As the smalls are getting, well, less small, dinnertimes appear to be getting more and more complicated. As their teeny taste buds evolve they appear to dislike more, and more, and more, and more things.
*Weeps*.
Like many working families we have also fallen foul of the “Let’s just give them a ready meal, ping it for two minutes and we know that they will eat it” regime. Easy? Yes. Quick? Yes. Convenient? Yes. Nutritious? Ermmmm…not really.
The other MAJOR detrimental impact of this is, their teeny tastebuds having become accustomed to the processed stuff, they no longer like the taste of ‘real’ food.
Having become aware of our lapse into this routine Mr B and I made a recent pact to change things out completely. No more ready meals. No more store-bought sausage rolls. Now we are back to just good old home-cooked food.
And what better way to get them enthusiastic about eating said food but to let them help to cook it.
We have been doing this for a little while now and seen a gradual, but definite, improvement in their eating, so when Bright Horizons challenged us to make a family recipe from their new recipe book together we decided to give it a go.
There were some really nice looking recipes to choose from including:
- Chicken Paella
- Fresh Fruit Smoothies
- Squash Risotto
- Seaside Carbonara
- Bean Burgers
…and many more.
We had a flick through with the smalls and eventually they opted for a Thai Chicken Curry.
The ingredients were pretty basic, method and instructions simple, and the kids loved getting involved with the prep and the cooking.
Even better, they actually ate it…(although they did pick out most of the veg!)
If you fancy giving it a whirl yourself I can definitely recommend it and the recipe is below.
- 300g Butternut squash
- 200g Mangetout
- 530g Chicken breast
- 15ml Vegetable oil
- 5ml Thai green curry paste
- 200ml Coconut milk
- 10g Coriander
- 1 Lime
- 350g Long grain rice
- Peel and was the veg and fresh coriander before zesting half the lime.
- Slice the chicken into small pieces about 1cm thick.
- Fry the paste in a shallow pan and add the chicken. Stir until chicken is cooked and evenly coated in paste.
- Chop the veg and add to the pan, stirring for 2 minutes.
- Add the lime zest and coconut milk before simmering for 10-15 minutes until sauce starts to thicken.
- Meanwhile cook the rice in boiling water.
- Finely chop the coriander and squeeze the juice of one lime into the curry and mix.
- Drain the rice and serve the curry mix on top.
This post is brought to you in association with Bright Horizons nursery in Teddington.
That sounds really good, and lots of veg in it too which is always a bonus! I am very lucky in that my older two will eat most things (especially if they have helped make it!) but time will tell with the baby, he would happily only eat bananas if we let him! 😀
LOL, I remember the banana phase all too well! Mostly because I hate the smell. Are you homeward bound soon?
Oh I love a good Thai Green curry but we haven’t actually made one in ages. We’ll definitely give this a try. I even have a butternut squash in 🙂
This is such a quick and simple one. Amy could definitely make most of it herself!
Ohh yes, I want to do this receipe, it sounds so good. Mich x