W E E K 2

Tips for kids

Written by our Bootcamp instructor Natalia: a happy mum of a pretty picky kindergarden-er and spent a few last years applying both her behavioural science skills as well as her mum-researcher drive to find solutions

Tagliatelle met Pesto Rosso

• Serve pasta and the sauce separately to give the kid an option on how to eat the dish.  But do serve a bit of sauce in a little bowl for them, so that they have an option to try it.
• You can add some defrosted green beans to make it more nutritious to them.
• If you know they are still learning to like pesto, but do eat vegetables in this recipe, you can add it at the very least, once the veg is cooked and you take out a portion of the veg for the kiddo.
• If they are still learning to like either zucchini or bell pepper, you can just use one of these veg, but double down on quantity.
• They will love to sprinkle some almonds onto their pasta.

Spinazie Pasta Pesto

• Serve pasta + green beans and the sauce separately to give the kid an option how to eat the dish.  But do serve a bit of sauce in a little bowl for them, so that they have an option to try it.
• The recipe makes optional toasting sunflower seeds or pine nuts for serving – do make it part of the dish. If the kid eats pasta and nuts/ seeds only (a regular occurrence in my household), the meal will nevertheless be nutritious for them.
• Parmesan is optional – again, do add it and let the kid sprinkle it themselves.

Smokey Chili

• The recipe makes rice optional – do serve it with the chilli, it may be the one thing the kid will eat.
• You can skip coffee and add a few squares of dark chocolate. Make sure you mention it to the kid and wait for the surprise on their face   
• If they are ok eating tomato sauce with beans on their own, but no spices, set aside some canned tomatoes and black beans and simmer for 5min for them, then serve with rice. 

Biryani met Wortel en Bloemkool

• If they are happy to eat cauliflower on its own, you can cook some separately on the side for them and serve with plain rice that you set aside from cooking.
• If they like peas without anything else, you can defrost some peas for them in the microwave (put it in a bowl with boiling hot water and set for 2 minutes), and serve it with pasta. You can add some butter or olive oil for more flavour and nutrition.
• Separate a portion of cashew nuts and sauté them for 5 minutes on a dry pan (make sure they do not burn), then let kid sprinkle them on their dish at the table.

Chickpea and Lemon Wrap

• Serve every part of the recipe: chickpea sauce, yoghurt, spinach, and the wraps separately and let everyone build their own wrap.
• Propose also a simple yoghurt without lemon juice, coriander or chilli powder.
• Serve walnuts separately, so that kid can eat them if they want on their own.

Kokosdahl

• Omit Sambal if that’s not something your kid would like as flavour.
• Let everyone add lime to their dish at the table.
• Serve some peaches aside at the table.
• Add a scrambled egg with peas for more kid-nutrition if you know they won’t eat the other things. You can add some defrosted peas or corn as a veg.