I love getting my children involved when it comes to making tea. They always sit around the dinner table grinning from ear to ear, proud of what they have accomplished.
Here is a healthy Turkey burger recipe that is simple, quick, and fun for children to make.
To make 6 burgers you will need: 500g lean turkey mince 1 onion finely chopped 1 tsp soy sauce 1 tsp mixed herbs 1 egg beaten season to taste with salt and pepper
Mix all the ingredients together and divide and mould into 6 burger shapes.
Grill on a medium heat for 6-7 minutes on each side.
Once upon a time in the Celtic lands the nights became longer, colder and the leaves began to fall. The harvest season was ending and the winter was creeping in. The beginning of the dark season meant the door to the Otherworld would be open allowing fairies and the souls of the dead and other spooky beings to pass into our world.
The people lit huge bonfires and celebrated the dead with a huge festival called Samhain. They had huge feasts and beckoned the souls of their dead relatives to celebrate with them.
Today we celebrate this time of year with Halloween but all the things we like to do on Halloween today all evolved from the Samhain festival that happened lots and lots of years ago.
Carving Jack O Lanterns
During Samhain the people were frightened of the nasty evil spirits and fairies that passed through the door from the otherside. They did lots of things to protect themselves.
They made lanterns and carved scary faces into turnips and placed them in their windows to protect their homes.
Years later some of the people traveled by boat to North America (which was far far away) and passed the tradition of carving lanterns to the Americans. Turnips were really hard to find in the new lands so Pumpkins were used instead. They found that pumpkins were a lot easier to carve and made better lanterns.
We had a go at carving a turnip. It was really tricky.
Trick or treating
During Samhain the people left food and drink out as a peace offering to the spirits, fairies, and creatures from the otherside to try stop them from becoming angry. Over the centuries people started getting dressed up like the dreadful creatures and performing in exchange for food and drink. People started making Soul cakes which were used as a offering for the dead and were given to children and poor people who went door to door singing songs and saying a prayer for the dead. When a soul cake was eaten it represented a soul of the dead being freed.
We had a go at making our own soul cakes and sang a song that was traditionally sang in exchange for them.
We had Mediterranean Lamb for tea last night. Its one of my children's favourite meals and it is also super healthy.
Serves 4
Ingredients
700g lean lamb fillet chopped into bite size pieces
2 red onions, peeled and cut into wedges
1 courgette thickly sliced
mushrooms thickly sliced
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano
salt and ground black pepper
Hedgehog potatoes
12-16 small potatoes
rosemary (or herb of choice to flavour potatoes)
sea salt and ground black pepper
Low Calorie cooking spray
Preheat Oven to 200
°C
Place all the ingredients in a ovenproof dish and stir to jumble everything up
Add 200ml of water. Cover and place in oven
Reduce oven temperature to 160 and cook for 1 hour.
Check half way through. If there is a lot of liquid cook uncovered for the last 30 mins
Potatoes
Place a potato in the bowl of a teaspoon and slice down approx 3mm intervals, slicing down until you get to the spoon. This should slice nearly all the way through so that the potato is still whole (together)
Spray potato with low calorie cooking spray and season with salt and pepper
Poke rosemary into the slices or season with herb of choice.
Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until soft and golden.
My children love The Gigantic Turnip. It is one of their favourite story books. I used this book as inspiration for last nights meal. It is very important to me to teach my children about healthy eating but I try do it in a subtle way. My children watch and help me cook. Its part of everyday discussions and I try to include it in some of our activities.
I read the story then asked my children to find a turnip in the fridge. They were very disappointed that it was very tiny unlike the gigantic turnip in the story.
'We can call ours the tiny turnip' - Macey
I don't like to just tell them fruit and vegetables are good for you I like to give them a reason why so I usually pick one item from our meals and give them one example of why its good for them. In tonights meal I told them the tiny turnip has lots of fibre to help our tummies digestive system run smoothly.
On a fine March morning, the old woman sat up in bed, sniffed the sweet spring air and said,
'It's time to sow the vegetables!' So the old man and the old woman went into the garden.
They sowed peas and carrots and potatoes and beans. Last of all they sowed turnips.
We used the same vegetables that the old man and woman sowed in our recipe. We added peas and carrots with some mince turkey, parsnips, and vegetable stock and plopped some mini dumplings on top. We made turnip and potato mash and served with green beans.
