Week 7 – Let’s Cook Together
Aim of the week – To get messy and have fun!
There is nothing like getting your kids involved with making food – whether it is cutting out biscuits with a biscuit cutter or putting a topping on a pizza base, it does not have to be complicated and they LOVE their home cooked food!
Switch off your phone, computer or whatever else can distract you from having good fun together and get the sleeves rolled up and aprons on!
But sometimes it is not possible…
Cooking can so often feel like a chore, especially at the end of a long day when the kids are also tired and hungry. Cooking together is great on a rainy Sunday afternoon but on a Thursday after school it is just NOT going to happen ;-)
That’s OK too!
To make the week easier, cook larger quantities in advance and freeze them. I always have some tomato sauce, some soups in portions in the freezer, maybe also a few homemade veggie burgers like the ones below. They can be made together with the kids too but then be frozen and just available when you need them.
Even if I am making something else, I will often give the little one a mushroom to chop with a blunt(ish) knife… he feels part of the process then!
Even if you do not have time to let the kids cook with you – don’t throw them out of the kitchen! It is good that they can see the alchemy of cooking and not simply be presented with the finished result. The more they get to handle ingredients, smell them, squash them, taste them – the more fun food will be and the more familiar they will be with healthy foods.
Top tip: If you have a blender try out making a fruit smoothie – you really can’t go wrong and the kids will love throwing things in and using the buttons (supervised of course!) Have some left over? Put in a lolly ice mould and in the freezer and you have some healthy ice lollies for the next sunny day.
Recipe(s) of the week
Speculoos biscuits to cut out
Ingredients
250g flour (I use about 60% wholemeal)
150g butter
140g coconut sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp speculoos spices (either get a mix in Belgium from Dille & Kamille or it is a mix of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, coriander, cardamon)
4 dessert spoons almond milk
Directions
· Preheat the oven to 170 degrees
· Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a large bowl
· Cut the butter into small squares and add to the bowl - rub it into the mixture
· Add the milk and mix together into a ball
· Roll out the pasty (using some extra flour to stop sticking) and put out shapes with a pastry cutter...
· Place biscuits on grease proof paper/baking paper on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 10-15 mins.
· Cool them on a wire tray - at this moment they will become crunchy
Sweet Potato and Quinoa Burgers
Ingredients
1 large sweet potato (baked with skin or chopped and steamed)
1 mug quinoa (cooked in 2 mugs water and juice of 1 lemon)
Another lemon
2 tablespoons of almond butter or tahini
4 tablespoons of tomato puree
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
2 teaspoons ground cumin
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Place the cooked sweet potato (chop it but I keep skin on) in the blender with juice of the other lemon, almond butter or tahini, tomato puree, spices, drizzle of oil and salt/pepper if needed. Blend until smooth and put mixture in a mixing bowl.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (180 degrees if using a fan oven)
Mix in the cooked quinoa and stir well - mixture should be nice a sticky!
Make burger sized patties and place them on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Burgers can be easily frozen. I do this after cooking them and then just reheat them in a pan when I need them.... great for a quick dinner for the kids.