Smoothies again when they arrived in from school. Famished coming in the door, they normally fall on brioche, biscuits and carton after revolting carton of flavoured milk (something that we used to buy by the dozen every day but which I haven't bought in a week) like a swarm of hungry locusts.
However, I find that having the blender at the ready (which is now earning it's keep despite it's dramatic nativity) with a variety of fresh, frozen and tinned fruit on stand by, along with a pot of natural yoghurt (which I have to keep hidden from the view of my nine-year-old girl who would refuse to let me put it in if she knew), keeps them busy and satiated until dinner time.
They select their preferred ingredients, then help me load up the jug and off we whiz! This really is a fantastic way to get them to eat their five-a-day each day (it just involves asking nine-year-old girl to fetch me something at the crucial moment so that I can bung in the yoghurt without her seeing it).
Later, I baked some chicken breasts in breadcrumbs in the oven (selling it to them as 'giant chicken nuggets') and mashed up some potatoes. Also, with the help of six-year-old boy, I mashed up some baby carrots too: I thought it might be an easier way to get them to eat them, although I don't think it quite worked. Still, it can be used for a soup at a later date. They all ate pretty well, four-year-old boy his usual fussy self ate only a little bit but it's still a vast improvement to a baby's bottle and a chocolate chip cookie.
Later, as a treat, and to make up for such a disappointing Pancake Day, we went down to Cafe Shakespeare (which I love) for pancakes (kids) and cappuccini (me and DH).
I bought a copy of Jamie Oliver's food magazine 'Jamie',although at 45 dirhams I can't say it was worth it. A magazine addict, I bought it with the intention of gathering recipes and tips, but it was a little disappointing and besides, I got rather side-tracked by an article about cider-making. Still, I got a recipe for Meatloaf (not the ageing rock star) which I intend to make for tomorrow evening.
For now though, I must turn my thoughts to finishing our costumes for 'Book Day', that great bastion of competitive parenting where merely dressing them up in whatever costume you have to hand (Spiderman, Tinkerbell) however tempting, is rather missing the point since it must be a book character, what with being 'Book day' and all.
This year we have Cat in a Hat (nine-year-old girl), Revolting Roman as in Horrible Histories (eight-year-old boy) and Aladdin (six-year-old boy). That last one was decided in a split second as we wandered around the mall at 7pm looking for green hair paint so he could be the Grinch. Passing one of those over-priced shops selling souvenirs and carpets, my eye fell on a pair of those tradional Arabic shoes with the curled-up toes, (causing me to scan my mental rolodex for an Arabic book character: of course! Aladdin!) which we bought along with a little lamp and a dagger (not sure how his teacher will feel about this last item actually--think I'll ask DH to super-glue the dagger inside it's sheath).
So off I trundle to finish making a Cat in a hat hat, which strangely enough is preferable to getting uniforms ready.
However, I find that having the blender at the ready (which is now earning it's keep despite it's dramatic nativity) with a variety of fresh, frozen and tinned fruit on stand by, along with a pot of natural yoghurt (which I have to keep hidden from the view of my nine-year-old girl who would refuse to let me put it in if she knew), keeps them busy and satiated until dinner time.
They select their preferred ingredients, then help me load up the jug and off we whiz! This really is a fantastic way to get them to eat their five-a-day each day (it just involves asking nine-year-old girl to fetch me something at the crucial moment so that I can bung in the yoghurt without her seeing it).
Later, I baked some chicken breasts in breadcrumbs in the oven (selling it to them as 'giant chicken nuggets') and mashed up some potatoes. Also, with the help of six-year-old boy, I mashed up some baby carrots too: I thought it might be an easier way to get them to eat them, although I don't think it quite worked. Still, it can be used for a soup at a later date. They all ate pretty well, four-year-old boy his usual fussy self ate only a little bit but it's still a vast improvement to a baby's bottle and a chocolate chip cookie.
Later, as a treat, and to make up for such a disappointing Pancake Day, we went down to Cafe Shakespeare (which I love) for pancakes (kids) and cappuccini (me and DH).
I bought a copy of Jamie Oliver's food magazine 'Jamie',although at 45 dirhams I can't say it was worth it. A magazine addict, I bought it with the intention of gathering recipes and tips, but it was a little disappointing and besides, I got rather side-tracked by an article about cider-making. Still, I got a recipe for Meatloaf (not the ageing rock star) which I intend to make for tomorrow evening.
For now though, I must turn my thoughts to finishing our costumes for 'Book Day', that great bastion of competitive parenting where merely dressing them up in whatever costume you have to hand (Spiderman, Tinkerbell) however tempting, is rather missing the point since it must be a book character, what with being 'Book day' and all.
This year we have Cat in a Hat (nine-year-old girl), Revolting Roman as in Horrible Histories (eight-year-old boy) and Aladdin (six-year-old boy). That last one was decided in a split second as we wandered around the mall at 7pm looking for green hair paint so he could be the Grinch. Passing one of those over-priced shops selling souvenirs and carpets, my eye fell on a pair of those tradional Arabic shoes with the curled-up toes, (causing me to scan my mental rolodex for an Arabic book character: of course! Aladdin!) which we bought along with a little lamp and a dagger (not sure how his teacher will feel about this last item actually--think I'll ask DH to super-glue the dagger inside it's sheath).
So off I trundle to finish making a Cat in a hat hat, which strangely enough is preferable to getting uniforms ready.
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| Aladdin's gear (I know, nothing to do with food) |
My favourite type of mash, is potato and carrots mashed together. I used to cook them together to save on washing up, but then quickly realised that if they were mashed together too they were really delicious.
ReplyDeleteHi Nicky
ReplyDeleteThat's what I did afterwards! It's good together and in fact we used to buy that from Marks & spencers! Thanks!