Family Movie Nights & Vege Spaghetti and Meatballs

I love a family tradition.
There is something so wonderful and warm and loving about them.

We don't have all that many of them in our family so my girls and I started a few of our own and one of our absolute favourites in our Family Movie Nights

Every Friday night our little group of 3 get excited about our Friday night. We plan it all week.
We pick our movie, and a lot of thought goes into this. Sometimes it a beloved classic aka Disney, sometimes it's a family fave, sometimes its a recent release and sometimes it is blast from the past!
(these are the most fun for me - recently we watched The Aviator!!)

I always make a big batch of organic homemade popcorn seasoned with pink himilayan salt and a tiny dash of olive oil, usually something like Pink Lemonade or my kids favourite Coconut Water, coconutty water as my youngest calls it! (and mummy might have a nice wine - especially if it is say a Barbie movie!)

And my favourite part is the fun dinner we put together, to go with the movie we usually have our own version of a popular takeaway so it could be pizza's, fish and chips, nuggets and dipping sauces, kebab's, burgers, noodle boxes, sausage rolls, party pies, hot dogs or something that goes with the movie!

One of our latest was spaghetti and vege meatballs while watching, yep, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs! It was such a hit with the kids! I have since made it several times and the 'meatballs' themselves, also make stunning hors d'oeuvre's - make them much smaller with extra chili and serve on toothpicks YUM!

  Vege Spaghetti and Meatballs

Ingredients

• 1 cup breadcrumbs (I made my own with spelt, sour dough bread but you could make your own with any nice bread, I would just recommend not white bread)
• 1/2 cup Quinoa crumbs (most supermarkets have these now - or you could check your local health food store)
• 3 free range eggs
• 1 can sanitarium nutmeat - see NOTES for my alternative to make your own
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan (please not the icky stuff in the tin)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1 cup baby spinach
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
• extra basil leaves
• 4 cloves Australian garlic (you could also use Gourmet Garden)
• 1/2 fresh red chili, fineli chopped - optional (You could also use Gourmet Garden)
• 1 small onion

Method

• Fry the onion in a frying pan until lightly transparent, add in the garlic, chili and thyme, stir together 2-3 minutes.
• Remove from heat.
• Finely chop the baby spinach leaves.
• In a large bowl roughly mash up the nutmeat until pliable, add in the breadcrumbs, eggs, quinoa crumbs, spinach, walnuts and onion mix, mix well together. 
• Roughly tear up the basil ( I love doing this the smell is always so gorgeous!)
• Mix the basil and Parmesan through the mix.
• With your hands (yes I love my hand on cooking) roll mixture into balls until you have done all of it.
• Lightly fry a few of these at a time over a medium heat in a little olive oil or oil of choice..
• Remove from heat and drain on paper towel.
• Make your favourite tomato pasta sauce here is one of my really hearty ones you can make well ahead or you can make a lovely simple one by frying some onion and garlic, add in a tin of tomatoes,some fresh basil leaves, a little thyme and chili and some passata sauce.
• Cook your spaghetti noodles of choice (we are really loving CT Fine Foods Pasta at the moment)
• When your noodles are almost cooked add the meatballs into your still warm cooked tomato pasta sauce for a few minutes so they become plump, warm and delicious.
• Serve bowls of spaghetti, topped with tomato pasta sauce and delicious vege meatballs.
• You can serve topped with some fresh basil leaves and a sprinkling of fresh Parmesan.

Notes

• These vege meat balls make incredible hors d'oeuvre's, make them nice and small, with an extra hit of chili and serve warm or cold on toothpicks with a great dipping sauce.
• For an alternative version:
  1 & 1/2 cups breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup quinoa crumbs,1 cup peanuts, 1/2 cup cashews, 1/4 cup macadamias, 1/4 cup walnuts, 1 cup spinach, 1/2 cup basil, 1 onion, 4 cloves garlic, 3 free range eggs, 2 teaspoon thyme, 2 tablespoons Parmesan,
  Bash the nuts in a morter and pestal until mostly crumby. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and follow directions above. 

Toddler Tips

• This is great for toddlers who love the tomato pasta sauce and spaghetti noodles.
• Make some of the meatballs nice and toddler bite sized.

(c)RebeccaMugridge2013

Nature Day - Getting Unplugged

One of the highlights of every week for me is our
Nature Day
Every weekend the girls and I make a point of escaping into nature, and recharging. This could be a walk in a forest, swimming in a waterfall, a river or the ocean. Exploring a national park, a mountain, a rock formation, a cave or a botanical gardens. Somewhere in nature.

It is an unplugged outing, without interruption of computers and mobile phones.

We just blissfully enjoy being together, 3 generations of girls, Grandma, mum and the two girls and somewhere where nature is your focus and you feel free to just explore, laugh and be.

 

Life gets so busy, and so noisy.
And kids do have so many routines and so many places they go they have to be still or quiet or walk slowly next to mum and dad. It is so releasing for them to get out and feel the earth beneath their feet, run around, explore, learn new things about the natural world and follow their imagination.
It is so refreshing for all of us to step out into some natural wonder.
To stop and notice the great trees around where you live. The wild places that have still been left to just be, the flowers in the gardens you might drive past all the time, the creatures and wildlife that bring these special places to life.

