By Clean Plate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Grate the vegetables on the thin side of the grater, place them in a microwave-safe bowl, cover with water and microwave for 3 mins. Allow to cool slightly and strain the water out. Squeeze the grated vege mixture to remove as much moisture as possible.
3. Mix grated vege with the cheese and eggs.
4. Slowly mix in the flour. If your mixture is sticky, add more flour as needed, until reaching a good consistency for rolling. 
5. Flour your surface and the rolling pin and roll out quite thin (about 3-4 mm thick).  Cut out the stars and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
6. Bake for about 10 mins or until crackers are golden and crisp.

By Clean Plate

This is a great summer dish using seasonal veggies. The children can easily participate in the preparation of each element which will, of course, encourage them to try to final product!  This will serve 12 preschool aged children.
For this recipe you will need:

Guacamole:

• 2 medium avocados
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 small lime
• pinch of salt (optional)

Tortilla crisps:

• 6 mini tortillas, each cut into 6 triangles
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• canola oil spray

Have the children chop up the avocados into small chunks.

Remove the seeds from the tomato and chop into small pieces as well.  The children might require some help with this step. 

Place the diced avocado and tomato into a bowl and squeeze in the lime juice.

Mash away!  The children will enjoy this step and will be able to see the diced veggies turn into a spreadable dip.  Add the pinch of salt, if using it, stir and serve with the tortilla crisps and vegetable sticks. 

​Our Toddlers' Frittata is a
​sure hit with the kids and packed-full of vegetables. 

Perfect to serve for lunch at the Centre during the warmer months and very versatile, as you can add a different combination of vegetables every time. Just go with what you have available in the veggie garden, fridge or freezer. Good substitutes include asparagus, capsicum, baby spinach, frozen corn, steamed carrot cubes and roasted pumpkin or kumara. You could also replace the edam cheese with grated mozzarella or feta cheese, and the herbs for what's available at the time.

Toddlers' Frittata
Serves 12 preschoolers
​
Vegetables:
2 medium potatoes, diced in small cubes and roasted with 1tsp fresh thyme (optional)
 and 1 tsp olive oil in a preheated oven (200°C) for 15 to 20 mins – let it cool
2 full cups broccoli florets, parboiled or steamed, finely chopped and cooled
1 cup frozen peas, microwaved until cooked (about 1 ½ mins)
½ punnet cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
 
Remaining ingredients:
 
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp paprika
1 cup edam cheese, grated
6 eggs
2 cups reduced- fat milk
1 tsp salt
1 cup self-raising flour
Canola oil spray

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
2. Prepare all the vegetables as instructed above.
3. Lightly spray a non-stick baking tray or dish with the canola oil (we used a 40 x 29 cm tray).

   4.  In a bowl, mix the roasted potatoes, chopped broccoli, cooked peas, grated cheese, oregano and paprika. Scatter this mixture into the baking dish. Arrange the cherry tomato halves on top of the mixture.

    5. In the same bowl, lightly beat the eggs, milk and salt together.
    6. Place the self-raising flour in a large mixing bowl and gradually whisk in the egg mix until there are no lumps.
    7. Pour this mixture over the vegetables on the baking tray.
    8. Bake on 200° C for 20 – 25 mins or until lightly browned and set.
    9. Let it cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes, cut into slices and serve.

Strawberry and Cream Cheese Muffins

Fresh Fruit Salad is a fantastic way to combine different coloured fruits to ensure we get a mix of nutrients. It’s also very popular with children, making it an excellent choice for morning or afternoon tea at the centre. Try different combinations of fruit by checking what’s in season. I do like to keep oranges in the mix, as they stop the other fruits such as apples and bananas from going brown. Here we combined our Fresh Fruit Salad with a delicious and naturally flavoured Strawberry and Vanilla Yoghurt. You can easily make flavoured yoghurts as well, and serve it as a healthier alternative to the high in sugar, commercially flavoured variety.

Serves 10 pre-schoolers
For the Fruit Salad:

1 banana, peeled
1 orange, peeled
1 apple, washed
1 green kiwifruit, peeled
1 gold kiwifruit, peeled
¼ tsp cinnamon

1. Dice all the fruit into small cubes.
2. Place all the fruit in a bowl, add the cinnamon and give a stir so all fruit is mixed well and coated with the spice.
3. The fruit salad is ready to serve, or it can be covered and placed in the fridge for a few hours.

This is one of the questions we get asked the most by teachers, cooks and parents, and the short answer to this is an emphatic “NO!” This is because, even though fruits do contain the natural sugar fructose, they are also really good for us, children and adults. Fruits offer several benefits to our health and provide us with vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fibre and essential nutrients which all play an important role in our body, and therefore should be included in our daily diet.

Other benefits connected to eating fresh fruits include:

• strengthening our immune system and helping us fight infections;
  
• maintaining a healthy digestive system;  
  
• helping to maintain a healthy weight, as they are low in calories;
  
• providing a nutritious and affordable addition to meals;
  
• reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, lowering cholesterol and certain cancers.
  

Dried fruits should not be included in our daily servings of fruit and should be treated as ‘sometimes’ foods, as these are high in sugar and offer less nutritional value. Dried fruits have also been linked to tooth decay in young children as they can easily stick to teeth and are hard to remove. In the centre and at home, we should limit how often we serve dried fruits (a few times a week is fine) and offer it in smaller amounts.
Commercial fruit juices found in shops are very high in sugar and often have added flavourings, so should be avoided. Natural fruit juice, as opposed to eating the whole fruit, has had all the fibre and pulp removed through the juicing process. A smoothie, for example, where the whole fruit is blended and no fibre is lost, is a much better choice.

While making our herbed yogurt dip the children became interested in the herbs we had growing in the garden.  They asked if they could pick some so we went together and found a few; rosemary, parsley, oregano and a tiny bit of dill.  Once the herbs were harvested it was time to cook!!

There go those scissor skills again!  This play is not only engaging and wonderfully aromatic, it's a great way to get the children thinking about the garden, growing and cooking food, methods of preparing food and various other healthy eating topics. 

This girl decided to make a soup, so she added water and put her pot onto the stove.  Later she put on the lid to let it simmer for a while.  It looked and smelled delicious and allowed the children to practice a few new cooking skills!