Fat Children and Home Remedies

Obesity is a popular topic these days. Studies show that children who became obese by age 8 were more severely obese as adults.

The statistics are worrying:

The number of overweight children aged 6-11 years has doubled in the past 20 years

The number of overweight adolescents aged 12-19 has more than tripled.

In 2009, only 22.3% of high school students eat fruits and vegetables five or more times daily (when fried potatoes and potato chips are excluded) in a 7 day period.

Research suggests that not having breakfast can affect children's intellectual. We don’t need research to remind us that hunger and food insufficiency in children can cause poor behavioral and academic functioning.

What are the home remedies?

Medications and surgeries are typically not recommended for children because it can be contained with proper and healthy diet. And reading the statistics, the concept of teaching kids while cooking makes so much sense. Dont you think? There is so much heartaches and anguish that can be prevented with practicing simple home remedies!

Healthy eating

Parents are the ones who buy the food, cook the food and decide where the food is eaten. Decide what to eat together –plan and cook together.

When buying groceries, choose fruits and vegetables. Avoid buying too much cookies, crackers and prepared meals, are high in sugar and fat. Always have healthy snacks available.

Never use food as a reward or punishment. Aren't we so guilty of this?

Limit sweetened beverages, including those containing fruit juice. These drinks provide little nutritional value in exchange for their high calories. They also can make your child feel too full to eat healthier foods.

Sit down together for family meals. Discourage eating in front of a screen, such as a television, computer or video game. My kids tend to do this – it can quite difficult to get them to the table. I remove the plug! Or the father shows a stern look.

Limit the number of times you eat out, especially at fast-food restaurants. Many of the menu options are high in fat and calories.

A critical part of weight loss, especially for children, is physical activity. My husband and I got my kids to walk with us at least during the weekends. At first there was a lot of fretting and grunting but they are enjoying it so much now that they look forward to the outings.

Find activities your child likes to do and take part. Don’t forget to vary the activities. For instance, if your child is artistically inclined, go on a nature hike to collect leaves and rocks that your child can use to make a collage. If you child like toys like mine, make them walk all over the mall with you! You will get a good work out too!

If you like more information, there is a lot of useful information on these two websites.
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/
http://www.mayoclinic.com/

Happy Cooking and Teaching!

Jamie Oliver on Kids and Cooking

Listen to what Jamie Oliver says about kids and cooking and why is it so important to get kids into the kitchen. He says its all about FUN and OWNERSHIP.

Listen to what he says on this video. He appeared on Oprah Winfrey. I found the video while searching for something else and I could not resist to place the link here. He says so many important things about cooking and kids and why it s so important.

Tried to write some snippets of what he said. Look at the video to listen to all.
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Jamie-Oliver-on-Teaching-Your-Kids-to-Cook-Video

Every kid and adult is different. Let them have fun. You dont want to be fussy and ask them to clean up and this and that. Let them have fun. And let them DECIDE. Let them take ownership - how much, how long, what do we need and such.

Kids like to be proud. Give them the skills and create a family culture which they will take to their children. Once a week, a meal on Saturday for example - spend it with them cooking. It will also build their confidence.

Dont ask them about whether they want burgers or nuggets. Teaching them about cooking will also help them avoid junk food . Jamie says that life expectantcy in UK and US is now 10 to 15 years less because of the food we eat.

Watch the video by Jamie Oliver. It is quite inspirational

What Cooking Does For Me – Chapter 2

My boy wrote this piece in Chapters. Chapter 1 was about how he felt about cooking. For the second Chapter he wrote about ‘Cooking Technology’. See Chapter 1 on this blog.

Again I have reproduced Chapter 2 here – except for spelling and perhaps some grammar, this is my son’s original piece.

Cooking Technology

If you don’t know how to cook, watch the Asian Food Channel on TV. My favorite show is Restaurant Makeover. It’s very interesting because it turns a bad restaurant into a good restaurant. A Bad Chef to a Good Chef.

You need to learn a few things in school to be a chef. You need to learn math, science, and English. Math is to help you know how to measure like how much water you need to add to your cooking. English is to understand cooking and read recipes. Science is to know about what is happening in cooking.

We learn things from cooking like knowing the right ingredients and making food delicious. You can also make drinks.

The end

P.S. My son's musings got me thinking, about children having ambitions to become chefs. I found some books. I reading  the Chef's story - its about their passion and what got them into the kitchen. Interesting read. There are others, if you are interested. 

Our children are angles, with dreams, creatively and imagination. If adults did not forget these child thoughts, the world would probably be a better place.

Why take the trouble To Teach Kids While Cooking

The ability to cook is a great asset for our kids. Hear the phrase 'Give a child a fish, he eats for a day, Teach your Child to Fish, he eats forever. In this case, teach your child to cook, he will never go hungry and at the same time helps them eat healthy.

Children are so "teachable" and there exists opportunity for strengthening food-related life skills. And with it they take care of their own nutrition. Cooking gives children a boost of confidence, exposure to new and/or healthful foods, and often provide the curiosity and motivation needed to continue cooking. Cooking also promotes togetherness between parents and their children - cooking creates bonds and memories that cannot be taken away. It makes the trouble all so worth it.

