Easy and Convinient Way to Obtain Food Items and Ingridients

Dear readers,

Whenever possible, all recipes and information provided on this blog contain additional information.  The idea is to ensure that the recipes provide you alternatives and at the same time let you know where to get the items easily, quality and with cost considerations.

For different parts of the world, some of the ingredients are not easily found or expensive. Click on the links to find out. The idea for this blog is to ensure that food is prepare with nutrition in mind, easy and quick for both adults and children.

Where information is provided - there is links or information on how you could get more. The source is also quoted.

The blog also has information on good recipe books. Again those with convenient recipes and at low cost.

Readers, please also share with the rest if you know how to get items which are cheap, good and convenient.

As you obtain products and items to cook, please don't forget to teach your children as well, because this will enable them to do the same when they are adults.



Happy Teaching and Cooking!

Exotic and Impressive - 10 minutes Butter Prawns

This is a gorgeous recipe for butter prawns. Easy and very quick to prepare. This dish is for older children and it allows you to play with your own favourite flavours.

This recipe is for 3 to 4 people. Supplement it with a vegetable dish, which again, you could stir fry and within 20 minutes, you will have a wholesome meal on the table - with protein, vitamins and fibre.

What you will need and how to prepare

Part 1
1/2 kg Tiger prawns
Oil

Prawns de-skinned and deep fried. Deep Fried Onion

Deep fry the prawns and keep aside. I tend to clean the prawns with skin out. Some prefer to keep the tail and skin but with head off

Part 2



Curry Leaves - Click on the image



3 tablespoons butter

3 fresh chillies cut in long slices (you can use dried chillies too)

Curry Leaves (you can get them in the supermarkets. Or click here - you can get it for less than US5. It gives a little bit of spice to the dish.)

3 to 4 garlic pips

1/2 teaspoon sugar



Butter and all other ingridients



1/2 teaspoon
soya sauce

Melt butter and add in all the rest of the ingridients.

When all is fried, add in the prawns and cook for a minute or two to allow the flavours to seep into the prawns. Garnish with handful of deep fried onions or grated coconut. I refer the onions because coconut will tend to make the dish more oily and give it an adour.

Click here to find out how to get fried onions

Butter Prawns - Easy, Exotic and Impressive

Serve hot. This is an exotic dish but yet simple to prepare and easy to impress.

Happy Cooking and Teaching!

Stir Fried Vegetables with Onions and Chilly

Home Made Chicken Nuggets and Burgers

My Mom babysits my 2 boys. And they are always hungry. In the last few months, their favorite has been nuggets and burgers. My Mom developed her own simple recipe for burgers/nuggets – avoiding completely processed meat bought from the stores.

The boys get involved in preparing the simple 15 minute burger or nugget. Of course she would name the meat as requested (nugget or burger – if it’s the latter, bread or burger buns will follow)

This is how mum makes it:

• 1 whole boneless skinless chicken breast minced
• Flour, spread on a plate
• 2 eggs, beaten in a soup bowl
• Thinly sliced carrots
• Salt, freshly ground pepper
• Olive or corn oil for sauté



Mix the chicken, eggs, carrots, salt and pepper.
Roll into the size of a golf ball and flatten to make a patty.
Toss the chicken pieces in the flour (you can add some bread crumbs to coat).
In a large non-stick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Sauté the chicken in the skillet without crowding.
Cook through about 4 to 6 minutes a side. Makes enough for 4 servings.

Homemade nuggets and burgers are quick and easy. Serve with oven-roasted potatoes: slice 3 washed potatoes into wedges. Season with salt and a little chili powder and oven-roast at 400 degrees until browned and cooked through, about 45 minutes. You can deep fry but that would not be healthy. Or you could make some mashed potatoes.

Teaching Notes:


1. Cooking and eating healthy – it’s easy and tasty. Get the kids to mix the ingredients (if they don’t like vegetables – don’t let them see you mix the carrots in)
2. Math
2 eggs make 4 nuggets
How many eggs are needed for 2 nuggets?
3. Reading – Make the kids read out what is needed for the meal to work. Let them get it from the fridge or the shelves.

Happy Cooking and Teaching!

Getting Kids to Eat and Learn about Apples

We know that apples have tremendous amount of goodness and nutritional benefits. It is also being recommended for people looking to loose weight, simply because it does not release sugars into the body abruptly and it is also filling. My older son loves apples but my younger one stays away.

There are a few ways to get our kids to eat apples – I do this all the time especially during the weekends when I am with them:

1. Slice the apples into thin slices or small pieces – its easier to munch and swallow

2. Add some salt – it gives it a bit of taste – salt usually does the trick but not too much

3. Arrange the slices on a place 

- Place the plate in their play area – they would tend to munch as they play their toys

- Place it on the table while you get the rest of a meal ready. Children will tend to get them in with their fingers quickly while they wait for dinner or a pizza delivery. Don’t worry about them spoiling their appetites. Also, we don’t have to worry too much if they don’t eat their vegetables.

