"Eating Our 8" (or an alternative to forming the parent plate police!)

There's a thread on neighbourly at the moment with that age old issue of how to manage fusspot kids at the table without everyone going insane!  As a family, we struggled with this when our two hair-shirts were small.  Even now, aged almost-10 and 12 years old, we have our moments!

 

We got totally sick of being the "plate police" - so we started an "eating your eight" policy. 

 

 

 

Photo:  Our kids are bigger and we are no longer "writing up", but, out of curiosity while writing this post I reproduced how the kids would have done yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's what we did ...

Test Kitchen: High Protein Cookies

I decided to try out a recipe I thought looked really interesting  on Spoonful of Sugarfree and to let you all know how I got on.  The High Protein Cookies recipe looked really interesting because, if they're nice, then they could be a great before/after event or long run option. 

They looked great coming out of the oven!

Read on for my version and verdict ...

Juicy Jellies

In our search for a sweet treat that fits with our sugar free status, we've come up with Juicy Jellies: just using gelatine, juice and fresh fruit ... and they're a WINNER ...
 

• Totally healthy
• Totally easy to make
• Totally affordable
• Totally YUM!

Life Hack: Coloured Rice

Here's an ingredient we've only recently discovered:  coloured rice.  Specifically, red and black rice.  These are a really great way to boost the nutrition and flavour of a rice based meal.

Beef up your meat meals

Like many families, meal times for us involve walking the tight rope between what we know we should eat, what the kids won't fight us on and what we are conditioned to like such as meat (mainly 'cos it tastes good!).

Here I'm going to share a few of the tips we have learned to beef up our meals nutritionally and to make them more economical ... and, here's the clincher, without the kids even noticing!

Life Hack: Cooking without Sugar (Savoury)

Our family is on a one-year sugar free challenge.  This has meant we've had to create and adapt recipes for this post-sugar reality. 

It might surprise you, but sugar is used a reasonable amount in savoury cooking:  especially in curries and sometimes stews.  Many dishes involve a tablespoon or so of brown sugar at the onion-browning stage.  How do you substitute another ingredient without compromising taste?

Sugar Free Family Challenge

At the end of August 2014, at the suggestion of my husband, our family embarked on an experiment:  Could we go without sugar for a year?