Getting your child to eat the right foods can be a real nightmare. Let’s face it, when it comes to making sure they have their vegetables in a meal, it’s hard to think creatively, and making it tasty, well that’s another challenge altogether.
PomPom Paddock is a new family-owned Aussie company that is disrupting the wellness space with simple, delicious and nutritious, plant-based gluten free products that promote health and wellbeing. They’ve shared a few tricks that will help kids enjoy the food that matters.
Have fun with food
A lot of the time, we steam some vegetables, put them on a plate and expect our kids to eat them. Not very realistic is it? It?s important to have fun with vegetables and think about ways you can present them. For example, instead of cutting carrots into sticks or circles, try peeling them into ribbons, giving them a different texture. Another favourite of ours, is replacing some pasta with ?Zoodles?, also known as Zucchini Noodles. You can do this with a spiralizer or again, with a peeler, giving it a more fettuccine type effect. You don’t need to replace all your pasta with Zoodles, even try taking a small portion to get in a few more nutrients that your children won’t even notice.
Eat the Rainbow
Kids love colour. When serving your kids food, try thinking about the colours of the rainbow to get their plates popping with colour. Instead of always using white potatoes, try changing it up. By introducing different varieties of sweet potato, such as Purple, Hannah or Japanese (white colour) and Garnet (orange colour). Sweet potatoes are a great source of fibre, vitamins and minerals, so they?ll be doing their little tummies some good with a bit of colour distraction.
Sneak some vegetables in
If you have a child who will refuse to eat anything green, try sneaking them into dishes that they won’t be able to see. For example, in a bolognese, you can add all types of vegetables that can go in unnoticed by grating or blending. Did you know you can also mask vegetables in flour? PomPom Paddock, an Australian family-owned business, based in Sydney have just introduced a Gluten Free Cauliflower Flour Mix. It is a wholesome cup for cup plain flour replacement mixed in with good quality grains like brown rice and quinoa, giving you a healthier alternative to plain flour. The Mix is neutral in taste, making it perfect for sweet or savoury recipes and it?s packed full of nutrients with 1 x 50g serve giving you 100% of your recommended daily intake for magnesium and 50% iron + calcium. Cauli Corn Fritters, Cheesy Muffins and even Brownies -here we come!
RECIPE: Carrot Cake Cookies
Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies Recipe
Makes 16-18 cookies
These Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies have the goodness of cauliflower flour, fresh carrot, sweet sultanas, and the health benefits of quinoa. Enjoy them freshly made, in your lunchbox or cold straight from the fridge! Warning: they are highly addictive!
Cookies:
- 1 cup PomPom Paddock Flour
- 1 cup quinoa flakes
- 1 cup grated carrot
- 1 egg, whisked
- ? cup sultanas
- ? cup coconut sugar
- ? cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
- 1 ? teaspoon vanilla bean extract
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ? teaspoon nutmeg
- ? teaspoon ground ginger
- ? teaspoon salt
Cookie Glaze:
- ? cup icing sugar
- 1 ? teaspoons milk of choice
Method:
- Line baking tray with baking paper and preheat oven 180C fan-forced.
- Soak sultanas in hot water for 5 minutes, drain and set aside.
- In a bowl add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and quinoa flakes. Combine well.
- In a separate bowl add the coconut oil, coconut sugar, vanilla bean, and egg. Combine well.
- Fold the flour mixture, carrot and sultanas into the egg mixture. Combine well.
- Using a small ice cream scoop or spoon, drop a scoop onto the baking tray and using a fork gently flatten. Repeat with the remaining mixture.
- Bake for 10 minutes then turn the tray around in the oven and bake a further 5 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
- In the meantime, combine the icing sugar and milk. Once cookies have cooled down, drizzle over the top. Allow setting before serving.
- Store in the fridge for up to 10 days.