Cooking - mini quiches

Today we got busy in the kitchen making mini vegetable quiches. A simple recipe which can be adapted to suit any taste. Makes a great snack or meal.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
Large chunk of butter
cup of flour
milk to bind
For the filling:
2 eggs
grated cheese
finely chopped vegetables
(we used onion, broccoli, spinach, tomato and red pepper)
a drop of milk
oregano and pepper to season

For the pastry we added the ingredients together, mixed them well then made a ball with the dough. We rolled it out and cup out six small circles then put them into the tray.
For the filling we added everything together, mixed it well and spooned it into the pastry circles.
Then we popped them in the over for around 20 minutes and sat down to enjoy them!

PROBLEM SOLVING - fussy eating

Fussy eating is a huge issue for many parents. Over the years I have heard so many stories about children that once ate everything then one day simply stopped and became fussy about what they would eat. I always thought this was strange as children usually have a reason for changes in their lives but as a parent I can see that this can seem to happen. 

Here's our story:

Our little guy got sick. He had to take antibiotics for an ear infection and between the illness and the medication he went off his food. I, like any parent, was concerned he wasn't getting the nutrients he needed especially at a time where he needed more vitamins and minerals to help his immune system. I began to give him alternatives and cook food that was easy to eat or that I knew he particularly liked. And gave him plenty of extra fresh juice which is his favorite.

The days passed and he recovered from his infection and life returned to normal. Well, all aspects of life except for food that is. He started to refuse meals and 'went off' many of the things he previously enjoyed. I began to get frustrated and thought I can't just cook the few meals that he would eat or give him fruit or yogurt when he refused to eat a meal. I decided to get tough! I cooked the food I would have the week before he got sick and refused any alternatives and avoided giving fruit and yogurt at meal times. He still had his two fruit snacks during the day (mid-morning and mid-afternoon) and I delayed his dinner by 30 minutes so he was a little hungrier to eat the meal. After a few minor tantrums and the pain of knowing he was a little hungry sometimes he returned to his hearty eating habits. 

It is not an easy thing to do for any parent as our instinct is to feed our child. I assure you it is worth it to avoid continued fussy eating which could lead to nutritional issues in the future. Our story shows that there is usually a reason for the fussy eating and you may have to back track several days or weeks to find the cause but there is a solution and your picky eater can become a food lover. 

Other tips to help you:

• Let your child help in food preparation - if they see how it's made they may be more inclined to try it!
• Give your child choices - offer two types of vegetable and allow them to choose one.
• Give fair portion sizes - don't overwhelm your child by giving huge pieces of broccoli!  Be content with them eating a very small piece then next time give them two small pieces!
• Try not to get in a fight over the food. Meal times should last around 30 minutes so drawing them out for hours will just make for an unhappy household.
• Avoid snacks and give healthy options rather than crisps, sweets or too much milk.
• If you're out be a little more flexible. There's nothing worse than getting into a big tantrum over a few vegetables left on the plate when you are supposed to be out celebrating something.
• Try to have a relaxed attitude to food.

Cooking - cheese straws

What better activity than cooking a yummy snack on a cold and wet winter's day?
Today we made cheese straws.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
tablespoon baking powder
1 cup grated cheese (we used mozzarella)

Add all the ingredients together, mix well and make straw shaped sticks. For variety you can add different herbs such as basil, oregano or thyme. Also older children may enjoy making different shapes or animals to eat!

Toys - making accessories

Rustic fence

Toys are expensive. As much as we'd all love to buy our kids full sets of things sometimes it's just out of the question. Here are a couple of things we've made to accessorise our little man's toys. Small fences to go with his farm and scenic boards to put his toy animals/cars/trains etc on.

Sanding down the sticks

Glue gunning the lolly sticks on

The fences and gates are very simple. While out enjoying a walk we gathered some sticks. We sawed the sticks to similar lengths and sanded them down (our guy loved having a go at sanding)! Then we glued lolly sticks onto the sanded sticks to make the panels, then the fences are ready (sometimes a lolly stick needs to be glued to the bottom of the fence to stabilise it). 

The scenic boards are made using a piece of cardboard and some material. I used felt for the farm animals board accommodating a muddy area for the pig to roll in! We have used plenty of TNT which is really cheap and works very well for these boards. Sometimes we just lay some material over the coffee table and play there which is a quick way to create scenes and can be changed to suit the game.

Cooking - cookies

We love cooking here so thought we'd share our fun cookie recipe. Our little boy still doesn't eat sweet food but he loves to join in the preparation (and it's a great treat for mummy when he's gone to bed) and I'm sure they will go down wonderfully at birthday parties and on special occasions.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar 

1 egg

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 packet chocolate - smarties (UK) or Lakka confetti (Brazil)

Cream the butter and sugar, beat in the egg, fold in flour and baking powder and add the chocolate. Make small balls (I usually get 8 cookies from the recipe), cook on medium heat (180oc) until they are brown underneath. Cool and enjoy!

