Making a healthy lifestyle change can be difficult to maintain. One thing that I have learned is that when trying to cut down on sugars and bad fats, you may need to challenge what traditionally may be eaten at a certain meal time.
For many, breakfast must come out of a box or pop out of a toaster and loaded with buttery & sugary condiments. Many of us also view morning tea snacks as a coffee and a highly processed cupcake that we call a "muffin" to make us feel better or a pastry type treat.
One way that I have found keeps it interesting in our house, is introducing the tasting plate idea into a few meals.
I have often served a breakfast plate with a little yoghurt, half a banana and a slice of whole wheat Vegemite toast. I find that my boys love eating a 'tasting plate', as it is inherently is full if variety.
Today for morning tea/ brunch. I made up two plates with a glass of sparkling lime water. One each for me and my youngest son.
On it I had:
Carrot sticks, pear slices, a fig, small handful of cashews, 2 dates and a small container of natural yoghurt with apple purée and cinnamon.
Mr Cheeky (3yrs) ate everything I did, except for the cashews - but he did try them. I don't have to worry of he doesn't like one component as the whole thing is healthy and it's about trying different things and building good eating habits.
I also find that when you eat this way, you enjoy it more and savor each part. Maybe the Japanese are onto something with their bento style meals ;)
Q: Have you or your kids ever eaten 'tasting plate/ bento style'?
Lauren x
This is the kind of cooking I like. Its a no recipe, tailor to your own taste, use what you have kinda meal.
I actually made this one night for what we call "BRINNER". Breakfast for dinner. It was a crazy day and I wasn't going to the shops with crazy children after school and issued myself a sort of 'mystery box' challenge!
I can see so many adaptations of this idea. I can imagine family all digging in to this for a late Boxing Day morning together while using some f the left overs from Christmas Day.
I'll show you how I did this and then show you how you could change it to your tastes.
Well, as my last post suggests, It has been a busy week with our eldest son starting school last week and our youngest son starting per-school today.I wanted to be organized with meals. You see, when my boys get tired, they can get quite grumpy. Add settling into a new routine of full time kindy / preschool to the mix and it's a recipe for disaster and a week worth of 2 minute noodles for dinner in the making (I hope I am not the only one)!!!Enter the slow cooker. I prepared my lasagna as per usual.- meat sauce (with grated veggies)- béchamel sauce (can use ricotta for lower fat option)- and lasagna sheets (I like the fresh ones best).Then I simply assembled in the slow cooker as if I would with a normal dish. I made it just after lunch time and put my slow cooker on the 'keep warm' setting. It didn't need cooking, as all the parts are pre-cooked, it just warming through to cook the pasta sheets.When I arrived home after school pick up, the house smelled divine! Simply dished up with a salad and everyone emptied their plates with big grins. Happy family = happy mummy :)Enjoy;Lauren x
I created this quick breakfast idea and the family LOVE it. This is a great idea to add to spring/ summer for breakfasts or on the go smoothies at any time.
I set up a bunch of small snap lock bags. In each bag I put the following:
- 4 strawberries
- A spoonful of blueberries
- 1 dessert spoon of oats
- 1/2 banana cut up into pieces
- 2 spoonfuls of your preferred yoghurt (I use natural yoghurt)
- Splash of vanilla
- Sprinkle of cinnamon
- a squeeze of honey
- a sprinkling of flax seeds and chia seeds
Zip up the bags and pop into the freezer. That's the hard part!
Then, each morning, I just take a zip lock bag out and add it into my magic bullet blender thing, fill it with milk and blitz.
[You could also use a blender, but that's why i love the magic bullet because you have to wash far less dishes!]
SOOOO easy! And because it's all frozen, it turns into a sort of a smoothie frappe. VOILA!!!
You can also try this with any fruit/ yoghurt combinations you have on hand. Other ideas to add to the bag might be:
- passion fruit pulp
- tinned fruit
- flavoured yoghurts
- fruit puree's frozen into cubes like the yoghurt concept
- blueberries
- paw paw
- kiwifruit
- a sprinkle of cinnamon
- mangoes
.........let your imagination take over and create!!!
Enjoy;
Lauren x
I kinda made this up as I went tonight, so feel free to adjust flavours i.e. add chilli etc... This went so quickly that I didn't even get a chance to get a photo. The dish fed 4 adults and 2 children. On top of that I had everything on the pantry and freezer already so it was a very cheap meal too!
ONE POT Orange Asian Chicken
Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts (could use thighs, but this is what I had on hand)
1 onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1 cm piece of fresh ginger (minced in a jar is fine if you don't have fresh)
1/2 bunch of shallots chopped in chunks on an angle
1/2 capsicum (red or green) cut into thin strips
2 oranges juiced
1 tbls Kecap manis (thick sweet soy in Asian isle)
2 tbls soy sauce
1 tsp of white vinegar
1 tbls honey
Method:
Place all ingredients in an oven proof dish and bake in a 160' oven for about an hour.
Place 2 cups of Basmati rice and 2 cups of chicken stock in a microwave dish for 10 mins (your microwave may be different).
Serve!
How easy huh???
Enjoy;
Lauren x