4. Slice the apples and include slices of apple with cucumber, tomato, or fruit such as an orange or a kiwi fruit.


There are lovely recipes for apples. Personally, eating them just the way they are, are the best.

Here are three ways to eat apples

Applesauce
Most children enjoy applesauce. This is a simple applesauce recipe:

1. 2 red apples,
2. Two teaspoons of sugar (brown sugar is fine),
3. A few tablespoons of lemon and some cinnamon.

Place the two red apples in a food processor, tossing out the core first.
Place the ground apple in a bowl and add your sugar, lemon juice and finally a few pinches of cinnamon.

Voila!

Fruit and Yogurt
Of course the one great way to eat fruit is with yoghurt.

Look up for the yoghurt recipe in this blog. Its homemade and fresh and add the fruit of your choice.

You can simply improvise  this recipe by mixing in any type of fruits you like and add your favorite cereal and nuts.

Your kids can do it. Teach them to help them understand that eating fruit is important and the easy ways to eat and prepare fruit recipes.

Happy Teaching and Cooking!

Hungry Children

To get my children (and husband!) to eat vegetables, I put lots of veges into a meat dish. And I can serve up this one dish without any other accompainments. My mother taught me this trick. For dinner last night, I dished out this wonderful chick-vege dish. My son was still hungry after that and to my pleasant suprise, he took upon himself to make a simple plate of noodles.

Ingridients
Chopped onions, garlic and ginger
Meat
Vegetables - patotoes, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage

How to prepare
Stir fry the onions, garlic and ginger till brown
Add in the chicken (you can use any meat that you prefer)
Give it a few minutes (till the meat is about half cooked)
Add in the vegetables (hard veges)
Salt to taste
Some chilly powder for a bit of flavour and taste


Teaching Tip
Get your kids to stir in the ingridients and give them all the credit for a meal well done
Make sure your other half complements the cooking
Get your kids to taste the food before it is served. Make them feel important.

As my boys are growing up, I find that there needs to be food around all the time. My next project would be how best to how food they like and healthy and to balance all that with going to work!

Any ideas?

Happy Teaching and Cooking

How to Teach Children About Carrots

My son turned orange to yellowish when he was about one or little after. His doctor asked me one question; “do you give him carrots?” And I answered, yes, everyday, in his porridge, at least twice a day!

Carrots

Lets teach our children about carrots today and here is a simple 2 minute recipe that can be prepared for lunch or dinner and with rice, bread or potatoes.

Stir Fried Carrots

One carrot thinly sliced (it cooks faster and remains fresh)

Chopped onion, garlic and little ginger

Salt to taste

Cooking oil or butter or olive oil

You can add some sliced chicken if you like.

How to Prepare

Heat Cooking Oil

Fry the onion, ginger and garlic

Add chicken

Add in the carrots

Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes

Add in the salt to taste

And that’s it!

Stir Fried Carrots

Tasty dish because it keeps the freshness of the carrots, the sweetness and there is tad of saltiness giving it the extra zest.

Carrots are beautiful vegetables. They get their bright orange colour from β-carotene, which is metabolised into vitamin A in humans. I learnt that the overconsumption of carrots can cause carotenosis, a harmless condition in which the skin turns orange.

Carrots are rich in dietary fibre, antioxidants, and minerals. Carrots can be eaten in a variety of ways. Did you know that only 3% of the β-carotene in raw carrots is released during digestion, which can be improved to 39% by pulping, cooking and adding cooking oil. (Wikipedia) The above recipe is just perfect for this.

The best way to store carrots are with refrigerating them covered. Young carrots have a shelf life of about 2 weeks, while mature carrots have a shelf life of 3–4 weeks. Removing tops before storing increases shelf life.

Carrots are said to be extremely beneficial for “

• lowering the risk of cancer - One carrot (half a cup) once a day can cut the risk of lung cancer in half. Cooking releases carotenes which are believed to be the active ingredients shielding carcinogenic attacks.

• lowering blood cholesterol - Two and a half medium-sized raw carrots eaten daily lower blood cholesterol by about 11%.

• preventing constipation

• helpful for general nervousness, asthma, skin disorders,


• Improves vision - Carrots are rich in beta carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A - a crucial nutrient for maintaining proper eyesight

• A great weight loss product - Grated carrot makes a great snack. You'll find that a grated carrot is much more filling than a whole carrot - strange but true.

• Carrots are also rich in dietary fibre, antioxidants, and minerals. It is recommended that we eat one carrot a day as part of our fruit and vegetable intake.

Those are the teaching notes. Teach our kids the nutritional benefits of carrots. At the same time, if you noteiced, you have given your child a science lesson. Don’t you think he will remember that carrots are orange because of its carotene and the nutrients?

Please share your carrot recipes. Click here for some ready made carrot dishes and recipes for carrots.



Happy Teaching and Cooking