Home Made Granola

Granola or Meusli mix can now be found at any store, with variety of flavors and styles. But there’s nothing like the taste of the home made granola mix, all natural and completely fresh. Making your basic foods at home - you know exactly what’s in it, and you know it’s good for you. Makes a great breakfast or an afternoon snack.

Lets get started:

Ingredients:
(makes about 5 cups, 1/2 kilo)

• 1/2 cup (100 gr) brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons (50 gr) butter
• 2 cups (250 gr) oatmeal (Quaker)
• 1 cup (100 gr) Hazel nut, chopped to large pieces
• 1/2 cup sliced Almonds

Instructions:

1. Heat a medium size skillet up. Pour sugar in skillet and heat up until light brown caramel is formed at the rim.
2. Add butter, Quaker Almonds and Hazel nut. Stir for about 4 minutes until butter is completely melted and ingredients are mixed together.
3. Take off the stove, cool for a little while and store in a sealed container. Can be kept for 2 weeks.
4. Serve with yogurt and / or sliced fruits.

Have a great week,

Nitzan

How to Make Your Kids Wan’na Eat Veggies

Many parents are interested in changing their family’s eating habits and make them  healthier, but aren’t sure where to begin. Many of them are parents to “fruits and veggies refusers”: ” My kid is too thin and doesn’t like eating healthy foods” - that’s one phrase you could hear more than once…

First - you should be optimistic, but you should know that the earlier you start to introduce healthy eating habits to your child - the higher the chances are in favor of success. According to research conducted lately, babies who suckle for less than 6 months, tend to be pickier with food choices later in life, while babies that suckle for more than 6 months tend to be more open minded about new foods.
Research also shows that young children are more open to new foods between the ages of 2-4, than they are at ages 4-8.

Set a Personal example
It’s very important that parents set a personal example. If parents eat junk food, processed food products and unhealthy snacks, then that’s what their kids would want to eat - there’s no surprise there…
You can almost compare the addictive substances that are found in cigarettes, with the chemicals and sugars that are found in junk food - those are tempting and addictive: if you get used to junk, you won’t enjoy simple and “real” food any more.
For example - a Japanese toddler eats sushi daily. Could you imagine?? All over the world kids eat what the grownups around them eat.

You shouldn’t give up on this subject. If a child is rejecting a certain type of food today, it doesn’t mean he won’t like it later on. The problem lies with the parents, who stop offering that food to the child. According to researches, some times you have to present and offer the new food 5-10 times before the child would even consider trying it.

It shouldn’t all be whole wheat flour
Even though it’s true you should acostume your child to whole wheat foods, between the ages 3-5 the need for nutritional fibers is much less critical (only 15 gr a day), and the child can get those by having fruits and vegetables. What’s important is to lower the exposure to chemicals as much possible. Pesticides and food coloring, and excess fats and sugars could cause allergies and ADHD at children (especially between ages 0-2).

12 tricky healthy tips:

1. The child won’t get near fruits at all? Make shakes or cakes out of them (for example:  Banana shake).
2. Instead of sodas, serve natural fruity juices (add more and more water each time - more water means less sugar).
3. It’s healthier to eat a fruit than to drink fruit juices.
4. Prepare a “trail mix”: a mix of dried fruits and nuts. Take it with you when you’re going to the park or on trips. You can add healthy cereals to the mix.
5. Include the kids in the food making process. For example, let the kids chose the fruits in the supermarket while shopping, and make a fruit salad with them when you get back home.
6. Hide the vegetables: make a veggie puree, put them in your omelet, on your pizza, add them to your lasagne, make a carrot cake, grind them into a pasta sauce…
7. Kids prefer a fresh grated carrot on a boiled carrot.
8. Serve fried Chinese style veggies or vegetable sticks with yogurt dip on the side.
9. Share the experience of growing your own veggies together - you don’t even need a garden, a porch is great for this purpose.
10. Make eating time a good experience: don’t eat in front of the TV or the computer.
11. Arrange pieces of veggies creatively on the plate: a shape of a face should do the work.
12. Buy the kids some cooking books. Even though most of them contain junk food recipes, they teach various cooking methods.

Wishing you the best of luck, and a healthy dinner today!

Nitzan

Your Basic Pancake With Blueberries Recipe

It can’t get easier than that: on a Sunday morning or a quiet afternoon - make your  own home made pancake to complete the fun. This is what you need:

Ingredients

• (Makes about 12 pancakes) 
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1/3 cup milk
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cups Blueberries (or raspberries, or the 2 combined..:-)

Directions

1. In a medium size bowl scramble eggs together with flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt  and 1 tablespoon sugar. Continue mixing until all chunks are gone. Add milk while mixing.
2. If the mixture is too watery add 1 tablespoon flour and mix.
   Add fruits and mix using gentle folding motion until they’re scattered in mix.
3. Heat up medium size skillet with a bit oil.
   Pour into skillet half a ladle from mixture. Lower flame to half size and wait until bubbles are formed in middle of pancake. Turn pancake over and wait for 1 minute.
   Take out of skillet and serve while hot.

If you feel like it - add some maple syrup.

Enjoy!!

Nitzan

Spicy Refreshing Coated Walnuts

This one is very quick, very easy, and somewhat surprising. It’s a refreshing twist to your every day snack. Plus - Walnuts are high in Protein and taset great, 2 very good reasons to get started:

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 cups whole walnuts

Directions:

1. Heat oven up to 310 F (160 C). Lightly oil up a baking dish. 
2. Whip egg whites in mixer in high speed for 3 minutes until a firm foam is formed.
3. Add the Cumin and Parmesan, add some salt and pepper (If you like it, add 1 teaspoon of Paprika and it will upgrade the taset). Mix well together and add walnuts. Mix again.
4. Scatter walnuts on baking dish and bake for 45 minutes (Every 15 minutes mix walnuts so that the foam bakes evenly).

And that’s all. Great idea, easy to make!

Enjoy,

Nitzan

A Great Potato and Sweat Potato Bake

This recipe is so easy to make - you’d be surprised how good it tastes! When surprised by guests for dinner or just when feeling like having a nice warm dish - this one’s a winner. The combination between potatoes and sweet potatoes, plus the the crusting over with the cream make this dish a great side dish, which can be excellent as a main dish as well. All you need is:

Ingredients:

• 4 potatoes
• 3 sweet potatoes
• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

1. Heat oven up to 400 F (200 C). Using 1 tablespoon of butter, butter up a medium size heat proof baking dish.
2. Peel potatoes and sweet potatoes up and slice to very thin circles (about 1 mm thick).
3. In a medium size pot, heat whipping cream with nutmeg until it boils. Add some salt and ground pepper.
4. Place potato and sweet potato slices on baking dish. It should be arranged like roofing tiles, half a slice on top of the next one. Pour hot cream on top and bake for 40-45 minutes.
5. When the slices are soft - the dish is ready.

Bon Appetit!

Nitzan