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The Great Veg Debate! (Guest Post: Australian Mother's Online)

The fabulous and sassy Paula K has kindly let me write a guest post on her wonderful site here whilst she is recovering from her latest op. All the best for a speedy recovery Paula!

The Great Veg Debate!

If you have a house where toddlers reside then you are probably familiar with the ‘Great Vegetable Debate’. This rather monotonous and tiring debate is an almost nightly occurrence in my home since my 3yo returned home from pre-school a few months back and announced he did “not like vegetables anymore” and harbours an even stronger dislike for all things “green” – ie broccoli, spinach, peas, beans… you get my drift! I have tried all manner of crafty, cunning ways to hide or disguise vegies in his food but, like a trained sniffer dog, he can detect broccolini from 20 paces.

The great news is I have found there is one sure-fire recipe that will have him chowing down on fresh vegetables every time, with no fuss and no disguise. I can only assume it is because it 1, tastes so good; and 2. looks so pretty, it gets polished off without complaint and seconds are often requested. He calls it my chicken pasta but I call it Rainbow Stir Fry and the knack is in the preparation. I saw this many moons ago on a tv show about caring for toddlers and here it is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 carrot

1 zucchini

1 onion

½ a head of broccoli

½ a red capsicum

Mushrooms

1 clove garlic

500gms chicken breast

Hokkien soft noodles

Soy sauce

Honey

Orange Juice (optional)

Grab your peeler and when you have peeled your carrot keep on peeling – peel strips of carrot, peel strips of zucchini, peel strips of capsicum.

Cut your onion and mushrooms as finely as you can – the Tupperware Happy Chopper is brilliant for this.

Chop up the broccoli into tiny little “trees”.

Throw some crushed garlic into a hot wok along with your onion.

Add chicken and cook through.

Throw in the rest of the veg with a splash of water and put the lid on your wok for a few minutes.

Add soy sauce and honey to taste. If you like your stir fry a bit saucier (hey, who doesn’t!?) throw in a bit of OJ.

Lastly add the soft noodles and in minutes you are ready to serve up the most colourful plate of noodles you’ll ever see!

NB: I add a little chilli and some cashew nuts for my husband and I after I have served up the small boys dinner – it’s delicious.

This dish is always a winner in my house and, each time he has eaten it, my son is keen to point out how his muscles have grown from all those vegetables. ;-)

I hope it is as big a success at your dinner table!

 

What secrets do you have to get more of the “good stuff” into our children?

 

 

Michelle of blog site, Australian Mothers Online, is a happily-married mother of two wonderful boys, ages 3 & 1, and is filled with inspiration now that she has kicked off her great site site and is able to mesh her love for her children, her love for writing and her experiences in finance and parenting to hopefully create something interesting at least… brilliant at best! Michelle is valued member of our 'sassy 16' at sassymamas, where women of influence, blogfuence & momfluence, blog & play!

Please 'drop in' on Michelle's site & thank her in comments for Guest Posting whilst I am in hospital!
http://australianmothersonline.com.au/blog/

Meal for family of 4 on a Budget!

 hello & welcome to my first blog post from Australia......the US economy and rising oil prices, along with our own depressed economy have had an effect on our pockets over here in Australia.  Thankfully, just before Christmas, our gas prices dropped slightly and we had two small consecutive interest rate cuts. That put some extra jangle in our pockets for Christmas craziness (yay to shopping)! 

Anyway, being a familY of fouR + puppy we've been watching our dollars so Mr K thought he was being thrifty husband by buying 'storebrand' spaghetti simmer sauce on his way home from work last night.  I had usual migraine (yuk!) and just wanted to throw some mincemeat and sauce in a pot. Alas, when I added the 'sauce' it was but a watery tomato paste.....oh what to do??? Mr K looked sheepishly over my shoulder and said, "you might like to drain some of that water off the mincemeat." My look sent him scurrying back to his remote and Crown Lager beer, as I screeched in full migraine flight, "I HAVE DRAINED IT-YOU GRABBED THE CHEAP SAUCE!!"

My first instinct was to throw the lot into the garbage can and let every man (and puppy) fend for himself whilst I retreated to the peace and serenity of my airconditioned bedroom suite (also known as 'the cave').  But I dredged up my Mothering instinct through my migraine haze and rose to the challenge of somehow turning this 'slop' into an edible, delectable dish for my cubs and Mr K!  Amazing what you can do under pressure, avec migraine, in 80% humidity (we live in a tropical Australian State called Queensland.....kind of a laidback Miami, Florida) with a few basic ingredients.

I knew I was onto a winner when, after about 10 minutes, Buddy, our Bison Frise pup, came dancing into the kitchen on his hind legs, nose in the air.....aha, I've passed the sniff test...it must SMELL ok!  Next the TASTE test....only one teen for this job, my 12 year old son, JK.  The reason being that, as you know, teen boys don't actually EAT, they inhale their food, without it touching their insides, so I figured if it tasted bad, it really wouldn't harm him....well, not too much anyway!  Yep, sure enough, INHALE, INHALE, SNORT, MORE, INHALE, GRUNT, YUP.  And there it was, the passing of the INHALE test.  Now I knew I could safely dish it up to our daughter Miss K and to Mr K (who would not DARE say it was anything other than great after his CHEAP SAUCE EFFORT!)

As we settled down, da 'K family' + puppy, to eat our spagbol conFUSED dish and to watch Tyra and America's Next Top Model (yes, ok we are addicted), I choke, not on my dinner, but on having to admit to Mr K, that in these tough economic times, he has forced me to come up with a tasty, delectable, ECONOMICAL dish with his CHEAP SAUCE!!

FYI, here are my ingredients and what it cost me in Australian dollars (US.70c=approx. AU$1):

'Da K Family' Spag Bol conFUSED Dinner:

*800 gms lean mincemeat     AU$9.00,   *Mr K's storebrand spaghetti simmer sauce AU$2.00

*stir in 400gm tin Heinz shaghetti in tomato sauce AU$1.89    *6 drops tabasco sauce    *salt to taste

*grated tasty cheese grilled on top            *serve on spaghetti, pasta or rice

*Cost per person: approx AU$ 4.25

BON APETIT!!!