Give 'em real food

Guest blogger Heidi Shamsuddin is a mum of three and founder of Gourmet Goo Baby Food and Dish Deli Cafe (http://www.blogger.com/www.dish.com.my) which serves up wholesome food for the whole family. (http://dishdeli.blogspot.com/)

To be honest, getting my kids to eat healthy food has never been a problem for me simply because I’ve always cooked for my kids and they’re used to eating natural, real, non-processed food. Ok, maybe veggies are a challenge and salad? Just forget about it. According to my daughter Layla, “I’m not a rabbit and I refuse to eat leaves thank you!” (Such sarcasm in one so young….).

What my kids do love to eat is what I call REAL food; meals which are homemade using ingredients in their true-est form (if there is such a word). So today I decided to make my Lemon Roast Chicken – a family favourite. I prefer to bake things as it’s so much healthier (not to mention cleaner) than frying. All to often people take the easy route and fry food for the kids and the effect is that the kids get addicted and used to the taste of fried foods. You could add extra flavours by marinating or even use breadcrumbs to coat the chicken so that you still get that crispy, crunchy texture.

I kind of accidentally stumbled on this recipe when I went through a lemon phase and bought too many lemons. Johan and Layla love to spoon the gravy from the roast chicken over their rice until it threatens to turn into a soupy concoction and my hubby enjoys it too. In fact, the adults usually add a little chopped birds’ eye chilli for that extra kick! Baby Haris who is not even 2 yet also loves this dish although for some strange reason today he refuses to eat it from his own plate and only wants it from my hubby’s plate!

Another thing about getting kids to eat real food is that the whole family must absolutely eat together at the table at least for 1 meal a day. And don’t bother with different meals for the kids and for the adults – who has the time to make 2 different meals eh? When the kids see us enjoying the same food as them, they are more likely to eat it and to try new things.

So here’s the recipe for my Easy Peasy Lemon Roast Chicken. Feeds 2 adults, 2 hungry kids and 1 baby.

1 Whole Medium Sized Chicken – washed and dried

Garlic- 6 cloves unpeeled and left whole

Lemon zest from 1 lemon

Lemon – 1 cut in half Salt and pepper - 1 teaspoon

Dried Thyme – 1 teaspoon (optional)

Yellow onion – Cut up in rings

Potatoes – 2 medium size, quartered

Carrots – 2 medium size, chopped in chunks

For the Gravy:

Water – 1- 2 cups

Flour – 1 tablespoon

Salt and pepper – to taste

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Rub the chicken (inside and out) with salt, pepper, lemon zest and dried thyme. Cut the lemon in half and rub the lemon all over the chicken. Put the lemon and 3 cloves of garlic inside the chicken. Actually you can use as many garlic cloves as you like – because it’s roasted whole in it’s skin, the garlic cooks down into a beautifully mellow flavour. I can easily eat a mountain of roasted garlic just like that but a word of warning, it is not the most sociable thing to do…

Rub some olive oil all over the chicken and place on a bed of onions in a roasting tray. Season the chopped up potato, carrots and remaining garlic with a bit of salt pepper and olive oil and place around the chicken in the tray.

Put the tray in a preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes at 200 C. After 10 minutes, turn the temperature down to 180 C and bake for a further 45 minutes until the chicken is golden brown. There is no need to turn the chicken.

Once cooked, place the chicken on a chopping board and cover with some aluminium foil to rest the bird. This is important because it makes the meat moist. Place the potatoes, carrots and garlic in a serving dish.

To make the gravy place the roasting tin (with the cooked onions) directly on your cooker hob on medium fire and add some water. Use a whisk to scrape up all the juicy chicken-ny bits and add the flour to thicken. Taste for seasoning. I like a smooth gravy so I usually strain the gravy but you can leave as it is if you want. Cut the chicken and serve with the vegetables and gravy with some nice bread or hot fluffy rice.

Unplugged, unwired, disconnect

I’m not so Amish that I have never used the TV, laptop or phone to entertain E – especially in a time crunch emergency. Let’s be honest: a lot can be done during the half hour that Manny mends something.

But I’m not comfortable with how essential these gadgets and gizmos have become on kids’ play list. So I’m always looking for ways to occupy E with toys that don’t require a plug point or batteries. Blocks, Play Doh, finger painting, colouring, drawing, reading, running around, playing in his plastic pool, chasing birds, picking up leaves...honestly, I’m running out of ideas and Manny is still winning by a mile!

My latest discovery is a plastic version of a Japanese fishing game. The original net is actually made with paper that will disintegrate in the water so kids race against time to scoop out as many live fish as possible.( I know this because they did this once on Amazing Race Asia. It’s ok; my mom is fine with me watching TV.)

I found this in Daiso, and E and I spent the better half of Saturday morning fishing, creating mini whirlpools in the basin and getting wet. For some educational value, I tried to get him to fish by colours, shapes and numbers, but mostly, we just fished for fun.

