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Healthy Lunch Ideas for Kids
Packing different
lunches everyday requires a lot of planning and creativity and add
it to it the concerns of making the meals healthy and nutritious. It
might seem like a daunting task but we have creative solutions for
you. Here are tips to make your kid's daily lunch bag more
guilt-free for you.
1. Whole Wheat or
Multi-Grain Bread - Sandwiches are staples when it comes to lunch
bags, but stay away from the white bread. Use whole wheat or
multi-grain bread with a variety of sauces and spreads. Similarly,
use whole wheat flour for making muffins and pies for lunch boxes.
If possible, homemade bread is a wonderful option.
2. Healthy Dips -
Dips are the life of toddler and kid's lunch boxes. You can make
them healthier by replacing store-bought ketchup with homemade dips
made of fresh tomatoes and vegetables or hummus.
3. Slow Cooker -
Fresh meals are the healthiest and busy morning hours do not allow
you to slave in the kitchen for long hours. Your best friend in this
case is a slow cooker. Use your crock pot to make stews, chili,
curries etc. filled with vegetables and pasta while you concentrate
on other chores.
4. Hot Lunches in a
Thermos - Pack hot lunches that can be made in quickly in a thermos
so that they remain hot till lunch break. You can pack rice or brown
rice in the thermos and top it with baked beans in sauce, chili,
thick meaty soups, pasta sauces etc.
5. Homemade
McDonald's Meals - Kids love anything that comes out of a McDonald's
box. Give them the same dose of fun by packing homemade burgers,
pizzas and hot dogs for lunch. Buy segmented lunch boxes like Bento
boxes and separately pack the ingredients which can later be
assembled together by your child to eat. Stuff patties with finely
chopped or boiled vegetables and use whole grain bread to make these
fast foods more nutritious.
Find more than
75
lunch box ideas and quick and easy
lunch
box recipes on Dot Com Women's
Parenting
channel.
RECIPES
African Style Corn on the Cob
4 corn on the cob each cut across into 4 pieces
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon each of whole cumin and mustard seeds
50ml natural yoghurt
1lb fresh ripe tomatoes skinned and chopped or 400g tin of Italian
chopped tomatoes
110g peanuts coarsely ground
50 desiccated coconut
1 2 green chilies deseeded and finely chopped
1cm piece of fresh root ginger peeled and grated
Salt
For this you need a large deep saucepan.
Begin by heating the oil in the saucepan then add the cumin and
mustard seeds.
When the heat begins to draw out their aroma and flavor add the
sweet corn pieces turning them around in the oil so that they are
well coated.
Add the tomatoes ground peanuts chilies and ginger.
Stir everything to mix evenly then lower the heat and leave to
simmer gently for 10-15 minutes stirring a few times to make sure
that each piece of sweet corn is well coated with sauce.
Add some salt and the coconut have another good stir to mix it in
and continue to simmer for a further 5 minutes.
Finally stir in the yoghurt mix well again then serve at once.
Serves 4 people as a starter or 2 as a main course
COOKING TIPS
Freezing Raspberries
Whole Raspberries may be frozen in sugar or syrup or unsweetened.
Seedy berries are best for use in making purees or juice. Select
fully ripe, juicy berries. Sort, wash carefully in cold water, and
drain thoroughly.
Sugar pack
To 1 quart (1 1/3 pounds) berries add 3/4 cup sugar and mix
carefully to avoid crushing. Put into containers, leaving 1/2 inch
headspace. Seal, label and freeze.
Syrup pack
Put berries into containers and cover with cold 50-percent syrup (1
cup sugar to 1 cup water), leaving 1/2- inch headspace. Seal, label
and freeze.
Unsweetened pack
Put berries into containers, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Seal, label
and freeze.
Juice. For beverage use, select as for whole raspberries. For
jelly making, select as recommended in specific jelly recipe. Crush
and heat berries slightly to start the flow of juice. Strain in a
jelly bag to extract juice. Sweeten beverage juice with 1/2 to 1 cup
sugar for each quart of juice if desired. Pour into containers,
leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Seal, label and freeze.
GARDENING
Tips for Growing Roses
Roses are the crown of any garden and rosarians all around
the world unite in their care for their beloved plants. Here are
some tips for planting, growing and fertilizing rose plants in
your garden.
Planting Purchased Roses
1. Unlike buying roses from your local nursery which come in pots,
roses ordered by mail will need to be put in water immediately until
they are planted. Don't wait for more than a week before they are
planted and don't ever let their roots dry out.
2. For roses that come in pots, cut the pot away (use a utility
knife) instead of trying to loosen the soil along with the plant. It
is important that the soil remains intact.
Watering Rose Plants
3. Roses love water. The more you water them, the better they will
perform.
4. Water rose plants at soil level and not overhead. This is because
fungus may develop in wet rose leaves. Occasional overhead watering,
especially during hot weather, is good.
5. If there is shortage of water in your area, add a soil polymer to
the soil. It will reduce the water requirement from 50% to 75%. For
adding soil polymers, use a dowel to make several deep holes at the
base of the plant and spoon about 1/4 teaspoon of dry polymer into
each hole.
Fertilizing Rose Plants
6. Feed your rose plants with a well-balanced, high middle number
fertilizer once a month. Scratch half-cup of Epsom salts in the soil
at the base of the plant to helps fertilizers work better and for
canes to form at the base.
7. Roses require an optimum Soil pH of 5.8 to 6.3. This can be
achieved by limestone to acidic and gypsum to alkaline soil.
8. Wait a month before you start fertilizing newly planted rose
plants.
Preventing Diseases
9. Establish a regular spray regimen with a good biological or
chemical fungicide to prevent fungal diseases like Black spot and
powdery mildew in your roses.
10. Prune and discard infected canes and leaves regularly and avoid
wetting the leaves when watering the plants.
Visit
http://www.MyKindaLiving.com for more
Gardening Tips and
our special section on
100 Gift Ideas for Gardeners.
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