Healthy Diet for Kids - What and how to cook for your kids. How to feed your small kids by Ni Zain

So lots of you need to get inspired to cook for kids? Okay than, are you ready? Got the knife sharp and the veggies in the fridge?

Most important in cooking for kids is to use not any ingredience which is not visible as what it is. So all sauce and food ready or instant mixes are tabu. Use what the season provides you and what smeels fresh and what is fresh. No deep frozen or tinned meals. A carote without the carote smeel is NONO food. Test it one time when you go shopping: Smell the food. You will find many normal supermarkt fruits and vegetable have no odor at all. My carotes are organic and I get them every second day fresh. Just when they get out of the bag they already make me feeling like biting in them so eau-de-carote and orangy they are...

So now we going to start with some very simple meals and I hope you enjoy cooking them and your kids might adventurly get used to them and like them - just don't, don't give up:

Breakfast:

Pancakes: Use riceflour or Ryeflour, add one egg, a bit of water (no milk). Make it a nice liquide thing, not to liquid. Than cut some bananas, apples, pineapple or take some berries (fresh or deep frozen), just as you know your kid is going to love it. Mix them with the liquid. Put little coconut oil in a frying pan and get it hot. Put the liquid with the fruits in small pieces in and get them golden-brown. Once they finish put them on a fresh, but old tea towel and remove the rest of the oil. I top them wheather with some nice honey or with a little bit brown sugar and cinnemon. They just stunning! And never a piece is let over!

Porrigde or Bubur: Take some organic rice, wash it, than put it in a wok with enough water. Cook at low temperature until it gets all sticky. Add water if it gets to dry. Look that once the rice is getting softer, that you stir it a lot, so it gets the nice texture. Once it is ready I am greating a small banana and a half apple. Mix it with the Bubur. I also top it with cinemon and little brown sugar. You can also add dry prunes, apricot (cut small) or raisins. Keep left overs in the fridge, it tastes good after lunch too...

Main Meals:

Green vegetable with carotes: Peel and cut one carotte very small. Do the same with 3 pieces of garlic and at least 8 pieces of charlottes. Put a little bit coconut oil in a wok or pan and heat it. Once it is hot put the carotes and all the other stuff in too. Add a teaspoon coriander powder and 100ml water. Get it all nicely mixed up. Once the water is gone put 100ml again. Once this is gone put enough water to cover all the carotes. Put now the temperatur down and let the carotes get more or less soft. Not to soft, they still should have some bit. While they cooking clean some green vegatable such as Sajur Hijau or Spinach. Cut it in small strips. As soon as the carotes are done add the green veggies and just let them change the color into dark green. Don't let them get to floppy, than the vitamines are gone. Add little sea salt. This meal takes me 10 minutes to do. I serve it with red organic rice and simple fried tempe, which we dipping in organic soy sauce. It took me a while to get my son eating the greens, but now he is so used to this dish, that he even asks for it. I do it at least 4 times a week as it gives us all we need to power up!

Toddler Salad: Peel and greet a carote. Greet a zuchini or cucumber too if you like. Boil a egg and cut it small. Take 2 charlottes and 1 garlic and cut them very small. Boil some green vegetables such as beans, Sajur Hijau or spinach. Not to long again. Same with Beet Roots, but them until they soft enough. Than mix it all together, add 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder, some small cut coriander leaves, 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil, the juice of about 6-8 little limes (replacing vinegar and adding vitamin C), little salt and if your kid loves raisins even some of them. If you have some boild fish, rice noodles or rice left over you can add it to the salad too. Serve with some crupuk or rice crakers. They going to love the mulit color dish! You can variate it every time you doing it. I even add sometimes strawberries, apple or pineapple. Depends on what I have at home.

Pumpkin Fairy Soup: Peel and cut pumpkin and one carote. Also one big onion and 5 pieces of garlic. Than put little coconut oil in a big pot and get it hot. Once it is hot put everything in. Add 1/2 teaspoon of cinemon, 1 teaspoon of coriander powder, the black seeds of one cardamon and 100ml water. Stir it well so it does not burn. Add water again. After this add so much water that the veggies are covered more than 5 cm. Put on very low temperatur and add a stick of lemon grass. Let it all boil until the carotes and/or the pumpkin are soft. The smaller you cut, the faster ready, the less vitamin you loosing. Than take out the lemon grass and put all in a blender. Add a little bit of clean coriander leaves and give it a good go. Put in the pot again and add some water if it is to stiff. Let it get one more time to the boiling point and than - yummy! We eat it with little croutons or rice craker. Also red organice rice is tasting very well with it.

