M is for Menu Plan Week 7

After a very busy weekend, that included taking Bear and Bee to the circus for the first time, here is our meal plan for this week.

Sunday Dinner	Leftovers
Monday Dinner	Creamy chicken and bacon pasta
Tuesday Dinner	Mini meatloaves and vegetables
Wednesday Dinner	Slow cooker chicken satay and rice
Thursday Dinner	Chunky vegetable and bean soup
Friday Dinner	Fish curry and Naan bread
Saturday	Pizzas

Morning and Afternoon Teas include: Crackers, vegetable sticks and cheese, Red Velvet Cupcakes, Yoghurt, Popcorn, Fruit, Muffins, and Biscuits

Lunches include: Toasted Sandwiches, regular sandwiches, Fish finger wraps, Chicken and Salad Rolls and Lentil Burgers*
*I will be writing about the Lentil Burgers in an upcoming post.  I’ll update this post when it is done.

Homemade Pizzas is one of the regular meals on our weekly menu plan.  This week we are going to try some new ones (new for us) like Salami & Ricotta and Potato & Rosemary from Stone Soup.

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.

M is for Moderation

Photo credit: Scott Ableman

Everything in moderation.  We’ve heard the phrase before but in today’s society it can be very hard to follow.  Moderation is one of the habits I want Bear and Bee to learn.
 
I firmly believe that moderation, especially in relation to food, is an important habit to have.  I try to eat a healthy diet, but sometimes I indulge in caramel tarts, doughnuts and hot chips.  I love a good coffee so I try to drink plenty of water during the day too.  We eat mostly meals made from scratch but occasionally we eat meals made with convenience products, e.g. bottled sauces or takeaway foods.

With two girls I worry about their teenage years.  I worry about all things that will negatively impact on their self esteem and self worth.  So I hope that by living and teaching them moderation I will be able to fortify them a little for what is to come in the future.

Wendy Blume, from the wonderful blog Vegie Smugglers, writes about living in moderation too.  Have a read of her post Searching For Food Joy.
 
If you have time, have a look at the HuffPost article that Wendy refers to, 14 Habits Of People With A Healthy Relationship To Food.  Like Wendy, I was encouraged when reading this article to find that I have most of these habits too. I admit that ‘not keeping problematic foods in the house’ and ‘not sitting down with the whole bag’ (habits 7 and 8) are difficult but are things that I always try to do and have for a long time.  It certainly is easier not to overindulge if you don’t have bags of potato chips, lollies and other treats in the pantry.

M is for Menu Plan Week 5

Anzac Biscuits

I know.  It's late Tuesday night and I am only now getting round to posting our menu plan for this week.  I have a good excuse.  Well 2 good excuses actually.  Bear fractured her wrist on Sunday and Bee has come down with a high temp and stomach pains over the last 24 hours.  So I hope you'll forgive me and read on.

For this week's plan I have tried to use as many budget friendly, pantry and fridge friendly recipes as I can.  After hosting family for lunch on Easter Sunday and indulging a little over the Easter Weekend, we need to use up what ingredients we can from the pantry and fridge and try to keep the grocery shopping list to a minimum.  In an effort to eat healthier I am also going to try and include at least 1 vegetarian and 1 fish dinner each week.

So without any further ado (or excuses!) here's our menu plan for this week.

Monday Dinner - Sausages and vegetables
Tuesday Dinner - Chinese beef meatballs and noodle stir fry
Wednesday Dinner - Chicken Fried Rice
Thursday Dinner - Vegie Enchiladas
Friday Dinner - Homemade Fish Fingers, Oven baked chips and Salad (Kids Cooking Night)
Saturday Dinner - Homemade Pizzas

Morning and Afternoon Teas include - Yoghurt, Anzac Biscuits, Muffins, Crackers and Cheese sticks, Muesli Bars, Pikelets, Strawberry Yoghurt Cupcakes, Popcorn and Sandwiches.