PROBLEM SOLVING - when a close family member goes travelling

In today's busy world there will come a time when somebody close to your child has to go travelling whether for business or pleasure. It can have quite an adverse effect on your child but there are ways to help.

I once had a boy in the nursery who lived with many members of his extended family including his aunt. He was close with the whole family although mum was the primary care giver. In this particular scenario it was the aunt who had to travel and when the boy turned up at nursery that morning he was tearful and mum explained that he was upset because his aunt had left. Without thinking too much of it we took him and gave him some cuddles and he was soon off playing with his friends. A little while later we saw that he was upset again sitting in a corner sobbing. I went to see what had happened. Through his tears he said 'auntie' and so I replied 'oh yes your auntie is away, but she'll be back soon'. He looked up and asked 'when?'. I had no idea! So I told him i'm sure she would be back soon but I didn't know exactly when. This brought a new flood of tears and nothing would calm him down. As I knew his mum well and knew she was home I gave her a call and asked her a little more about the situation. She explained that he wasn't so attached but seemed to have been really affected by the absence of his aunt. I asked her when she would be returning and she said in three weeks. I returned to the boy and told him that his aunt would be back in three weeks and that he had lots of time to play before she got back. He settled a bit and went off to play and was picked up soon after.

The next day he returned to nursery red eyed with a tired looking mum in tow. I asked her what had happened and she said he had been up half the night fretting about his aunt and she said she just didn't understand because he would only spend a little time with her each day and it wasn't for a special reason or an important part of his routine. I said i'd have a chat with him and let her know how it went.

I went to have a chat with the sad little boy. He again told me auntie and when I said she would be back soon he asked when so I told him in three weeks. At this he began crying a little harder. I was puzzled. I asked him why did it make him sadder to know three weeks. He said he didn't know. I was at a loss! I decided to get down the calendar and mark off when she would be back and asked him if he would like to help me. His eyes lit up and we sat down and looked at the calendar together. We marked the day she would be back and I told him every day he could come in and we would mark off a day and count how many more we had left. He seemed quite content with this idea and I suggested he went and painted a nice picture so his aunt knew he was thinking about her. Off he went and not a tear from him the whole day. 

The next day he came in with his big smile and asked to mark the calendar. We did this for the following weeks and finally the day came. He marked it off and I said he must be excited that his aunt was coming. He didn't really respond but went off to have some fruit. Later that afternoon his aunt came to pick him up. She had heard the story from his mum and thought he might like her to come. Well, he took one look at her and started to cry. 'What's the matter?' I asked him. 'I want my mummy to pick me up' was his reply. After a bit of persuasion we got him out the door and off home to his mummy!

The next day his mum came in with him and told me how he hadn't been bothered at all that his aunt was back and she just couldn't understand what was going on. She said when he woke up every morning he was asking  her what day it was and if he was going to nursery and she wondered if he wasn't enjoying himself. I reassured her that he seemed perfectly happy throughout the day and since we had started the calendar exercise he had been fine. I went to have a chat to him. I asked him if he was pleased to have his aunt home and he said yes. I asked him if he knew what day it was and he said it was Thursday, he was right! I asked him if he knew what day it was tomorrow and he said Friday. Then he told me then its Saturday and I don't come to nursery. I asked him if he liked nursery and he said yes. The more he said the more inclined I was to think he was dealing with a time and day issue. He seemed to want information on his routine and what days he did things on. I decided to teach him a song about the days of the week and make a small diary so he could draw a picture on each day. He was so excited about the activity and ran home showing his whole family.

The story here tells us that the absence of a family member can be painful to a child for many reasons. 

Recently my husband had to travel for 9 days. It is the longest he's been away from our son and I was wondering what the reaction would be. I tried to keep his routine as normal as possible and not mention daddy too much. The first two nights I had 40 minute tantrums to go to bed and when he woke in the night. I faced them as I would if my husband had been here but it's much harder when you don't have back up! Needless to say he settled down and accepted daddy was away. Technology helped us a great deal as he was able to see daddy at breakfast time via Skype and this really seemed to help as he had a big smile and shouted daddy. The day my husband was coming home I got my son to do some painting telling him it was for daddy and that daddy was coming home today. He painted singing 'daddy daddy' so I think he knew what was going on. Daddy got home and for the following few days we tried to make time for the two of them to do more things together. So instead of me putting him to bed my husband did, he got him dressed and played with him while I made breakfast or dinner. He tried to get home a little earlier from work to spend a bit more time with his boy and all these small things seemed to work wonders for him (and for me as it is nice to have a little rest after being the full time carer for 9 days!) 

We can't evict these trips but we can take steps to prepare our children and ease the stress of separation a little.