Some Essential Tips:

Basicly you can cook all you used to cook if you follow some guidelines.

*Just replace white flour with rice- or Rye Flour. Even cakes taste great done with a 50/50 mix of these flours.

*Talk to your grandmother how she was cooking without all the additives. There are thousnds of cooking books around. Just make sure they not done from one of the big food suppliers. You can still replace coconut oil for butter, white flour with rice flour, white sugar with brown sugar.

*Go to the health food restaurants and check out what they cooking. Ask around for health cooking classes. Get one organized yourself, so share with other parents what they cook and teach each other.

*Use coconut oil. It is the best oil in the world!

*Ask the restaurant you going to what they adding to their food. If they not clear tell them you not coming anymore. I also ask in restaurants to make pancakes with riceflour. As riceflour is widly used in Balinese cooking they always can do it.

*Use sea salt after you finished cooking. So you not oversalting food.

*Add spices such as ginger, tumeric, coriander, cardamon, curry powder - even for small kids - they also love tasty food. Just look that they fresh, organic and no msg.

*Stay away from white sugar in any form. If neccecary use honey, brown sugar or palm sugar.

*You do not need to use any dairy products. Food tastes so good without them if you add the right spices. You will get used to it and your kids too.

*Do not serve iced or cold drinks to your kids. If it is hot this is the best way to get a cold and it is so bad for the stomach!

*The smaller your child is, the smaller you need to cut the food. The more you need to make sure they eating their main meals.

*Once your child can count you can tell, okay 3 more spoons than you done. Do this at a point your child wants to refuse the food. Bonus with reading a book or making a gig-jaw. Don't let a tantrum win, than you lost forever. Bargain hard... The food you cooking tastes great! Make sure it does...

*Ask your child why it does not like a dish. Sometimes the reasons are just sooo easy to resolve. Like "The carotes are to big!"

*Make the dishes a little bit bigger than what your kid is normally eating. So you if he is a hard eater you can bonus him with "You don't have to finish all today. I am happy if you eat 3 more spoons." Your Toddler has the feeling he got his go, sometimes this is also important...

*Eat the same as your child at the same time. Feed each other. Read a book for your child, so she is not thinking about the food she puts in her mouth. I used to stop reading if he does not eat. Now the warning is just enough. I like to add for me some chillies, my child knows how they taste, so he never askes now if I add a sambal. I just say "Spicy". This is a way to make my food more adult suitable. Or I add something I like still in the kitchen, so I have no argument on the table.

*Give a big bonus for one week good eating. My son gets a ice cream (there is one really extreme good one here in Bali - our Sunday special - our one time a week milk, our one time a week fall out. We enjoy it even more!) or a cake or even a lollipop. Make clear that this is a bonus for good eating. Not the regular base. Unfortunatly you cannot keep them 100% away from the JUNK, but look that it is good junk food. There are now lots of products which are done with fruit sugar and no chemicals. At least that!

*Make clear that what other kids are doing is not always the best. Sounds hard, but I even tell my son that other parents do not care so much if there kids are eating well and going to be healthy. I have now the feeling he really understands what I mean, as he sees other kids being sick all the time and tells me "Mom, Paul is sick again, but I saw him eating so much choclate and drinking Coke... no wonder".

*Cannot get organic or healthy food? Get togehter with some parents in your area. Write a letter to your supermarket and tell them you what you want. They will get it for you!

*And my last and very good tip: Never go shopping when you or your child are hungry. After a meal it is the perfect time. If you craving for food you end up with a lot of junk. I got this tip years ago and it really works. Or get your food delievered, than you can make sure you not falling over the junk. What is at home is there to be eaten. It works!

Give it a go now! Let me know how it works! Share your best kids meal with us! Sent it to: info@baliforkids.com

Salamt Makan and lots of love for all the well eating and healthy kids out there! I am very proud of all of you! Ni Zain

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