Lunches include - Roast Lamb and Salad Pita Breads (using leftover lamb from Sunday lunch), Roast Vegie Frittata (using leftover vegies from Sunday lunch), Ham and Salad Sandwiches, Chicken and Salad Wraps and Burgers.

M is for Menu Plan Week 4

After a wonderful camping trip last week (thankfully we were back home before Tropical Cyclone Ita swept through) I am finding it hard to get back into the swing of a regular routine.  Thus this post is late.  Sorry about that.  To make up for it I have included next Sunday's meals as well so you can see what we are planning to have for lunch and dinner on Easter Sunday.

Sunday Dinner - Beef and Red Wine Stew
Monday Dinner - Baked Sour Cream Chicken and Veggies
Tuesday Dinner - Sausage Casserole and Mashed Potato
Wednesday Dinner - Cheat's Pastitsio and Green Salad
Thursday Dinner - Chicken in Pyjamas, Chips and Salad
Friday Dinner - Tuna Mornay Vol au Vents and Veggies
Saturday Dinner - Beef Stronganoff and Veggies

Easter Sunday Lunch - Roast Lamb plus sides and Easter Apple Pudding
Easter Sunday Dinner - Lunch leftovers plus Pasta Salad   

Morning and Afternoon Teas include - Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cheese, crackers and veggie sticks, Frozen Yoghurt Pops and Strawberry Yoghurt Cupcakes.

Lunches include -  Savoury Pikelets, Fish Finger Wraps, Sandwiches, Chicken and salad rolls,


What is your family planning to eat over Easter?

M is for Menu Plan Week 2

Menu Plan Week#2

Here's our menu plan for the coming week.  We encourage Bear and Bee to help with meal preparation wherever possible.  Things like setting the table with cutley and cups of water are activities they can do every night even when it's not appropriate for them to help cook.  This week Bear and Bee will be helping to make the Naan Bread to accompany the Curry.  This is something they have done before and both girls love to make and shape the dough.

Sunday       Dinner - Chicken and Cashew Stir Fry with Brown Rice
Monday      Dinner - Spaghetti Bolognese
Tuesday      Dinner - Roast Chicken and Vegetables
Wednesday Dinner - Sausage Hotpot and Vegetables
Thursday    Dinner - Curry Chicken, Brown Rice and Naan Bread (Kids cooking night)
Friday         Dinner - Fish Burgers
Saturday     Dinner - Barbecue with family

 

You might notice that we have brown rice as a side dish on two nights this week.  I am thankful that Bear and Bee actually prefer the healthier brown rice to regular white rice so I try to include it on our weekly plan where I can.  The downside to brown rice is how long it takes to cook so we use microwavable brown rice which is much more convenient.

 

Morning and Afternoon Teas include – Yoghurt, Biscuits, Fruit, Crackers and Cheese, Muffins, Pikelets, Weetbix Slice, Muesli Bars and Sandwiches.

Lunches include – Meat and salad rolls, Wraps including Chicken and salad wraps (using leftover chicken from Tuesday night) and Fish finger wraps, and Sandwiches.

M is for Menu Plan Week 1

Menu Plan Week #1

This is our menu plan for the coming week. Each week I will link to previous posts for the meals if Bear, Bee and I have cooked them together before.  If they are new recipes or not ones that are suitable for kids to help with I will just include a link to a recipe card for my own recipe or a recipe I have used from another trusted site.  I plan to eventually build up a bank of our own tried and true recipes from the threefootcooks household.

Monday night Bear and Bee will help make the meatballs for dinner.

 

Sunday          Dinner – Homemade Pizzas

Monday         Dinner – Chinese Meatballs and Noodles (Kids cooking night. I will write a separate post about this after we have cooked it together)

Tuesday         Dinner – Chicken, Bacon and Rice Bake

Wednesday    Dinner – Roast Lamb and Vegetables

Thursday       Dinner – Sausages, Mashed Potato and Steamed Vegetables

Friday            Dinner – Fish and Chips

Saturday        Dinner – Tacos

Baking this week – Chocolate Chip Biscuits and Muffins

Morning and Afternoon Teas include – Yoghurt, Biscuits, Fruit, Crackers and Cheese, Muffins, Pikelets, Cupcakes, Muesli Bars and Sandwiches.