He managed a half hour on the game and probably could have gone on longer if I didn’t pull him away because he was thoroughly soaked!

Did he learn anything? I don’t know. Is there any use in knowing how to fish floating plastic bits? But I’d like to think manipulating the net helped develop his motor skills and because there was so much risk of mayhem, I was forced to stay put and play with him instead of checking Facebook or reading the papers.

Tomorrow he’ll probably be asking for ‘Hot Dog!’ (that’s code for Mickey Mouse) but today, it’s 1 for me, 0 for the wired world.

It’s the big 2!

Where did the time go? It seemed like it wasn’t too long ago that I was desperately trying to pacify a wailing baby who had cried for 3 hours non-stop.

And now, look at him! He loves running around aimlessly with mad exuberance, chatters non-stop (albeit in baby language still), knows the alphabets and numbers 1 to 10, and is a super bossy little fellow.

I went into party planning frenzy for his first birthday. 3D cake, cupcakes, party packs, booked up a restaurant, the works! And afterwards, I wondered why I invited so many people, many of whom made the invite list only because they had kids – not because we were even that close! And why all the fuss? E didn’t even know what was going on.

This year, more practical heads will prevail. Forget the sugar-loaded 3D cake that nearly gave me diabetes. Forget a restaurant-based party with proper food; he can only sit still for an hour anyway and I’m still rather strict about his diet. And forget the guest list! He only has 5 friends, 4 of whom are at the babysitter’s – and 1 always bites him (maybe she’s not his friend, hmm....).

But there will still be some fanfare, just at a much smaller scale. We’ll bring cupcakes to the babysitter’s house, let the kids run around in the garden like mad elves for a bit, split the goodies (and let their parents deal with the sugar high later that night) and go home. For a 2-year old, I think that’s equal to the party of the year.

Here, have a look at my ‘mood board’. Well, yeah, I couldn’t resist some level of frenzy.

Choi! Don’t say that

There is a universal rule that you must never draw attention to something good ‘lest you attract bad luck (or the gods or whatever). I call it the Choi rule.

Here’s how it works:
•Someone says your son is clever. Tomorrow he fails his class test.
•You get a new car and your friends coo over it. It gets scrapped in the car park that night.
•You boast you have a stomach of steel. You get the cirit birit.

You get the picture.

Last month, in a fit of enthusiasm any direct selling agent would be proud of, I start telling my mommy friends my son has not been sick for a while since taking an olive leaf extract supplement (sharing is caring mah). He promptly fell sick for the next two weeks.

Still I persist in my crowing. I’m not very smart that way. I casually mentioned to my husband that for the first time since our son was born I actually met my deadlines! Finally, I didn’t have to creep into the Ed’s room to ask for another extension! Three new assignments landed on my desk the next day.

Don't mess with the choi rule I tell you.

Things I never thought I would say

More accurately, things my Mom used to say that I never thought I would say:
1.“Because I said so”: This used to drive my sisters and I nuts! Whenever Mom was losing an argument with us, she would shut us out by laying this line. End of discussion.
2. “I’m doing this for your own good”: I always wondered why the things that were for my good often didn’t feel very good. Like tuition classes and piano lessons.
3. “Someday you will thank me”: Really? Someday I will thank you for making me spend two miserable weeks in this camp with horrible kids? B (my sister) will be grateful that you grounded her from her own prom?
4. “I know better”: Even when she didn’t, she did...if you know what I mean.
5. “Too bad”: Nobody could accuse my Mother of trying too hard to please us. She’s unapologetic in her parenting. Don’t like it? Tough. Deal with it.

Romance? Bah, humbug

The first Valentine’s I celebrated with my husband after we started dating, he took me back to the restaurant where we had our first date. It wasn’t fancy but it was a lovely Valentine’s meal. Well, anything is lovely when in the first flushes of love, isn’t it?

The second year, he cooked me a candlelight dinner complete with a heart-shaped “gourmet burger” (his words, not mine). Totally cheesy but so sweet, right? The third year, he went to the hawker centre near my house to tapau. And so began the downward slide.

At the time, with my eye on the prize – diamond engagement ring, wedding and house – I willingly went along with it. The less he spent on those blood-sucking, opportunistic establishments, the bigger and more scintillating the ring. Or so I thought.

Of course, once you lower your standards, there is no way a smart man will let you go back. And so every successive Valentine’s since have been spent without fanfare. One year we even forgot it was Valentine’s and ended up caught out in the mall with nowhere to eat because there were surprisingly enough suckers to jam up every restaurant and the carpark in One U.

This year, we’re not even going to be together! I made plans to have dinner with a group of friends, three of whom are also married with kids proving the point that marriage and kids really do kill off all any semblance of romance.

So excuse me if I’m a bit of a Scrooge about the whole celebration of love. I hope you have a real romantic one – at least someone is getting some of that Cupid action.