Cooking with Kids is a wonderful strategy to help children with so many things. Helping them with school lessons, teaching them to be self reliant and the most beautiful part of it, mum/dad and kids create special moments. Cooking a meal does not become a chore but an activity that becomes incredibly fulfilling experience.

Happy Cooking!

Please tell me what you think. Look forward to your views and experiences.

Happy Pancakes

Do you get your kids asking for snacks or saying that they are hungry or there is just nothing to eat!

In situations like this, I look to the good old PANCAKE. There are other quick bites too but I thought I’d share with you my simple pancake recipe in this blog.

Pancakes are quick, easy and tasty snack.

Have a look at this recipe, it’s extremely easy to remember and easy to make. It makes about 5 to 6 pancakes.

Lets see how to get your kids involved and what they learn with such a simple recipe.

Shopping List and Parent’s Teaching Aid

1 cup self raising flour
(self raising flour is better than plain flour
because of its enhancing structure)

1. What is flour 2. What is flour’s texture 3. What is flour made of 4. Numbers – 1 cup

1 cup milk
(for kids, please use fresh milk or full cream.
Low fat milk is simply not encouraged for kids

1. Where does milk come from?2. Fresh milk vs ow fat milk because of the low fat content
3. What does milk have? 4. Why is milk good for you

1 egg

Let your kids break the egg. Show them the yolk

1. Where do eggs come from
2. Why do eggs have the yellow and the white
3. What happens if you boil eggs
4. Where do chicks come from

Notice that everything comes in 1.

For older children – this is a simple and great recipe to teach multiplication and division and using common sense

e.g.
1. How much flour, eggs and milk I need if I need to make 10 pancakes
2. What happens if I half the ingridients? (Teaching fractions)
3. What happens if I double or triple the ingridients? (fractions and multiplying)

A little sugar and salt
Not too much. Only enough to give a taste.

Blend everything together. Have your kids know what’s little or a lot

Place some oil in a pan and fry the pancakes a little at a time You can help your kids. Be careful of the fire. Teach kids about fire and how something that was raw gets cooked with fire.




Serve as is or with butter and honey or marmalade or fruit, or anything that the kids or adults like.



Mums and Dads,




I hope you and your kids have a wonderful time making the pancakes.

Please let me know how they turn out and whether your kids learnt a lot more that either of you thought!

Happy Cooking!

Useful Resources on Kids and Cooking

Dear Parents, I hope you have been enjoying reading experience this blogs on applying cooking to teach our kids.

If you would have noticed, for a lot of the articles, I set out links to information that could be useful to you if not directly, indirectly in your dealing with your kids and the whole cooking experience. Being an accountant, I have also included some elements of finance. Its for your convenience and I thought that a lot of these material, are an excellent choice and provides value for money.

For this entry, i thought to provide some easy reference information and material that could be useful in teaching kids and cooking. The internet is a huge place and there’s just everything of everything everywhere. And sometimes, we just want something simple. How to get the kids to eat or even trying to figure out what to Ccok.

Some of the books and resources are from Amazon and a lot of others from various places, which I thought are quite good.

365 Foods Kids Love to Eat The bestselling guide to happy, healthy mealtimes with kids. 365 Foods Kids Love to EatHere is-the cookbook with carefully chosen, great tasting, good that appeals to the whole family, especially the kids! Encourage healthy attitudes toward food and lifelong, wholesome eating habits with 365 Foods Kids Love to Eat! Perfect for busy parents.

Kid Approved Meals! 13 Weeks Of Breakfast & Lunch Menus That Are Kid-Tested & Mom Approved, With Categorized Grocery Shopping Lists Accompanying Each Menu. Perfect For Homeschool Families, Stay At Home Moms, And Daycare Providers













This site http://astore.amazon.com/http1teachinb-20
has some great books and ideas in one page. The prices are also reasonable and constantly with ideal promotions. The books are about recipes but what is more interesting is that there are selected books about cooking and kids.

I do hope enjoy these resources. Do let me know if there are other useful resources for other mums and dads. Glad to post it on the blog

"I Want to be a Chef" - Build A Business Plan

My 9 year old is determined to be a chef when he grows up. He has been interested in cooking since he was 2 and I perhaps fueled that energy by allowing him into the kitchen and ‘cook’ dishes with real pots and pans.

He feels that serving people food is the best way to make them happy. And he wants to ensure that he has good and tasty meals and more importantly is that everything served at his restaurant must not cost more than a dollar! He reasons that everyone must be able to afford and enjoy good food. He has got the name of the restaurant, which every now and then changes as his experiences change and develops. He had started with “The White Restaurant” and stuck to it for a few years, until recently, he wrote up his menu with name of restaurant changing to “The King’s Restaurant”. He says that anyone who eats at his restaurant is a king. (He did not mention about the queens though!)

I realized that perhaps I should document his thoughts down. I drew up a business plan for him and asked him to put his dreams, plans and action steps.