Lunches include – Meat and salad rolls, Meatball and salad wraps (using leftover meatballs from Monday night), Sandwiches, Pasta and Sausage Salad (using leftover sausages from Thursday night), Fish Finger and salad wraps and Hamburgers.

Do you have any favourite family meals?  Let me know and I will try to include them in future meal plans.

M is for Meal Planning

I have been planning a weekly menu for our family for over 5 years now.  It makes life so much easier.  The weeks I don't get the menu done are the ones where we spend more money on groceries and take away meals.

There are tons of reasons planning a weekly menu for my famly is a good idea.  Apart from saving money on groceries by only buying what we need I am more organised and I can plan around busy days.  I also have a better idea of what we are eating nutrition wise and can make sure we eating 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit each day (or as close as we can).

Starting on the menu planning journey can be quite daunting at first. I found Nicole over at Planning with Kids has some great meal ideas and menu planning tips.

Now that we have settled into our new home in North Queensland, I am also going to be more intentional about getting Bear and Bee to help with the cooking again.  While we have been doing lots of baking together I haven't been getting them to help cook dinner like we used to.  Both girls have started pestering me and hubby to help with dinner preparation so I have decided to pick 1 or 2 meals each week that they can help with.  I am going to highlight them on our weekly menu too so we don't forget.

If you don't yet plan a weekly menu or have only just started I am going to post a copy of what is on our plan each week.  I usually plan on the weekend so we can do the grocery shopping on Monday.  It doesn't really matter when you do your shopping.  Just adjust the plan to suit your week.  If you would like a copy of the template I use to plan with click on link below the image.  I found the original template on Tip Junkie but the link no longer works so I designed my own with a few changes to the column headings.

Download the menu template HERE.

So check back here each Saturday, or better yet subscribe to receive my posts by email, to get a copy of our weekly menu plan.

Cooking with Children Hygiene and Safety 101

While cooking with children is an activity full of learning and fun, it is also one that needs some careful planning to ensure it is successful and above all, safe.  Your child may be becoming more independent every day but cooking with children is one area that requires constant adult supervision. At least, I believe, until their early teens.

Kitchen Safety for Kids

Your child will need you working right alongside teaching them how to handle the equipment safely and correctly.  This is a great opportunity to emphasize the importance of following rules and practising the correct way to do new skills.  Just like leaning ballet or football, when cooking with children they need to be taught how to do things properly. For example, the correct way to hold a knife and the safe way to use a vegetable peeler.

Children and heat sources don’t mix so it is essential that an adult takes care of all the steps of the recipe that involve the stove and the oven. 

As your child grows and their fine and gross motor skills develop, the tasks you give them in the kitchen will also change.  The authors at The Kids Cook Monday have compiled a comprehensive list of Kitchen tasks for different age groups that are really useful when cooking with children.   This list gives examples of the types of cooking skills children can handle at different ages.  Your judgement as a parent is still necessary when deciding if your child is mature enough to handle the tasks.

Kitchen Hygiene for Kids

Good hygiene is another skill that should be constantly reinforced when cooking with children.  Getting your child to wash their hands with warm, soapy water before they start and always after handling raw meat and poultry is important for good health.  Washing fruits and vegetables to remove dirt and other contaminants is a simple skill that even a very young child can complete and one that is important.

Make sure you get your child to dress appropriately in preparation for cooking.  Child sized aprons are useful for keeping your child’s clothing clean and reducing the spread of germs.  I will discuss aprons for children in more detail in a future post.

Now is also the time to tie back their hair, if it is long, and remove any dangly jewellery – both the little princess kind and yours!

One last thing, don’t let your child cook if they have a cold.  This will help prevent the spread of germs and besides you don’t want them sneezing into the salad.

