Thursday, April 5, 2012

Quick and healthy food for kiddies

At the Easter party last Sunday at the kindergarten I talked to a friend about cooking for kids, as we have to prepare for our children breakfast and lunch for the kindergarten every day. I'm cooking for my daughter every morning something fresh. You can imagine the looks and the obvious questions; what time am I waking up, how do I do it and what am I cooking. A lot of the mothers don't realise, how quick cooking for children can be. 

It was always very important to me, making food for my child that is diversified and balanced, as it is for my husband and me. From the beginning, when I introduced solids to her, I gave her everything to eat that was of course suitable for her development. Till she turned one, or even a bit longer, I completely cut out sugar and strong spices, as I did with honey and nuts. Till today I try to reduce or even leave out the sugar, but I'm not to quibble about it. I was rewarded with a child, who eats almost everything, who is always keen on trying everything new I give her and who is eating by herself since she is 11 month old. And I'm still able to give her oats sweetened only by a banana and the natural sugar from the milk and oats. You would be surprised, how curious children can be about food and ready to try almost everything, if you are convinced of what you are giving them. All without pressure of course. But I also appreciate, that I'm very blessed with such a good eater.


Preparing food for my daughter takes me normally not more than 15 minutes. The key is good preparation. Stuff I always have in the deep freeze are  ice cube size portions of chicken or veggie stock, finely diced onion and garlic, chopped fresh herbs (parsley, dill and basil), 3 sorts of early harvest vegetable mix and mostly a pancake or two, left from last Sunday.  I'm also lucky to have an own veggie garden, that's why I have additionally fresh courgettes, tomatoes, spinach, cucumbers, paprika and different herbs handy.

Don't be afraid of frozen vegetables, they contain normally more vitamins, than the "fresh" stuff you're buying at the supermarket. The onion and garlic I prepare in order to have a bit for the small portions. And it makes such a difference in terms of taste, if you either use or leave out the onion and garlic. At the end it's your choice, especially, because every child is different. But don't be afraid of offering your child something new, you'll never know, if he or she will like it. 
Sunday, April 1, 2012

Sour-dough, a sponge and its starter

As promised in my last post, I want to show you, how to do a starter for a sour dough and the sour dough itself. It's very time intensive, but worth the work. I love my sour dough breads, they are so fluffy and stay fresh way longer, then breads without the sour dough or sponge. I sourced the classic way of preparing  der-Sauerteig. The idea for the regular sponge came up by reading that article and I adjusted it to my needs.