Summer Salads with papaya & strawberries
Recipes supplied by Richard Rust, a fabulous, 5 star trained, gourmet chef. He has cooked for, amongst others, British royalty, Woolworths and written for Taste magazine. His company Gourmet Gurus caters for children’s parties; lunch boxes; private/corporate functions and dinner parties.
MEZZE PLATTER
serves: 8
preparation time: 30 minutes
You will need:
8 slices of parma or similar ham
8 slices salami
50gm blue cheese, cut in wedges
50gm mozzarella, cut in chunks
50gm cheddar cut in wedges
8 slices of melon cut in half
Handful rocket, washed
Strawberries to garnish
Here’s how:
STRAWBERRY AND BLUE CHEESE SALAD
serves: 4
preparation time: 10 minutes
You will need:
handful mixed leaves eg rocket and watercress
250gm strawberries, green hull removed
125gm blue cheese
50gm walnuts, crushed
2tbsp honey
2tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Here’s how:
PAPAYA AND FETA SALAD
serves: 4
preparation time: 10minutes
You will need:
handful mixed leaves eg rocket and watercress
1 papaya, deseeded and cut into chunks
125gm feta cheese
50gm pumpkin seeds
1 pack spring onions, finely sliced
2tbsp olive oil
2tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Here’s how:
Our kiddies pizza party
by Merle Dieterich, passionate mom and businesswoman whose 2 beautiful children, Lerato and Marvin never cease to amaze and teach her about what counts. You’ll find her at jozikids.co.za
My daughter recently turned 9 years old and loves food, so the most obvious choice for a party was something we’d never tried before, a pizza making party. After checking out the extensive list of companies which offer food related parties on Jozikids, we settled for A-Z Creative Entertainment and we were not disappointed.
An hour before the young guests arrived, Zelda arrived with her beautiful clay pizza oven plus tables, aprons, hats, boxes and fresh pizza dough! By the time the friends arrived, everything was ready.
First, everyone stood in line to receive their chef’s hats and aprons.
Our garden was transformed into a sea of white hatted chefs rolling out dough.
Fresh tomato sauce and a variety of fillings were added.
My proud daughter was the first to pop her pizza in the oven
Each child received their own pizza box and the eating began
As if this wasn’t enough, and believe you me it was, Zelda had brought a long a Slush Puppy machine to top it all off with. Thank you Zelda for a fabulous, memorable party.
Would you accept a C- when it came to your child’s health?
b
y Lindsay Grubb, wife & mom to a nearly 3 yr old daughter and owner of L Communications where she helps you get the right message across to the right audience. Follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn
My daughter will eat anything you put in front of her with no arguments. She adores vegetables, happily munches away on broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas and carrots. My friends,(who sneakily try to blend vegetables and hide them in bolognaise sauces and stews), sit dumbstruck as she polishes off a big plate of salad at our weekend braais.
She is happiest when she’s running round the garden, treating us to a game drive, pointing out the animals in her imaginary zoo. At nearly three, she understands the importance of sunscreen and wearing hats, and why she has to stay out of the fenced pool area unless she’s with mom and dad. She is delighted when I carry her candy-pink plastic table and chairs outside, and layout the recycled purity bottle lids and fill them with paint so she can get her fingers and paint brushes busy on our recycled office paper.
None of these things have been particularly conscious steps we’ve taken in her upbringing, they just evolved naturally. I suppose we draw on our own personal memories of growing up as a guide for how we should be raising our children.
I was saddened to hear that as a nation we received a C- on the Healthy Active Kids Report Card for 2010.
The study showed that:
While the study focused on children of school going age, and discussed the steps being taken at government and private sector level to improve on the situation, it failed to address the most important time in a child’s life, those important formative years where impressions and habits are formed. As parents we should all be asking ourselves how we can make sure our children receive an A+ on their healthy kids’ report cards instead of a C-.
Perhaps if we all start working on this earlier, during those early formative years, it will help to improve the nation’s overall rating too.
Copyright © Lindsay Grubb 2011 – All rights reserved
YOU are what your child eats…
By Sholain Govender-Bateman , Pretoria based journalism lecturer who worked for The Star, Pretoria & other publications. She is mum to two gorgeous girls, Isobel and Aishwari, and wife to Barry. Follow her on Twitter @sholain
I am often confused when a parent complains about the poor eating habits of their child but doesn’t realise that the problem is usually their own eating habits.
Be honest now, how many times have you placed a plate of veggies and all things wholesome in front of your toddler for supper and then you’ve sat down with a meal that has the complete opposite amount of nutrition?
We have a profound influence on our children’s personalities and habits and even though their menus differ from ours for the large part of the first year of their lives, it is important to soon meld the kiddies and adult menu to provide a meal that will suit the tastebuds, development and health of all family members.
In our household, we managed to introduce our toddler(almost 3 years old), Isobel, to just about every food there is from sushi to salads, beetroot to braaivleis. I’m a huge fan of the ‘Baby Sense’ and ‘What to expect’ series of books so I used those as guidelines when introducing her to solids but we also realised that the only way we could really get her to eat something was if we ate it ourselves.
We let her play with her food and encouraged her to eat without stressing if she refused a meal from time to time or threw her food-tray on the floor. It was a wonderful and hugely rewarding experience as we now can sit at the dinner table with her and enjoy a meal together most evenings – being flexible to allow for the mid-meal wanderings of a toddler.
Isobel’s fond of veggies but not at all keen on raw tomatoes – and guess what… neither am I. She loves tinned tuna and pilchards but steers clear of prawns when daddy is around – could it be because dad never touches them because of his shellfish allergy? She has a penchant for raw onions and can handle spicy food – is it just a coincidence that I love onion and dad orders ‘extra hot’? I don’t think so.
It may seem obvious but sometimes we try so hard to make our kids eat the ‘right’ things with no luck and just don’t see that they are just copying us most of the time…
Many ‘lazy’ parents will simply say, “I grew up drinking Coke/ eating junk food every day/ I’ve always hated vegetables…” etc… “…and I’m still alive.” And some of these families may have excellent genes that carry no risk for heart disease, obesity, high cholesterol and the numerous other silent diseases that plague millions of people. But isn’t a change in your attitude to food worth it if it’s going to help you mould your child into a healthy eater and an overall happy being?
