Inside Jozi Wahm's Kitchen- Easy Kiddies Fun Food

I am always looking for creative ways to get my kids to eat healthy foods. This sometimes needs a bit of creativity. For previous ideas see Margy Vally from the Olive Branch Cookery School's enticing recipes see here. 

Today I am going to share a couple of the quick, easy staple favourites in our household:

Smiley Sandwiches

While regular sandwiches covered in salad bits tend to get wasted, these smiley sandwiches get gobbled up every time. These are very simple to make. 

I take a roll (when I do these smileys,the kids do not notice if I sneak in wholewheat seeded rolls) and cut them in half. Then I spread with a layer of cottage cheese (or a cheese spread, as used in the above picture).

Next, we arrange the various salad bits to make a face, depending on what we have available (eg. lettuce hair, pepper nose, tomato mouth, cucumber eyes etc, there are dozens of variations). Noodle wanted freckles on the ones in the picture, so we sprinkled with poppyseeds.

You can use regular bread to make 'Minions' (cover bread with a piece of pre-sliced cheese and cut cold meat or cucumbers for the eyes and mouth. Alternatively, flower or butterfly shapes on the bread have also proven popular.

Crunchy Munchy Muesli

This is a quick and easy breakfast idea. I take plain yoghurt (our family loves the Lancewood double cream one) and add a generous drizzle of honey and some muesli (I like the Vital one because it is tasty and comes in a convenient strip of little packets, which works for us since we do not have muesli daily).

The top was decorated with a grape face with banana hair.

Eggstatic Eggies

I make sunny side up eggs in various shapes (mainly hearts and teddy bears). When cracking the egg, it is poured into a cookie cutter which is placed in a hot, lightly greased pan with a flat surface and left to set for a minute or two. Season as desired. You could also separate the whites from the yokes and have separate yellow and white eggs. 

Hint: use a metal cookie cutter as plastic may melt and hold the cutter down firmly until the egg white starts to set, otherwise it will ooze out of the bottom and not hold its shape. If it does ooze, you can salvage thus by using the cutter to shape once cooked, but it looks much neater if you can avoid oozing.

I serve with toast, also cut with cookie cutters.

Oaty Snacks

For an easy toddler snack, I take leftover jungle oats (about a cupful) and add a mashed banana. I add lots of cinnamon, drop spoons full in a greased baking tray and bake for about fifteen minutes. You can add a bit of honey to sweeten, but my kids don't seem to mind when I omit it. Grated apple can also be added for variety.

(These work well as teething biscuits).

Jozi Wahm's Guide to Getting Kids to Eat their Veggies

Noodle and Squish have both always eaten very well, but recently it has been a bit of a battle to get Noodle to eat healthy foods, especially vegetables. (She always used to love vegetables but her friends have convinced her that they are yucky so I need to reverse this mindset). Fortunately my kids both love fruit so I have no problem convincing them to eat these.

I always thought I was cultivating fairly healthy eating values and awareness of different foods until I discovered last week that Noodle thought that potato chips grew on a chip tree (probably my fault- while I seldom make french fries, when I do they come straight out of a McCain's bag and Noodle has never seen me chop potatoes up for this purpose).

I thought I would share some of the tricks that I use to get my family to eat their veggies (and other good stuff):

1. Grow your own vegetables and herbs. I have a small herb and vegetable garden outside my kitchen door and while Noodle will usually not eat tomatoes, she will happily pick nibble at the cherry tomatoes that she picks herself from the garden. They take up virtually no space and are easy to grow.
2.  Salad skewers- because everything tastes better on a stick. (Fruit skewers work just as well).

   

   Child-sized salad skewer with cucumber, bell pepper, cherry tomato and cheese served with a yoghurt and herb dip

3. Food art- smiley faced sandwiches or food plated in animal, heart or flower shapes- the internet shows endless possibilities.
4. Vegetables cut into unusual shapes are more appealing to children than if they are in their usual form.
5.  Peas, carrots and broccoli can all go unnoticed if pureed and added to pastas, soups or curries.I take all my slightly overripe bananas, peel them and chuck them in a container in the freezer and then offer them as ice lollies once frozen or use them in smoothies. Berries also work well frozen.
6.  Speaking of smoothies, carrots, cucumber and even spinach can slip unnoticed into these. 
7. Children will eat anything on a pizza, covered with some cheese. Use wholewheat flour for the base.