Further information can be found at these sites:

Cooking with kids – Raising Children Network

Safety in the kitchen – Kids Health – Women’s and Children’s Health Network

Teaching kids food hygiene – Kids and Cooking UK

A is for Australia Day Snack Box Printable

No Australia Day celebration is complete without Australiana themed decorations.  The Australian flag, Australian flora and fauna and iconic images should cover everything from the paper plates to guests' clothing.

To help make your children feel special at your Australia Day celebration I have come up with this Australia Day Snack Box.  It is simple to put together and makes any snacks look a little bit 'fancy'.

To make the Australia Day Snack Box, all you will need is scissors, glue and the design downloaded from here printed onto card stock (I used 210gsm white card).  The coloured tissue paper is optional.

To put the Snack Box together, cut out the box along the solid lines.

Fold along the dotted lines keeping the pictures on the outside.  Place a small amount of glue on the tabs and stick the tabs on the short sides to the insides of the long sides (see the photos if this doesn't make sense).

Line the Snack box with a rectangle of white or coloured tissue paper.  This step is definitely optional and can be left out if you want to save on waste.

Place your snacks in the Snack Box and hand out to your guests to enjoy.

Bear and Bee's Australia Day Snack Boxes contain vegemite sandwiches, an Anzac Biscuit (see my previous post on making Anzac Biscuits for the recipe) and a pink lamington.

Traditionally lamingtons are covered in chocolate icing however Bear and Bee aren't big fans of chocolate so we went with girly pink.  It is entirely up to you what colour icing you use.

If you want to make your own lamingtons this is what I did:

Cut a store bought sponge cake into even medium sized squares (ours were about 4cm x 4cm).  You can use a butter or madeira cake and it can be homemade but make sure it is not just baked.  The cake really needs to be a day old or it will be too fresh and fall apart when you try to cover the pieces in icing.

Make a runny icing using 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar mixture, 1/4 cup of hot water and 4 drops of pink food colouring.  If you want chocolate icing replace the food colouring with 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder.  Whisk really well to get a smooth icing.

Coat each cake square with icing and allow excess to drain off.  Roll iced cake square in 1 cup of desiccated or shredded coconut and allow to set for 15 minutes.

Happy Australia Day.

B is for Back to School

Most school aged children in Australia will be starting or going back to school in a little over a week.  One of the challenges of this process facing parents will be what to pack for lunch and break time.  Making this task even harder is the hot summer weather.  And while I don’t have to pack lunchboxes for Bear and Bee yet, I still like looking for ideas for hubby’s lunches – much cheaper and healthier than having him buy lunch every day.

Nicole over at Planning with Kids has a great calendar available for 2013 to provide you with inspiration for your child’s lunchbox.  Check it out – the recipes are great and there is also a list of seasonal Australian fruits that work well in a lunchbox. There are also some wonderful ideas in many of the food magazines available at your local newsagent.  

So now is the time to get in and do a bit of planning before you get caught up in the rush of packing school bags and trying on uniforms.  Perhaps do some practice runs with the lunchbox if your child is starting school for the first time.  Pack their lunchbox early in the morning, or better still the night before, and have them eat from it during the day to get use to the idea.  You’ll get any idea of what they can cope with and whether they have any trouble with opening the containers etc.

I would also suggest sitting down with your child and their lunchbox and brainstorming some ideas of what could go in it.  To help with this idea, I have created a lunchbox worksheet that you can download for free. Each section of the lunchbox has a specific food heading and the lunchbox as a whole covers all the food groups (fruit and vegetables, milk and dairy, breads and cereals, meat and protein). 

Click here to download the free pdf worksheet

Younger children can paste in pictures of appropriate foods from magazines while older children can draw and/or label their food suggestions.  If you have time, you could help your child prepare a few versions of this worksheet to have for new ideas for their lunchboxes during the school term.

There are lots of ideas on the internet for what to include in kids’ lunchboxes.  If you need some inspiration, here are a few of my favourite sites.

Kids Healthy Lunchbox Ideas @ taste.com.au

10 Top Lunchbox Ideas @ kidspot.com.au

Healthy Lunchbox Ideas for Kids @ Stay at home mum