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Cooking For Kids- Healthy Eating For Kids
By: Kelvin Ho
We all know that some kids are very picky when it comes to eating. Many of them feel that healthy food is just not for them. Know any kids like that? I did not think so. Here are some great tips and ideas that will get your kids excited about what they are eating.
Being Creative
Kids love to be creative. They also like to be involved. Letting them help plan and yes even help prepare the meals will get them excited about the food they are eating. Kids love choices, and if they feel they get a choice, they are more likely to eat or try new things.
Kids Friendly Recipes
There are many great kid friendly recipes as well as creative ways to prepare healthy and delicious foods. Kids love food that is interesting to them. Most kids love pizza right? Many will even eat it with a few vegetables mixed in. Make individual pizza using refrigerator biscuits or English muffins.
Find food that they can help create and assemble. They will love foods they can personalize and make it their own way, even if it is a simple bowl of tomato soup. Have different bowls of crackers, cheeses or pepperoni they can throw in their bowl.
Choose recipes that are appealing. Most kids love French fries right? Why not fix up some healthy sweet potato fries or chicken strips using wheat germ as the crust with a healthy dipping sauce.
Shapes of Food
Another great idea is making shapes out of your food. The possibilities are endless.
Using a cookie cutter or using your own art skills cut a shape out of their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or chicken nuggets or virtually anything that can be shaped. Pancakes also make great shapes.
Animal and Bug Shapes
There are a lot of different ways to take fruit and even vegetables and make them into bug or animal shapes. For example, use an apple slice to make a lady bug. Use peanut butter as the glue and put raisins on the dots to make the spots. Ants on a log are another fun idea. Take celery and fill it will peanut butter and dot the inside with raisins. With a little creativity, your kids are more likely to eat their fruits and vegetables.
Disguises for food
A little bit of food coloring makes a perfect disguise. Add a drop or two to mashed potatoes and throw in small bits of broccoli and they would not even know they are eating vegetables. Again, kids love foods that are interesting to them.
Other easy and tasty dishes would be lasagna or spaghetti with shredded carrots or finely chopped broccoli.
Drinks
Every kid loves something they can sip on. A great way for them to get extra calcium and fruit is to make smoothies or milkshakes. Let them choose the fruits that sound good to them. You can also add small amounts of fresh vegetables to the drink without clouding the fruity taste. They might not ever notice that you have added something to their drink!
Many processed fruit drinks have a lot of added sugar. Find juices that are 100% fruit or vegetable juice. For a tasty frozen treat, you could make homemade freezer pops using the smoothie mix or fruit juices.
Conclusion
Yes, it does require a little creativity and maybe even a little disguise, but helping your children eat healthy is worth the effort.
Choosing The Best Ice Cream Maker
By: Narinder Kaur
You can make delicious ice cream at home, as good as any premium store brand, if you choose a good ice cream maker and follow a few tips. Ice cream makers can range in price from under $100 to over $500. The more expensive models contain built in freezing compressors. The less expensive models are perfectly suited for use in the home and come in two basic types. There is the type that uses rock salt and ice to cool the ice cream mixture and the type that has a canister that is placed in the freezer. Each of these is equipped with an electric crank or a manual crank. Your particular needs will determine which is right for you.
If you want to make a large quantity of ice cream, you will need to purchase a model that uses rock salt and ice. The canister models will only make up to 1.5 quarts at a time. If you would like to turn ice cream making into a family activity, you can choose the hand-crank model, which will also use rock salt and ice. The crank must be turned manually for a fairly long period of time, thus allowing each family member a turn. An electric crank is quite a bit easier than the manual crank models. You will also get more consistent results due to the bowl turning at a constant speed. Most electric crank ice cream makers will have an automatic cut off feature that will stop the motor when the ice cream reaches the desired consistency. The consistency is judged by the amount of resistance while the bowl is turning.
After you choose which type of ice cream maker is right for you, you will need to find the perfect ice cream recipe. Remember that the faster the ice cream freezes, the better it will taste and the smoother the texture will be. It will be best to pre-mix all your ingredients and let them chill for several hours before placing them in the ice cream maker. When your ice cream is done, it will resemble soft-serve ice cream. You can place the canister in the freezer for a few hours and you will be much happier with the results. If your canister is plastic, consider removing the ice cream as soon as it is done, and placing it in a metal bowl covered with foil. The metal will allow the ice cream to freeze faster and become firmer more quickly than in a plastic container.
You can purchase a mix that is quite easy to make into ice cream very quickly. While the mixes are convenient, the best homemade ice cream is made from fresh ingredients. Milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and cocoa if you desire will give you the best results. You can find numerous ice cream recipes, some which require cooking some which require no cooking. The ice cream recipes that do not require cooking are generally just as good as the cooked type, and require a lot less time. The best ice cream recipes usually contain eggs, however there are many recipes that do not use eggs if you or someone in your family is allergic to eggs