I want to apologize for the late post of the last two week lessons I had with Maya Adam's Child Nutrition and Cooking, an online course offered by Coursera. Anyways, here are the topics discussed.
Backyard Gardens
I love to have a vegetable garden. For 7 years here in Cebu, we were just renting our place and coincidentally second floors best suit us. With this, having a garden was not considered until Maya stressed out that even a small space is already enough to have a vegetable garden. Hhhmmn… I will try to keep that in my mind, Maya! She adds that the joy of letting children pick and eat what they grow is so worth it :D and this hits me, real hard. So I'm trying my best to have one and let my kids experience that feeling of euphoria...(so hoping soon).
Soups
Preferably vegetable soup! Vegetable soup's main ingredient are vegetables :D. The more variety of vegetables in it, the better. Kids are attracted to colorful dish. A small amount of meat or chicken is enough to add flavor in a vegetable soup.
Fish
A good source of omega-3 fatty acids which to everyone's knowledge is beneficial for the heart and brain development. Though moderation of fish is encourage due to concern on mercury absorption especially on larger fish. Having a variety of fish is also encourage. When cooking fish, cook it at high temperature at a shorter time.
Steamed Vegetables
When you can't roast it, you can steam it. I just recently know that putting a small amount of water in the pot is the best method in order to maximize the nutrient of the vegetables.
Stew
Stew, like soup, is another example of a balanced dish where the carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals are incorporated in it but unlike soup, stew is much thicker and takes time to cook over low heat from stove or low temp from oven.
Salads
Use cucumber as the first step in introducing salads to children and instead of having a bottled dressing, its best to make your own salad dressing at home. Children are the best imitators, if they see adults eating salads, they will likely want to have it.
For the Week 4 assignment, we we're task to create a balance dish and below is what I submitted:
Tadah!!! its the family's all time favorite dish -- Red Spaghetti
(Just don't mind the mess...please!!!)
This wraps up Child Nutrition and Cooking course by Maya Adam.
Try to visit Coursera or her videos. Her sharing this to us is a very big help as a first step in exploring cooking as well as stopping obesity problem to young children of this generation.
You can view Maya's lectures here.
Details on how to join can be viewed here :D
