Cooking - Banana Bread

So this week we decided to use up our abundance of bananas by making a yummy loaf of banana bread. Sugar free so perfect for a snack or as picnic food. Why not give it a go and let us know what you think!

 





Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

(we used one of plain and one wholemeal)

Squeezing the orange

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon cinnomon

2 large ripe bananas

Handful of raisins

1 egg

Juice of 1 orange









Adding raisins

Put the flour, baking powder, raisins and cinnomon in a bowl and mix. Mash the bananas well and mix them together with the egg and orange juice then add to flour mixture. Mix together then put into a bread tin and cook for around 30-50mins on 180oC.

 

Simple and yummy, enjoy!

A Box (or two)

Last week our neighbor was getting rid of some very large boxes. We asked if we could have them, and so the fun began.  
I never knew how much you could do with an empty piece of cardboard but we have had a full week of fun which culminated in an outdoor activity ready for recycling day today.

To start we decided to enter in one of the big boxes. We played hide and seek and talked about the dark and light. This inspired us to make a second box into a tunnel and use the cut out pieces to design a castle façade. We put cushions inside the big box and read stories there all week. It was very cosy on the coldest days of the year!

When we were bored of the tunnel and castle we opened up the boxes and made a slide for the cars, trucks and trains and pretty much any toy that would go down. This even turned into a human slide for a few hours which had us using up some physical energy before bed!

After we were done with the slide the boxes made their way to the kitchen floor where we got out our pens and crayons and started big drawings of anything we could think of. We drew around each other and made funny faces on the outlines.

Finally our box fun could move outside as the weather warmed and we had a fun afternoon feet painting. Our boy just loved putting his feet and hands into big plates of paint and watching his footprints as he ran down the boxes. I was surprised by his reaction to the paint which I thought he may find cold and uncomfortable but which he seemed to enjoy very much. The mess was minimal and I had the baby bath ready next to him so he could jump in for a warm wash when he had finished. He spent a good half hour in the bath enjoying the experience of being outdoors with the rabbit even deciding to join in!

So, a bit of packaging sure went a long way in our house this week and today our very well used boxes have found their way to the recycling. We will definitely be keeping any boxes that come our way again.

We hope we have inspired you to have some box fun and as always if you have any ideas for us we would just love to hear them :)

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!