Win a $25,000 Kitchen Kart for your school (& $1,000 for yourself)

Thanks to a partnership with the Nestlé Healthy Active Kids, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and Get Kids Cooking program, parents and carers have the opportunity to nominate their child’s school to win a $25,000 Kitchen Kart,  a fully equipped mobile teaching kitchen. The winning entrant will also receive a $1,000 VISA Load&Go Gift Card.

Healthy Kids is a global program which focuses on improving basic knowledge of nutrition and physical activity levels in children around the world. The global program is aimed at improving the nutritional status of school children aged 6 – 16 years old and includes both nutrition education and physical activity programs at the national level. In 2001, Nestlé Australia developed, in partnership with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), the Healthy Active Kids resource. It has the common goal of helping Australian families get active and healthy.

I believe good nutrition for your family begins in the home and it’s my aim to teach my children to make healthy choices and to teach them how to cook. It can be a minefield sometimes, reading labels and knowing what is actually healthy for you and your family. If I look at how I was raised, food in it’s most natural form is usually the best way to go.

Eating healthy food and being active are key to avoiding childhood obesity. My children are pretty active at school and partake in after school activities like dance and Scouts. 

The Healthy Active Kids website has some great information for teachers, families and kids.  They have developed a “What’s on your plate kids?” plate which shows you just how much protein, salad and vegetables and carbohydrates should be served at mealtimes. There are some wonderful resources on what to pack in your children’s lunchboxes.

How to enter

Having worked at my children’s school canteen these last 5 months, we were focused on providing ‘made from scratch’ foods and providing healthy options. I’d love to be involved in teaching children in the school how to cook and this Kitchen Kart would be such a valuable tool. If you’d like to win one for your school PLUS $1,000 for yourself, visit the website to enter. Entries close at 5pm on Friday 29 July 2016. (Entries open to Australian residents only.) Good luck!

 

Disclaimer: I was sent an information pack from the Nestlé Healthy Active Kids initiative. All thoughts and options are my own.

 

36 ways to serve vegetables you know your kids will eat

Here are 36 ways to serve vegetables you know your kids will eat. As you’re all probably aware, I’m one of two tuckshop convenors at my children’s school. Because of the new government initiative Smart Choices, we have to offer vegetables with most of the savoury dishes we create.

A bit of a hurdle because if the children are anything like mine, vegetables aren’t their most favourite food to eat. My very fussy daughter loves potato, only in chip form mind you but my son will eat most vegetables, with a little persuasion.

I’ve been searching the internet for ideas on how we can serve nutritious vegetable snacks to both the school children and my own children and I’m going to give some of these a go. Anything’s worth a try, right?

 

I recommend always offering children vegetables in their natural form but for a change, trying to add them into dishes you know your children will eat is a lot better option sometimes. Grated vegetables added to any meat or pulses are another way as is wrapping vegetables in pastry with or without meat. Some of these are darn right tasty and suitable for us grown ups too. I hope you find some inspiration.

Let me know if you have any further ideas on how to serve vegetables children will eat.

Cauliflower Tots

Individual Vegetable & Dip Cups

Sweet Potato Tots

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Chips

 

Oven Baked Mashed Potato Cakes

Sweet Potato Vegie Meatballs

Healthy Zucchini Muffins

Healthy Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Baked Broccoli Tots

 

Homemade Veggie Nuggets

4 Ingredient Carrot Stars

Baked Zucchini Fries

 

Cheesy Cauliflower Breadsticks (GF)

Secret Vegie Green Rice

Cucumber Dip Cups

 

Vegie Snails

Vegetable Bouquet

 

Vegetable Fritters

 

Ladybugs on Crackers

 

Ricotta & Spinach Fritters

Zucchini Brownies

Vegie Stuffed Pizza Twists

Carrot & Broccoli Trees

Potato Skin Sail Boats

Hungry Caterpillar

 

Capsicum Frogs

Under the Sea Rice Cake Snacks

Tulip Tomatoes

 

Cheesy Baked Kale Bites

Vegetable Swords/Lightsabers

Vehicle Vegies

Vegie Sail Boats

Vegie Tractor

Vegie Flowers

Sandwich Sushi

Grilled Rainbow Vegie Skewers

Toy Car Garage Makeover for Older Boys

Where did my baby boy go? The days of him playing with toy cars and cuddling soft toys are well and truly gone. He just turned 9 a week ago and he’s right into army men games, fighting ninjas and battling zombies. All things I don’t have an absolute clue about. Because he’s right into these battle type games, I thought I’d make over a toy car garage into something that was more suitable for him.

We’ve been through a couple of these toy car garages over the years. I never pay anymore than $2 for them from the thrift store. They might be a little worse for wear and missing a few pieces but they still work the same, allowing the kids to park cars and move them around. (Isn’t that what they do?)

He just didn’t use it for his cars so I had a bright idea. (Didn’t I tell you I’m the ‘ideas girl’? All the ideas and never enough time.) I knew he had a few military helicopters, tanks and that sort of thing and going by one of the video games he plays, there is always burnt out buildings in the jungle that they have battles in, well I think they do. After a couple coats of grey spray paint, I drew a letter ‘H’ with a ruler and traced a circle around to resemble a landing pad for a helicopter.

I had a couple of pill bottles with expired medication in so threw that out and spray painted them black and wrote ‘OIL’ with a white chalk pen. The small stones were from the garden which I glued on with craft glue.

The ‘POISON’ drum was just a small trinket I picked up from my local tip shop which I spray painted black. My skull and crossbones are looking a little dodgy but you get the drift.

Because these video games he plays always seem to be set in run down, abandoned buildings which are covered in graffiti, I decided to give drawing graffiti a go and although a little amateur, you get the message.

I surprised him with it just before his birthday and he was blown away. He absolutely loves it. I picked up some more ‘awesome’ soldiers from the local discount variety store for a few dollars and it keeps him occupied for hours.

 

He’s so into army stuff he wanted to get dressed up as a ‘bandit’ from his favourite video game, “Rage” (I think it is) for Halloween. Again, another dodgy attempt by Mum to replicate a costume. The most important thing is that he loves it. That ‘thing’ around his neck was a knee-high stocking stuffed with newspaper and wrapped with gaffer tape plus more gaffer tape around his legs. Don’t you just love the thongs? That’s Halloween in Australia for you!

It’s all about reusing what you have, making do and thinking outside the square or, in my case, trying to keep up with the kids and what they’re into.