I thought to myself that he should be reminded of his young thoughts when he grows as well as for my husband and I to reminisce on our young son. It reminds me to say that the internet is a wonderful thing to allow us to pen and share this information with as many people as possible. And who knows, these ideas may just become real someday.

It is a simple plan, I asked him to complete a template with his ideas. It looks something like this. I have summarized it with the items that I asked him to think about. I helped him with it and it now runs to about 4 or 5 pages.

Name of Restaurant/Café
How will your menu look like
What is your theme
Building/corner shop/near a school/city?
What will you sell - Food and Beverages
Who will be your cook?
When do you want it open
What will you price your food and beverage?
Where will you open your restaurant
How many people will work for you
How much money will you need

Children can be taught from young the importance of planning and such and to articulate their dreams. These plans will change over time. But I realized an important aspect of this exercise – which is that getting him into the kitchen and cooking taught me to teach him other things, like thinking about his ambitions, penning them down, to be as specific and to have the entrepreneurial mind set.

I look forward to hearing your views and feedback. I am so quite happy to draw up a
business planfor the mums out there – just drop me your email in the subscription button to the left.

Happy cooking and teaching your kids to have an ambition while cooking

A Way with Words – Teach Words While Shopping and Cooking for Dinner

Kids learn words all the time and often it is hard to get them to say it right. It takes a lot of patience especially with smaller kids. My husband and I are constantly looking for ways to teach them proper grammar, saying and speaking right and politely - when they answer the phone, when they greet their friends and family, when they speak to us and others. We even have mini toastmaster’s sessions in our hall, just to teach them a bit of public speaking and putting words together correctly and clearly.

Books also provide a good guide to teaching kids words. We found some great books , not too expensive (less than USD15 some as low as just below USD4.00) just to get them to read and say the words as they read. It also helps with the teaching.

One method that we found was an absolute delight was through the whole cooking process – shopping and cooking. It also helps with managing our time. Between working, caring for the kids and household work, it can be a challenge finding time to teach them anything!

Decide on a menu for the meal or just a list of things you need to get from the market or supermarket.

For example
First Make a list – get your children to sit with and decide what you need to buy:
1. Loaf of Bread
2. Butter
3. Chicken Meat
4. Vegetables – carrots and cabbage
5. Bunch of flowers
6. Small vase
7. Dishwasher
8. Stationery for school
9. Tin opener

2. Start simply – don’t need to complicate it:

“Let's write a list of things we need from the market”
For younger kids, say the alphabet and show them what you have written. They would automatically start recognizing words.

Continue the process purposefully.

‘Do we need this or do we need that.’
The most important of all is to ensure that your kids are involved in the shopping process. Make sure that they hold the list – it works wonders to ensure that they are focused, them and a sense of accomplishment.

Remind them what a great job they did by complementing their efforts and responsibility in getting the shopping done and that you had not forgotten anything.

Cook for Favourite Dishes From Famous Restaurants Right in Your Own KItchen

Thinking what to cook next – what would entice my kids to eat and to cook with me. Something different, something that you have enjoyed when eating out at your favorite restaurants.

This will definitely get your kids excited! Happy kids are easier to teach. I found this delightful book on preparing

» Red Lobster
» Applebee's
» Chili's
» Olive Garden
» T.G.I. Fridays
» Outback Steakhouse
» Starbucks

This book helps you learn to cook these famous recipes while teaching kids all sorts of things from math to where food comes from and why eating raw is better for some food and not for others.

Click Here To Find Out More about the CopyCatCookBook!

Cook the same recipes from your favorite restaurants for friends and family and have them convinced that you've ordered in. They simply will not believe that you've learned the secret, guarded recipes from the best restaurants! And guess what, you kids will never be prouder. Cooking Tip: Don’t take an ounce of credit. – give them all to your kids. They will be eating out of your hand at the next lesson.

This book has 332 recipes and comes with some freebies and money back guarantee.

Teaching Math

I loved math when I was in school. Its practical and the answer come to you if you follow the steps and the rules. Math becomes a habit after some time.
Math must make sense to the kid. Math is about ‘how’ and ‘why’. And there’s a lot of this happening through our cooking experiences.

There must be an ultimate goal with Math; Kids must understand why they need it for afterwards. To navigate in this complex world. Math is about reasoning which is so important for later parts of their lives.

The tools used for math is numerous – through books, math exercises, math kits, games and so on.

Add cooking to your list.

To get our kids to love math, we must show it through our attitude and enthusiasm for math and how it solves problems.

I found that teaching maths through baking was easy and fun and prepared them for lessons at school. Baking teaches:
• Measuring
• Estimating
• Counting
• Size and shape

My younger son was about 3 when I got him into the kitchen with me. My elder boy started ‘cooking’ when he was 2. I would tend to work with them on measuring flour, sugar, milk and oil correctly. I hand them the cups and explain what is needed while reading the recipe. I would try to get them to read with me.

We also work on estimating because for some recipes I might add or take away certain ingredients, but I don’t use any form of measurement. So they learn to eyeball and look for the ingredient and know whether it’s too much or too little. Of course counting cookies and sorting decorations is just plain fun.

Hope this gives you some ideas for bringing education into your Christmas cookie baking this year.