When it comes to kids, the easiest way to win their hearts is to do what makes them happy. When it comes to healthy food, its not the meals that excite them, its the snacks and party food that does.
Therefore, it was only fitting to choose to make sandwiches in addition to the cookies and chocolates at the “Healthy Me” workshop (you can read more about the workshop here).
One of the biggest troubles a parent faces is to get their kids to eat vegetables. Continue reading
Just like diamonds are a girl’s best friend, chocolates are a kids best friend. So, it was only fitting to have a chocolate making session during the “Healthy Me” workshop (read more about it here).
Cookies are a favorite with kids. So a ‘healthy’ cookie recipe was a must for the “Healthy Me” workshop (read about it here). But all the healthy cookie recipes I know and like require either kitchen equipment (like blenders, ovens or microwaves) or very specialized ingredients.
I started thinking hard. I needed a recipe that was quick so that the kids wouldn’t get bored, easy to do with simple kitchen utensils and of course tasted good!
Kids are the most difficult audience to work with, but they are also the most receptive. That’s because they are like a blank canvas. If you start early enough, you can mould them and empower them to make better choices – especially about their health in general and food habits in particular.
A live example of this is my son, who is now 2 years old. Right from the time I started him on solids, I exposed him to all kinds of fruits and vegetables. In fact, I only started adding salt to his meals after he turned 1 year old. And I still haven’t introduced him to sugar! He has never eaten a cookie, chocolate, ice-cream or even other packaged foods like chips, saltines or farsaan. And you know why it works? Because I regularly make special treats for him with natural ingredients that he enjoys and relishes, so he never feels deprived.
If you explore my blog, you will find many such recipes, but the ones he loves the most are his first birthday cake, his second birthday cake and his weekend breakfast of pancakes.
Thats exactly why, at the ‘Healthy Me’ workshop which was part of the kids summer camp at CLAP, I wanted to so something that would ‘excite’ the kids, something that brought a twinkle in their eyes and a smile to their faces, but also conveyed the message of good nutrition and healthy food choices.
My son just turned 2 a few months ago. For those of you who have been following my blog, you know that I haven’t introduced my son to sugar or any of its forms yet. In fact, his first birthday cake was quite a task since I made it with only the few ingredients he was introduced to before he turned 1! If you haven’t already seen the recipe for that cake, you can check it out here.
Now that he was going to turn 2, I wanted to bake a different cake for him, but without the refined flour or white sugar. Thats why I decided on carrot cake and used as little honey as I could to sweeten the cake. I must say, what I ended up with was melt in the mouth delicious! Here’s how my cake turned out:
My toddler loves to be ‘read to’. One of the books that has caught his fancy in the last few days is a book called “The Big Pancake”. Naturally so, he was intrigued by what a pancake is and why everyone in the book is chasing after it. The book would be followed up with slogans of “Pancaish Wow” or “Pancaish Yummy” even though he hadn’t personally tried the good stuff himself.
That’s why, this past weekend, I decided on a nice sit-down breakfast of pancakes, so that my little one too could experience what the fuss was about 🙂 And the recipe I am about to share below makes beautiful golden brown pancakes that are all natural, quick and instant and lower in calories than even a bowl of cereal!
My son’s preschool has this system where they conduct activities within the class on a different theme every month. For example. in August, the theme was “music” and one activity during every school day was centered around this theme. In September, the theme chosen was “food” and for one of the activities under this theme, I was asked to visit the school and conduct a “cake baking class” with the kids.
Cooking with kids can be a lot of fun. But when you’re talking of 10 kids in the age group of 1.5 to 3.5 years of age, it can be quite a task. Kids in this age group have a super short attention span, lack the dexterity and skill that older kids have and are also typically more interested in running around and playing than sitting in one place and doing something. And baking. in general, requires the absolute opposite of all these traits. So, how was I going to pull this off?
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Choose Healthy, Be Happy 