5 Tips to Getting Children to Eat Healthy

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I just love when I see children eating healthy.  Not only are their small bodies getting the nourishment they need, but it is setting them up for a great food and health relationship later into their lives.  Getting children to make healthy choices isn’t always easy and sometimes it takes a little (or a lot) of creativity in the kitchen to make this happen.

5 Tips To Get That Munchkin Excited For Their Healthy Choices

1.  Be a good role model!  This one is simple but the most important, your children are not going to eat healthy if they don’t see you eating healthy.  I also love to make subliminal comments while I’m eating…..”Oh this apple is sooo sweet and delicious, I can’t wait eat another one”, remember whatever works.

2.  Invite your children into the kitchen.  Have them help you prepare the food, givePhoto 2014-11-26, 9 08 58 AM (1) them some choices of what to make or to add in. Always offer a variety, as you never know what they will choose and enjoy, sometimes it is very surprising.  My pickiest eater who will not go near a strawberry loves anything with nori wraps and sprouts.

3.  Use meal time as a huge learning opportunity.  We are all familiar with those power struggles we often bring on ourselves by always telling our children what we want them to do, and they never do it.  Instead of telling them they need to eat this healthy food, educate them.  Children love hearing information and facts.  Broccoli might sound much more exciting to eat if they knew that it is full of vitamin C to help build their immune system and it is so high in calcium it will give them strong bones for all that growing that is happening.

4.  Serve it in a fun way.  Lets face it, veggies and dip can get boring.  Try new recipes, eat it out of a fun dish (muffin tin), play a game with it, eat it with a funny utensil, get a fun straw for smoothies, eat with a friend, go on a picnic (both indoors and outdoors are fun),the ideas are endless.

5.  Give it a fun name!  This one has been a lifesaver for me.  Who doesn’t want to eat a Spiderman Web Salad??? How does Mint Chip Smoothie sound?  You get where I’m going.

One extra tip.  Don’t stress!!  Meal time is supposed to be a fun time to spend together.  Eating habits and tastes will develop and change over a lifetime.

Curry Powder

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3 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tbsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp turmeric

1 tbsp mustard seeds

2 1/2 tsp fennel seeds

8 whole cloves

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp black peppercorns

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp cayenne

  • Preheat oven to 250F
  • In a bowl, combine all ingredients
  • Spread out on a pan and toast for 20 minutes on middle rack.  Check often, you don’t want spices to burn
  • Let cool to room temperature
  • Grind spice mixture in batches with a spice grinder or coffee grinder and strain through a sieve into a bowl
  • The curry powder will keep six months in a tightly sealed jar in a cool, dark place

Will It Be Bread or Bread Crumbs?

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Will it be bread or bread crumbs?  This is the question I ask myself before every attempt at trying to make a fresh loaf of edible, light and fluffy bread.  I have rarely been successful at the traditional white bread and now my attempts of a gluten free bread  seem to be heading in the same direction.  I believe making bread is a skill and like all skills, it needs to be practiced.

Lets face it, a gluten free bread will very seldom be comparable to the light, fluffy gluten filled stuff we grew up on and are in love with, but your body will thank you for trading it in. Working with gluten free flours can be a little tricky, here are a few tips. Photo 2014-10-28, 3 33 06 PM

1. Gluten free flours are very stong in flavour, so a blend of at least 3 work well to balance each other out.

2.  Get a kitchen scale.  All flours have a different weight.  You will get a more accurate measurement using grams as opposed to cups.

3.  Know what to look for.  Once you have mixed all of the ingredients, it will usually be wetter and look more like cake batter then like traditional bread dough.

4.  Gluten free breads have a tendency to be more crumbly because they are missing the gluten strands that hold bread together and are best stored in the fridge.

5.  If all else fails and your attempt was a flop, get out your food processor and at least you will have some gluten free bread crumbs.

Well…my latest experiment wasn’t too bad, but could use a few tweaks.  Since I already happen to have a LARGE amount of bread crumbs from previous attempts (I don’t give up to easily), this loaf of bread was reincarnated into some tasty croutons.

Second Chance Croutons Recipe

 

 

 

 

 

Today is the Day

Today is the Day
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Today is the Day, the start of my new journey with Simple Spoons Nutrition Studio. Two of my biggest inspirations, my mom and my grandma, are not here to celebrate with me but I know they join me in the kitchen daily. I imagine if they had one piece of advice for me it would be “Just don’t burn the kitchen down!”  And I’m sure my husband would agree with that.

Let’s clear things up, I have never burnt a kitchen down, but maybe a few other little mishaps of happened along the way. To me, my kitchen is a giant playground for experimenting and discovering, and if you’re not making mistakes then you are not trying hard enough, right?

Simples Spoons Nutrition, like most things in life, did not happen overnight. Over the past 8 years I have grown my culinary skills and nutrition knowledge immensely, but this building a business thing, not a clue. I have been finding it’s kind of like becoming a first time parent again with a steep learning curve. I am very poor at making decisions on a timely matter and with developing a business there has been A LOT of decisions to make. I’m pretty sure it took me at least 6 months just to decide on the name. Since I put so much thought into it, I am going to share with you what it means to me.

Spoons FlowersLet’s start with the “Spoons”. I just love spoons. Wood ones, silver ones, old ones…all of them.  Spoons have managed to prove themselves as the most perfect tool in all areas of food preparation and serving.  They are simple and classic and spoons are the one universal utensil that is used everywhere throughout the world in all cultures. I love that.  One day I was out shopping for some old spoons and came across a larger silver spoon at an antique store.  It had a perfect slant on one side of it.  I asked the owner of the store if she knows what this “type” of spoon would have been used for.  Her response was that it is just worn out on the one side from stirring a pot. I find that fascinating and I sure hope I get a chance to wear out my spoon.

The word “Simple” has a lot of meanings to me, and I wanted to incorporate that into my business.  I like things simple.  I like making things simple for me and I like making things simple for others.  I want to educate my followers so it is simpler for them to make healthier lifestyle changes.  I also want to offer a variety of services to make healthy eating simple and convenient for everyone. Plus the ingredients in my cooking are very simple, I only use two; real food and love. Today is the day…those words never expire. I welcome you to join me on this journey to a healthier you.