S is for Sick Days

Sick days were always much easier pre children. We could spend the day in bed and recover and only myself or hubby would get sick, rarely would it be both of us.

Now with kids it's one in all in.  And with Bee and Bear going to kindy they seem to bring home more bugs too.  Bear currently has a chest cold which has been hanging on for more than two weeks and over the weekend Bee has come down with her first bout of tonsillitis.

So while we haven't been doing any cooking together I have been thinking about the best food for sick kids.  I have gathered together some of my own recipes and ideas for feeding sick kids and some from fellow bloggers as well as a couple of posts on activities to do with your children when they are sick.

The one food I could rely on as a child when I was sick was Vegemite Toast Soldiers.  Vegemite (a savoury spread) always seemed to help settle my stomach and when I was a bit older mum would make me a cup of tea to go with it.  Bee is a fan of Vegemite and I have been able to get her to nibble on Vegemite toast and Vegemite on tortilla wraps.

I don't add parsley to the kids' soup.

Chicken Soup is a wondrous thing when you are feeling sick.  Homemade Chicken Soup is even better and it doesn't have to be complicated to make. Click on this link to download my recipe for Easy Chicken Noodle Soup.

Homemade Yoghurt Pops are soothing on a sore throat and if you use a yoghurt with active cultures they will be good for your child if she has been on antibiotics like Bee is at the moment.

Ginger can be calming on upset tummies.  Try having your child nibble on some cute Gingerbread People (minus the icing and decorations) if they are feeling nauseous.

Once your child is starting to feel better try these Falafel Burgers.  Their bodies will benefit from all the extra vitamins, minerals and other goodies.

Or if your child is happy to eat their vegetables chunky this Seven Vegetable Minestrone from Mama Miss would give them a great boost too.

This list of 8 Ways to Cope with Sick Kids from Kate at Picklebums is a good place to start.  The tips include how to keep fluids up and providing snacks to remind your children to eat.  I too have found the power of a heat pack for helping Bee with her aches and pains.

And to cheer your sick child up and keep them busy Alison at Pint-sized Treasures has 19 Activities for Sick Kids

If you have sick kids I hope this list helps. 

C is for Chocolate Brownies Gluten Free

Mmmmmm chocolate!

We have made chocolate brownies before but it has been a while since the last batch.  Our usual Chocolate Brownies recipe contains apple purée which cuts out the butter and eggs and therefore lowers the fat and kilojoules.

This time we made a gluten free version inspired by this recipe for Gluten-Free Fudgy Pecan Brownies on Martha Stewart and it might have just become our new favourite.  I have converted the measurements for the ingredients to the Australian equivalents, lowered the amount of sugar used (next time I will try using just 1/4 cup sugar), used less chocolate overall but went for a dark chocolate for flavour and left out the pecans to make it nut allergy suitable.

To make these Gluten-free Chocolate Brownies here is what to do.

1. Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius.

2. Grease and line the baking tin.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornflour, cocoa, cinnamon and salt.

Bear breaking the chocolate into small pieces.

Adding the chocolate to the butter for melting.

Melted butter and chocolate mix.

4. Break the chocolate into pieces and add it to the butter for melting in the microwave.

Bear is getting better at cracking eggs.

5. Add the eggs to the butter/chocolate mix, one at a time, and mix it really well.
 

6. Carefully stir the sugar and vanilla in with the melted chocolate/butter mix. Add the cornflour mixture and stir it until the batter is smooth.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake it for 35 minutes and then let it cool.

8. Cut the brownies into squares.

9. Enjoy!

You can download a printable copy of this recipe from here.

Gluten-free Chocolate Brownies
Adapted from www.marthastewart.com
Makes 16 pieces

Ingredients
84g unsalted butter, chopped plus extra for greasing baking tin
1/3 cup cornflour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon table salt
220g dark cooking chocolate
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180° Celsius.
2. Lightly grease a 20cm square baking tin and line with non-stick baking paper. Leave 5cm extra hanging over edges.
3. In a small bowl whisk together the cornflour, cocoa, cinnamon and salt.
4. Break up the chocolate and place it in a large microwave safe bowl with the butter.
5. Microwave the butter and chocolate in short bursts on medium power until melted. It should take about 2 minutes all up.
6. Stir in the sugar and vanilla with the melted butter/chocolate mix.
7. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix well.
8. Add cornflour mixture and stir until mixture is smooth.
9. Pour batter into prepared tin.
10. Bake for 35 minutes or until skewer inserted in middle of brownies comes out clean.
11. Let cool in pan.
12. Remove brownies from pan and cut into squares.

F is for Fruit Crumble Dessert

As I have mentioned in the past on this blog, our family has been fortunate to avoid any food allergies or other diet specific issues so far.  There are plenty of other things we are allergic to or have problems with, just not anything food related.

We do have members of our extended family though who are diabetic, lactose or gluten intolerant, or allergic to eggs so we are keen to try out recipes that suit their diets.

This recipe for Fruit Crumble, also known as Fruit Crisp, is perfect for this time of the year in Australia.  The recipe has been adapted to be suitable for Diabetics and if you substituted quinoa flakes for the rolled oats it is gluten free too.  You can also use lots of other fruits too.  Try it with apples, apricots, mango, blackberries, peaches or blueberries.

Pear Raspberry Fruit Crumble
Adapted from Diabetic Living
Download the recipe card here.
Serves 6

Ingredients
2 cups fresh pear, sliced and peeled
2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup rolled oats (substitute with quinoa flakes for gluten free)
3 tablespoons brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tablespoons desiccated coconut
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180° Celsius.