Our families Nature Day is a joy each and every week.
Rebecca XX

Kids in the garden

There is something so wonderful about children in the garden.                                               The garden can be a neverending source of learning, joy and wonder. A place to discover amazing insects, pick and eat fruits, herbs and vegetables and marvel at all the amazing things to see, eat, feel and smell.

From veggie gardens to cacti and succulent gardens. Herb gardens to fairy gardens. Pot plant gardens on a balcony, hanging baskets of strawberries and herbs, fruit tree forests, amazing landscaping to sensory gardens. There is a garden to capture everyone's heart.

Gardens really are as unique as their creators and only limited by imagination.

Gardening teaches children the rewards of responsibility, patience, teamwork and to care about the natural world around them while showing them what an exciting and fun filled place to be the garden really is. Just like a live science lesson.

The home garden can also be a fantastic source of ingredients, saving you money on your grocery bills and providing you with the fresh ingredients that make home made meals come alive.

Having fresh produce on hand is great inspiration to try new recipes, cook more and eat more healthily.

When you look after a home garden as a family it becomes a beautiful bonding experience that creates memories that last a lifetime and gives children so much more understanding about food, where it come from and what it goes through before making it to the dinner plate.

And the very best bit of all...Children really enjoy eating fruits and vegetables that they themselves helped to grow and harvest. THEY REALLY DO!

(C) RebeccaMugridge2011

How DO you get children to eat spinach?

What is the best way to get children eating spinach and benefitial greens like silverbeet?

Make it fun-make it exciting-make it tasty!

How do we do this?

By getting children involved with real, fresh ingredients. Getting them out into the garden and enjoying the stimulating experience of growing ingredients themselves and bringing this experience together with a great tasty recipe and the experience cooking of a meal with your children.

This is one just such perfect recipe that brings the home garden, cooking with children and healthy eating for your kids all together.
It is one my family loves to make and I loved to create!

Enjoy!!

My Garden Quiche

This is a gorgeous and lovely smelling dish that is so easy to make and has the added delight of many of the ingredients being really easy and cheap to grow yourself, making it another great recipe to get children involved with as they can help ‘gather the ingredients’ with you making the dish something they will be excited to eat!

Ingredients:
• Approximately 5 good sized fresh Silverbeet leaves
• A small handful of baby English spinach leaves ( around 6-8)
• 2 stalks spring onions, chopped
• Approximately 10 good stalks fresh chives
• A sprig fresh thyme
• A sprig fresh Rosemary
• 2 stalks fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
• 1 large zucchini, finely grated preferably skin on
• 1 medium sized washed potato, finely grated
• 2 cups grated low fat cheese divided into two lots-1 x ½ cups and 1 x ½ cup
• 1 tablespoon low fat sour cream
• 2 sheets reduced fat puff pastry
• 3 cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 3 free range eggs, whisked
• Paprika
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Dried mixed herbs
• 1 teaspoon milk


Method:• Preheat oven to approximately 200` ( not fan forced )
• Grease a round baking dish, at least 4 cm deep and
• Remove pastry sheets from freezer and allow to slowly thaw
• Wash and then pat dry with a clean tea towel or paper towel the sliver beet and spinach leaves, then finely chop until they resemble green confetti
• Place this into a large mixing bowl
• Add into silverbeet the 1& ½ cups grated cheese, zucchini, potato, egg, parsley, spring onion and sour cream and mix together
• Finely chop the fresh chives into the mix with scissors, adding also the leaves of the rosemary and thyme sprigs removed from the stalks.
• Season mixture with sea salt, pepper and paprika and mix well.
• Arrange the pastry sheets into the greased baking dish in two diamond shapes cutting off the overlapping pastry and then attaching this to the least covered edges to ensure a good coverage of the entire base and sides.
• Pour mixture onto pastry base and spread out evenly, top with the remaining cheese
• Arrange in a circular pattern the finely sliced tomato on top
• Sprinkle with a small amount of paprika, teaspoon of dried mixed herbs and some pepper.
• Lightly paint any bits of pastry sticking out with the milk
• Bake in a medium oven until pastry is well cooked and the quiche mix has set.
• Serve hot with fresh ripe tomatoes and a dressed garden salad. or a selection of crunchy and colourful fingers of veggies for the kids like yellow capsicum, carrot and snow peas.

Kids in the kitchen notes:
• This is an excellent recipe to get kids enjoying eating spinach and silverbeet!
Kids of all ages from the very young will enjoy growing their own silverbeet and it is one the easiest and quickest veggies to grow-they require next to no space, grow really easily in pots and gardens and are even very forgiving of general forgetfulness and irregular watering or an insect attack!
• If the kids grow it and harvest it and help cook-they will definitely want to eat it!From the silverbeet to the chives and rosemary this is an excellent recipe that you can go out into the garden together to collect the ingredients and even better if you are fortunate enough to have your own free range chickens for eggs too. Limited in space? Many of these things will grow easily on a sunny balcony or could be a great little project for a local kindergarten, school, church or community garden.

