our own personal memories of growing up as a guide for how we should be raising our children.

I was saddened to hear that as a nation we received a C- on the Healthy Active Kids Report Card for 2010.

The study showed that:

While the study focused on children of school going age, and discussed the steps being taken at government and private sector level to improve on the situation, it failed to address the most important time in a child’s life, those important formative years where impressions and habits are formed. As parents we should all be asking ourselves how we can make sure our children receive an A+ on their healthy kids’ report cards instead of a C-.

Perhaps if we all start working on this earlier, during those early formative years, it will help to improve the nation’s overall rating too.

Copyright © Lindsay Grubb 2011 – All rights reserved

By Sholain Govender-Bateman , Pretoria based journalism lecturer who worked for The Star, Pretoria & other  publications. She is mum to two gorgeous girls, Isobel and Aishwari, and wife to Barry. Follow her on Twitter @sholain

I am often confused when a parent complains about the poor eating habits of their child but doesn’t realise that the problem is usually their own eating habits.

Be honest now, how many times have you placed a plate of veggies and all things wholesome in front of your toddler for supper and then you’ve sat down with a meal that has the complete opposite amount of nutrition?

We have a profound influence on our children’s personalities and habits and even though their menus differ from ours for the large part of the first year of their lives, it is important to soon meld the kiddies and adult menu to provide a meal that will suit the tastebuds, development and health of all family members.

In our household, we managed to introduce our toddler(almost 3 years old), Isobel, to just about every food there is from sushi to salads, beetroot to braaivleis. I’m a huge fan of the ‘Baby Sense’ and ‘What to expect’ series of books so I used those as guidelines when introducing her to solids but we also realised that the only way we could really get her to eat something was if we ate it ourselves.

We let her play with her food and encouraged her to eat without stressing if she refused a meal from time to time or threw her food-tray on the floor. It was a wonderful and hugely rewarding experience as we now can sit at the dinner table with her and enjoy a meal together most evenings – being flexible to allow for the mid-meal wanderings of a toddler.

Isobel’s fond of veggies but not at all keen on raw tomatoes – and guess what… neither am I. She loves tinned tuna and pilchards but steers clear of prawns when daddy is around – could it be because dad never touches them because of his shellfish allergy?  She has a penchant for raw onions and can handle spicy food – is it just a coincidence that I love onion and dad orders ‘extra hot’? I don’t think so.

It may seem obvious but sometimes we try so hard to make our kids eat the ‘right’ things with no luck and just don’t see that they are just copying us most of the time…

Many ‘lazy’ parents will simply say, “I grew up drinking Coke/ eating junk food every day/ I’ve always hated vegetables…” etc… “…and I’m still alive.” And some of these families may have excellent genes that carry no risk for heart disease, obesity, high cholesterol and the numerous other silent diseases that plague millions of people. But isn’t a change in your attitude to food worth it if it’s going to help you mould your child into a healthy eater and an overall happy being?

By Christine Phillips, mother of 3. Loves spending time with her family and enjoys the fulfilment of running her own business. She is the owner of Little Cooks Club.

I don’t know about you but I find that as my children get older, their days have become filled with more activities, responsibilities and homework.

I can definitely see my kids begin to flag around 2pm if they haven’t eaten well up until that point in the day. I know a lot of children who, at the age of 10 are already doing sports activities that run until 6 or 7 at night during the week.

We, as parents, need to be sure that we are providing our children’s bodies with enough fuel to sustain this kind of energy output.

How to begin?

A good breakfast

Remember to start slowly with any changes to children’s food routines as they can be resistant  if the change is too drastic.

Next, let’s tackle the packed  school lunches.

Now that you have your perfect lunchbox, what to pack?

With a bit of planning, you could save yourself the cost of expensive shop bought sandwiches and snacks and avoid the temptation of packing chips, sweets and other high calorie, no good food into your children’s lunchboxes.

Little Cooks Club runs classes for moms that include ideas for simple, healthy weeknight suppers and more ideas and recipes for snacks and lunchboxes.

provided by Matthew Ballenden, dad to Isabella & owner of the Fresh Earth Food Store, an organic health store and vegetarian restaurant with a  great online store.  Visit their website to find out more.

Cakes are for celebrating or simply to spoil your family. When we bake cakes we choose the best ingredients we can find. The finer the ingredients the finer the cake (try using an Organic stone ground flour next time you bake a cake).

Here is one of my favourite chocolate cake recipes which is suitable for kids (and big people) who are wheat or gluten intolerant.

Ingredients

35g Cacao powder
80ml Hot Water
150g Dark Eating Chocolate, melted
150g Butter, melted
295g Brown Sugar, firmly packed
100g Hazelnuts, finely ground
4 Organic Eggs, separated
20g Cacao powder (extra)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Grease a deep, 20cm, round cake tin and line with baking paper.
Blend the cacao powder with the water in a large bowl until smooth.
Stir in the melted chocolate, butter, sugar, finely ground hazelnuts and egg yolks.
Beat the egg whites in a small bowl until soft peak stage.
Fold into chocolate mixture in two batches.
Pour mixture into prepared cake tin and bake for one hour.
Stand cake for 15 minutes. Turn onto wire rack, top side up, to cool.
Dust with extra cacao powder.
Serve with cream or ice cream and fresh gooseberries.

Browse through other healthy recipes on from Fresh Earth Food Store: http://www.freshearth.co.za/store/c-2-healthy-recipes.aspx

Kerry Haggard works in corporate communications by day and desperately tries to sleep at night, despite the best efforts of her sons, dogs and her conscience to prevent her from doing so. Thankfully, her husband has learned the hard way to let sleeping Kerrys lie… Follow her on Twitter @KerryHaggard

 Daniel (aged four and a half) and I were chatting over breakfast yesterday morning. “Where does meat come from, Mommy?” he asked. “From animals,” I said, hoping that that would be the end of that train of thought. Not so. “But how do the animals make meat?” he persisted? “Do cows make chicken?”

