C is for Collections

I recently applied for and was approved to take part in creating Ebay Australia Collections.  I  must admit I was excited to be one of the first to be able to use this new feature on Ebay Australia.  I had lots of fun going through the items available for sale on Ebay and selecting those that fit with my themes of Kid friendly kitchens, Kids in the kitchen (pretend play), Anyone for Tea (tea parties), Growing your own and Cooking in the great outdoors.

I invite you to come and have a look at my collections.  Let me know what you think.

W is for Where does our food come from?

Last week on our camping trip the threefootcooks had the chance to visit a working dairy farm, Maleny Dairies and a cheese factory, Maleny Cheese. Apart from the excitement of patting and feeding calves and kids (the baby goat kind) Bear and Bee also got to see first hand where milk comes from.  The farm tour took us through the entire process from milking the cows to producing milk and milk products such as custard and yoghurts. 

While I am sure the girls didn't fully understand that milk can be made into all these wonderful products they will certainly remember that there is a link.  And the expression on Bee's face when she tried the fresh milk that was squirted into her hand was priceless! 

They were also fascinated by the yoghurt packaging that they could sit and watch at the Maleny Cheese factory.  Bee was quite happy to indulge in a cheese and crackers plate for lunch and the Three Cheese and Caramelised Onion Tart I had was superb.

Making sure that our children understand that our food doesn't just come from the supermarket is an important step in their appreciation of and connection to their environment.  You may not have the opportunity to visit a working dairy farm or raise chickens in your backyard but their are plenty of other options available including travelling farms that allow children to interact with baby farm animals, a visit to an agricultural show or even just borrowing books from your local public library that explain where our food comes from.

A couple of crazy calves!

Have you taken your children to see farm animals? Where did you go?

E is for Eating A Rainbow Every Day

***This post contains affiliate links***

I must confess that Bee and Bear don't eat as healthily as I would like them too. I guess that is true of a lot of 3 year olds. But so far, no matter what I try, they are very picky about what they will eat. Actually it's more to do with what they'll eat mixed together ie they'll eat spaghetti on one side of the plate and meatballs on the other but not spaghetti and meatballs mixed together. But that's another post.

One of the areas I have resolved to work on is the variety of fruits and vegetables both Bear and Bee will eat and how many serves they eat every day. This is something that I believe we will have some success with. Bee favours vegetables and Bear favours fruits and while they eat a reasonable variety I need to work on them trying new types. Especially on alternatives for their favourites such as strawberries which are out of season here and thus more expensive than say stone fruit.

To help us out we borrowed Eating the Rainbow by Rena D. Grossman from the library today.

If you would like to purchase a copy of this book, please visit my Fishpond Affiliate space by clicking on this image.

 
This is a simple board book giving examples of fruits and vegetables that fit each colour of the rainbow. I plan to use this as a springboard for discussion on what fruits and vegetables we could try and for identifying any Bee and Bear don't recognise. Already Bee has started looking at the pictures and naming the ones she does know.

Bee's favourite page - Pink!

I have also taken inspiration from a number of sites found on the net and on Pinterest. I have pinned some activities and recipes I would like to try. So far my favourites are

Eating a Rainbow - Two fun activities for kids from toddlerapproved.com

Eat your Rainbow from inner child food

Eat a Rainbow Salad from sweet potato chronicles

I am also going to create a rainbow reward chart for Bear and Bee to use to keep track of their progress. They are keen on stickers so hopefully this will be enough of an incentive. I will post a link to a printable version of the chart when it is ready.

Do you encourage your child to eat a rainbow everyday? What has worked?

G is for Good Food Experiences

Sometimes the best experiences in cooking with children doesn't involve them doing any actual cooking themselves. Today the threefootcooks household spent the morning on the beach at a nearby town. After swimming, fishing, sand castle building and shell collecting we went to the bakery/ cafe for an early lunch and the traditional ice creams after a beach visit. This bakery is a star find in this tiny seaside town. On the menu was some interesting offerings such as chicken and Harissa sausage rolls as well as homemade pies, burgers, sandwiches, gorgeous blueberry tarts, muffins and lots of other delicious sounding dishes that will ensure a return visit on our part in the not too distant future. I decided to try the veggie burger that had a delicious spinach and ricotta pattie, pumpkin relish, garlic aioli and salad. It's not something I would normally choose so I could talk to Bee and Bear about what was in it and why it is good to eat vegetarian meals. It was very colourful too so we discussed what the different vegetables were and which ones they liked.

The bakery/cafe also makes its own wood fired artisan loaves of bread which I couldn't resist trying. We bought a miche loaf (an old style sourdough bread made on a mix of white, wholemeal and rye flours) which smelt divine and looked just as good. I took the opportunity to make a tomato, ham and lentil soup to have it with. The ham in the soup came from the christmas ham bone I had saved and it turned out beautifully. It paired perfectly with the bread. While making the soup, Bee was interested in what I was doing so I showed her the ham bone and we talked about using leftovers and not wasting food. It was also good for the girls to try a different style of bread compared to the regular supermarket variety we get. Overall a very satisfying meal after a busy day.

I think it is important to talk to our children about food, what we eat and why we eat it as much as possible. Talk to them about where the eggs and milk you are using to make breakfast come from. Talk to them about the importance of not wasting food but also about only eating until you start to feel full. Show them that it is good to try new things. Talk to them about what our bodies need us to eat to be strong and healthy. Don't use words like good foods and bad foods. Try to use everyday foods and sometimes foods. Encourage them to think about food in a positive way so they grow up to be aware of what they need to eat to be a healthy weight.

What do you talk to your child about when it comes to food?

B is for Butterflies, bunnies and bells

Bear and Bee have started showing an interest in the alphabet and counting over the last couple of weeks.  So to encourage this I decided to focus on one letter today with a few different activities.  We started off colouring in picture of butterflies, and then using our dot-a-dot markers we decorated B is for Butterflies alphabet pages. 

It wasn’t hard then to convince Bear and Bee to help make biscuits using B themed cutters for morning tea.  We used a basic biscuit dough mix, some M & Ms and our letter B, bunny, bell and brand new butterfly biscuit cutters.

Here’s what we used:

125g butter, softened

½ cup caster sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ¾ cup Self Raising flour

1 pkt M & M lollies

This is what to do:

Preheat the oven to 180^oC and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl.

Bee trying to look nonchalant about using the beaters.

Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Gradually mix in the flour until a soft dough forms. If the dough is really soft you may need to put it in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Well it was supposed to be added gradually!

 Roll the dough out onto a floured surface.

Cut out shapes with the biscuit cutters.

Place shapes on the lined trays and decorate with lollies.

One for the biscuit, one for me!

Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven when lightly browned and cool on a rack.

 

While the biscuits were cooking we decorated some butterfly shapes cut out of card with sequins and glitter glue.  When they are dry we will use them to make mobiles to hang above Bear and Bee’s beds.

What have you cooked recently to go with your child's interests?