• Kids Jobs in the recipe!
Other than the harvesting ( or sourcing from a local farmers market ) this recipe has some great steps the kids can get involved in.
Tasks:
Egg cracker! In our house my 4 year old is the resident egg cracker and has been for a couple of years ( even if we do have to remove little bits of shell from time to time)
Chives chopper. Using kid safe scissors let them chop the fresh chives straight into the mix
Silverbeet dryer. Get them patting the washed leaves dry ready for use.
Tomato decorator. Let them be the artist and arrange the tomato slices at the end.
Official Grater. Depending on the age of the kids grating can be a great task for the older children to help with.
The mixer. What child doesn’t love the job of mixing the ingredients-regardless of the recipe?
Pastry painter. Using a clean pastry brush let the kids paint the edges of the pastry so it can brown nicely.

Toddler Tips:

For small fingers and mouths try making some mini versions for your young toddler using circles of pastry lined into min muffin trays filled with the mixture and you can always reduce the amount of spring onion.

Parent Tips:
The key to an enjoyable ( and still edible ) cooking experience with kids in the kitchen I have found is to make sure you have what you need ready before starting and are distraction free so it can be fully supervised during the whole procedure.
And most important of all...to relax! Enjoy the experience of bonding with young children over healthy fresh ingredients and making food together, things can and often do go wrong when working with kids-so be flexible and patient and you will all be sure to create not only delicious healthy dishes the whole family will enjoy but great memories too!

ENJOY!!
(c)RebeccaMugridge2010

You can find heaps more great recipes like this one along with great gardening ideas and projects you can do with kids in THE PRAM DIET book.
See the links on this blog page for stockists.

Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity is something that is very close to my heart.


So I was extremely delighted when I was asked to be a guest speaker recently on the topic of childhood obesity at the "How Health Smart is our Community" Breakfast held in Bundaberg by Queensland Health with a strong focus on preventing childhood obesity as a community.

The ever growing figures on childhood obesity are simply frightening.

I know as a mother myself the sheer amount of sugary and fatty foods our young children are exposed to through all kinds of marketing and often as a result of tough financial times and us the parents leading busier and busier lives to provide for our families and meal times becoming quick and easy solutions.

I also know how deceptive it can seem at the supermarkets that unhealthy options are far cheaper and quicker to make than their healthier alternatives.
With families finding themselves on tighter and tighter budgets it can be all too easy to think you can't afford the money and time to provide healthy options.



BUT I can tell you that it really does not need to be this way!
In fact becoming more health conscious on a budget can even make your money go further in the long run and there are so many easy, fast recipes that you can whip together or make in advance so you can leave those unhealthy packet foods where they belong for the most part-left on the shelf!!



I am not by any means saying you should never eat packet or takeaway foods as a family but these foods should always be 'sometimes foods' as said by the great Elmo!



I chose to make my talk at the breakfast on inspiring ways to raise healthier kids and make healthy choices fun.
In particular my passion for involving children right from the youngest age in growing fresh fruits and vegetables. I have seen over and over again the excitement experienced by children growing food and especially at eating food they themselves watched and helped grow.



We can do this in our own backyards, patio's, verrandah's and even indoors as hydropinics. We can grow them through our school's, kindergarten's, day care centre's, community groups and churches.

Bringing the world of fresh fruits and vegetables alive to children is one of the best and easiest ways we as adults can make a huge difference in children's lives and in turn help reduce childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity is serious and is something we can all help to reduce. As someone who has dealt with weight issues for so much of her life I know first had the damage that being overweight can cause to your self esteem as a child.

Damage that carries through your teenage years and follows you into adulthood.

What can start out as a small problem-being just ‘a little’ overweight as a child can begin a lifetime of low self esteem and unhealthy habits that become so ingrained you aren’t even aware of them until it all seems too hard to ever change.
For me All the women in my family have dealt with weight issues.
My grandmother was overweight.
My mother is overweight.
I have been overweight or had other weight related issues most of my life.

When I became a mother myself and had my daughter I wanted this pattern had to stop with me.
I wanted my daughter to grow up without constant worrying about her weight. I wanted her to have the energy and drive to play sports and be energetic.
To eat healthy foods as a normal way of life and to see daily exercise as normal and even fun. I wanted her to grow up confident to join in at sports at school.
I wanted her to not be ashamed of her body and the reflection she saw in the mirror.

I adopted a healthy lifestyle with my daughter as inspiration and it became the single most amazing thing I have ever done in my life.

It changed me forever.

I lost over 30 kilo’s and found an energetic , confident version of myself that I did not know I could be.

I love to share my story most of all to let others know that you don’t have to keep waiting around for the new quickest way, a magic weight loss pill or to have enough money to buy exercise equipment or join a program.
I share my story to let others know that you can make positive changes at any age and stage in your life. You can do it on a budget and most of you can and should do it when you are blessed to have children in your life.
All you really need to start down that path to a healthier, more vibrant you....IS YOU.

You just need to begin