 “No – chickens make chicken, and cows make beef,” I said. “What about horses?” was the next question – and after confirming that we definitely don’t eat horse, I quickly changed the subject, desperate to postpone the moment when I have to tell my animal-loving little boy that we kill animals to eat them … that the kind animals don’t just donate chunks of their flesh for us to consume, before they move on to the next pasture.

But it got me thinking (and I know there are vegetarians and vegans out there who will snort and say “It took you THIS long?). As a South African brought up in a braaing culture, where meat has been my primary source of protein since I can remember, the whole notion of where it actually comes from has kind of been absorbed into my psyche. I make good decisions about the meat that I buy – grass-fed beef and free range chicken, for example, but the fact remains that living creatures have to die for me and my family to eat them. How do I explain this to my little boy, without him thinking that I’m a complete monster for sanctioning the mass slaughter of cows, sheep, pigs and chickens?

 Law of the jungle perhaps – our teeth classify us as omnivores, so we are just following what nature has set us up to do, surely? Or is it time to convince my whole household (we are seven now, including Thandi, my domestic goddess and my father-in-law whose given name is Johannes), that it’s time to ditch their meat-loving heritage and become vegetarian?

Recipes supplied by  Richard Rust,  5 star trained, gourmet chef. He has cooked for, amongst others, British royalty, Woolworths & written for Taste magazine. His company Gourmet Gurus caters for kid’s parties,corporate functions and dinner parties.

These recipes are quick, nutritious, kids will love them and enjoy making them – especially the messy moulding or crumbing part!

Vegetable Nuggets
Process uncooked but defrosted ready cut vegetable mix. Add a pinch of salt and enough flour to make a workable paste.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 200c until crisp.

Fish fingers
Slice hake fillets into bite sized pieces, dip in flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs. Bake at 200c for 10 minutes until crisp.

‘Fried’ Chicken
Mix freshly grated breadcrumbs with salt, paprika, and BBQ spice. Dip chicken braai cut pieces into flour, egg then crumb mixture. Bake at 180c for 40 minutes or cooked through

Beef Burgers
Fry until soft finely diced onion, mix into beef mince, egg, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Mix well. Form balls and squish to make patties. Grill until golden brown on each side. Let the kids make their own burgers with a selection of greens, relishes and condiments.

Oven baked potato, sweet potatoe or butternut wedges
Cut washed unpeeled potatoes,  sweet potato and/or  butternut. Boil for 5-10minutes until just going soft. Place on a baking sheet sprayed with cook and bake and roast on a high heat 220c for 20-30 minutes until crisp.

Lower Fat Fruity Coleslaw
Mix equal quantities grated cabbage (red or white or a combination), and carrot, mix in some raisins and diced pineapple. Mix equal amounts of reduced fat mayonnaise and smooth cottage cheese and simply mix all together.

Funky Rice Salad
Chop a handful of dried apricots, peaches, mangoes and apples together. Mix into cold rice with a tin of creamed corn.

Low Fat Butternut and Feta Pasta salad
Mix cooked and cooled penne pasta with cooked butternut, feta, fat free yoghurt and a squeeze of lemon juice season to taste and serve.

by Joy Dembo, married, with an 18 year old son and a 25 year old daughter.  Addicted to the www, particularly Twitter. Recruitment Response Handling Consultant and Freelance Copywriter, vegetarian and animal lover. Visit her blog.

We are all into the last school term and your child should has either settled into the school routine  or is in the process of doing so.

You can help by ensuring your  child is getting enough sleep, is not  stressed out,  is getting sufficient exercise, and most importantly, is eating a properly balanced meals  with the essential Vitamins and Minerals needed to stay healthy, energetic and alert?

Make sure your child gets enough sleep. The “Early to bed, early to rise” verse is not as clichéd as you might think.  A child needs ample sleep in order to concentrate and focus at school.

But, what about nutrition? Most people lead a fast-paced lifestyle, which can,  unfortunately, lead to bad eating habits.  Sorry mom, but hamburgers and chips, fried chicken or sausages and…errrr…. chips, and pizza (with or without chips) are NOT nutritional meals. Fruit, vegetables, high fibre foods, dairy products, eggs and lean meat and fish are all essential to your child’s well-being.

IRON is essential in the building of healthy brain tissue. Research has shown that increased iron levels lead to better concentration in children. If your child is lethargic, apathetic and irritable (well, more than usual!), his iron levels could be low.  Lean beef mince, eggs, dried fruits, nuts, whole grains and green leafy veggies (yep, the dreaded spinach!) are excellent sources of natural iron.

PROTEIN is essential “brain food” for children. Your child should be eating small portions of lean meat or fish, eggs, or plant protein such as soya, lentils, tofu and other pulses.

UNREFINED CARBOHYDRATES will provide the body with the necessary supply of glucose. Wholewheat bread, oats and brown rice are great examples of “good carbs” and they will keep your child’s glycaemic index on an even keel and ensure that his blood sugar is kept at optimum level.

CALCIUM is vital for the growth of young brains and bones!  Dairy products are an excellent source of calcium.

OMEGA-3, found mainly in salmon, tuna and sardines, is important for optimal brain function in children, and research has shown that it has proven to be an effective alternative to drugs, in the treatment of ADD and ADHD.

In conclusion, if your child refuses to eat healthy foods, you need to try and re-educate them. Fortunately, there are scientifically tested natural supplements, yummy fruit flavoured vitamins and delicious protein shakes available on the market.