2. Place pear and raspberries in a 2 litre baking dish.

3. In a small bowl combine the almonds, oats, sugar, coconut and cinnamon.

4. Pour over the melted butter and mix well.

5. Spoon this mix over the top of the fruit.

6. Bake for 35 minutes.

7. Serve and enjoy!

F is for Falafel Burgers for The Kids Cook Monday

I am making an effort to include a least 1 vegetarian dinner meal and 1 fish dinner meal in our weekly menu plan.  We already eat a fairly healthy diet, with everything in moderation but there is room for improvement.  Eating less meat based protein and more fish and seafood is one goal I am going to work on for this year.

For dinner tonight, Bee helped me make Falafel Burgers.  The original recipe can be found here on the Vegie Smugglers blog.  Wendy Blume, the author of Vegie Smugglers, has some fantastic recipes and great ideas for including more vegetables in meals everyday.

Falafel Burgers
Makes 8
Go here for the recipe in full.

I made some slight changes to the recipe to suit our family's tastes.  I left out the ground coriander and the parsley.  I didn't want the flavours to be too strong as Bear and Bee have started trying out new foods more often.  I left out the parsley so there wasn't any green bits for the same reason.

Bee breaking up the bread for breadcrumbs.

Falafel mix

Instead of making 8 full sized patties I made 6 patties and 8 mini patties.  Bear and Bee are more likely to try something if it is a smaller version.  Hence, lately I have been making lots of mini meatballs, mini patties and mini most things.

8 large patties before 2 were divided up to make 8 mini patties.

The original recipe calls for the patties to be baked in the oven.  I fried our patties in a large frying pan over medium high heat with a tiny amount of olive oil.  I wanted to serve our burgers with oven baked chips and found it easier to leave the chips to do their thing in the oven while I cooked the burger patties in the pan.

Mini Falafel Burger

To my surprise (and delight) both Bear and Bee tried their mini burgers without any fuss and hubby actually went back for seconds.  They were delicious and I will be making them a regular dish in our monthly meal plans.

Falafel Burger and Oven baked chips.

B is for Brownies

This morning Bear and Bee had a play date organised with some friends at a nearby playground so we decided to make something special to take along to share for morning tea.  With the weather being a bit overcast we settled on chocolate brownies.

The recipe we used also fits with my recent post on allergy free cooking.  It can be adapted to be gluten free and is also reasonably healthy for brownies as it doesn’t contain any butter or eggs.  It is still deliciously chocolatey and gooey in the centre.

The original recipe was from an Australian healthy food magazine and was developed as a makeover to traditional high fat content brownies. I made it a few times years ago to take to work and had forgotten about it til this morning.

Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened apple puree (I have used canned puree in the past but since we had a few overripe apples I made my own this time)

1/3 cup cocoa powder

¾ cup self-raising flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup sugar

½ cup chopped dark chocolate

½ cup chopped white chocolate

What we did:

Preheat the oven to 175^oC and line a 20x20cm baking tin or slice tin with baking paper.

Place apple puree in a large mixing bowl and sift in flour, cocoa and baking soda.

Sifting the flour, cocoa and baking soda into bowl with puree.

Add sugar and mix until just combined.

Bee adding the sugar to the brownie mix.

Bear and Bee trying to gently mix the brownie mix.

Gently mix in chocolate. We used chocolate chips as that was what was in the pantry.  You could use blocks of chocolate and chop it yourself.

Bear adding the chocolate chips.  Bee eating the chocolate chips.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 25 minutes or until the centre feels just set.

Cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and allowing to cool completely.  The brownie will be quite soft while it is warm so be careful getting it onto the rack.

Slice into squares.  You could dust the brownies with icing sugar before serving or have them with fresh berries and ice-cream.

Yummy moist chocolate brownies.

Bee enjoying the chocolate brownies at the playground.

Variations

This recipe could be made gluten free by using gluten free flour, cocoa and baking soda.

To add a little crunch you could add ½ cup chopped nuts like pecans, walnuts or macadamias.

What is your favourite chocolate recipe?

A is for Allergy-free cooking

***This post contains affiliate links*** 

While Bear and Bee are yet to show any signs of food allergies I am careful about what they eat.  Bee has a sensitivity to salt.  If she eats it on too many foods ie. hot chips, salted peanuts, potato chips etc in a short space of time she gets a red rash on her face and her eczema is exacerbated and it reappears on her legs and tummy. 


In an effort to come up with new dishes that Bear and Bee will actually try I found this book by the Australian Women's Weekly Allergy-free cooking for kids in our local public library and it includes lots of great recipes that are gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free. I think it is important for children to not only try as many foods as possible but also to try variations of those foods.  Flour made from brown rice, polenta and ground nuts are examples of alternative ingredients used in place of regular ones.

The Allergy-free cooking for kids book is full of delicious and interesting recipes. I can't wait to try them.  These are the ones on my to try list so far -

Hoisin and barbecue chicken rolls (dairy free)
Cranberry chewies made with almonds and dried cranberries (gluten free)
Coconut custard tarts (gluten free)
Polenta-coated chicken (gluten free)
Pizza pinwheels made using potatoes, potato flour and brown rice flour (gluten free)

Raspberry cheesecake slice (gluten free)
Fruity macaroons (dairy free)

Follow my blog and find out which ones Bee and Bear cook and (hopefully) enjoy eating.

If you are interested in this book, you might like to purchase it through my Fishpond Affiliate space.