They call it the “Arsenic Hour.” Who “They” are and why they call it Arsenic, I don’t know. According to the dictionary, Arsenic is a grayish-white element having a metallic lustre, vaporizing when heated, and forming poisonous compounds. We’re just talking about the time just before dinner where the kids are hungry. Mum and Dad are stressed and busy, and the kids either want to be right under the busiest feet or crying.

In our house, with a 2 ½ year old and a 1 year old, we’ve discovered a trick that can ease this pressure and I want to share it with you. It’s not television, nor sugary snacks, not locking them up the other end of the house, yelling or threatening time out. It’s not pleading with them to stop crying, sending them outside and locking the door or bathing them early even though all of these weapons have been considered, and used with varying degrees of effect by many of us in the past. ... read more >>

Meals should provide a variety of foods from each food group so when making lunch for your toddler think something starchy (to provide energy), something with protein (to keep them full) and something vege/fruity (to provide essential vitamins).

Sandwich Ideas: Is your toddler getting bored with marmite and cheese?

Use 2 slices of whole grain bread, a pita pocket or tortilla wrap and choose a tasty filling:

• Grated carrot + crushed pineapple


• Cottage cheese + chopped nuts + pinch curry powder + sprouts


• Grated carrot + crunchy low salt peanut butter


• Creamed corn + chopped celery


• Mashed egg + unsweetened natural yoghurt


• Lite cottage cheese + finely chopped dates


• Mashed banana + squeeze of lemon juice


• Low salt peanut butter + honey


• Sardines + spring onions


• Smoked chicken + lite cream cheese + dried apricots
... read more >>

Over the past few weeks I have noticed how our little man started leaving bread crusts behind on his plate. At first I didn’t take much notice but after a while a realized that he does it on purpose (and not because he can’t bite it or isn’t hungry any more). It struck me as odd that he would this though since nobody in our house leaves bread crusts behind or cuts them off. Well – it took as a while to find out what was behind this new habit.

Call me a pedantic but for me there's something fundamentally wrong with not eating bread crusts (or even worse: cutting them off on purpose like some people do). It's like wasting food and the crust is a perfectly good part of the bread that can be eaten just like anything else. Especially when it's actually the healthiest part of a slice of bread (see research article here). ... read more >>

Having a snack that contains 'Tryptophan' may help your toddler to sleep. Tryptophan assists with the production of the hormones serotonin and melatonin which help us to sleep and then stay asleep. Foods containing tryptophan:

- banana
- beef
- brown rice
- chicken
- cheese
- eggs
- fish
- milk
- tuna
- turkey

Eating these foods with a high-carbohydrate food makes tryptophan even more effective. E.g. a glass of warm milk, peanut butter on wholegrain bread or a slice of cheese on wholegrain toast before bed may be the ticket! But remember not to let your toddler be too full before bed otherwise the body is busy digesting which can slow the "get to sleep" process down.

-Alissa ... read more >>

If your little champ is a fussy eater - check out the following tips:

* Establish a meal routine – start the day with breakfast and remember to have lunch and dinner with healthy snacks in-between. Try to stick to a similar time each day so your toddler begins to understand the meal routine.

* Turn off the TV and eat in a settled environment – your dining table is a good start! The TV is a distraction and your toddler is less likely to know that he is hungry as the brain is trying to process the TV watching. This is helpful to know as this also means that the brain is also unable to acknowledge that he is eating and won’t let him know when he is full, not so good for portion control later in life.

* Sit down with your toddler to eat as your toddler is more likely to eat when you are – remembering to be a role model and eat healthy foods together. ... read more >>

Meals should provide a variety of foods from each food group so when making lunch for your toddler think something starchy (to provide energy), something with protein (to keep them full) and something vege/fruity (to provide essential vitamins).

Sandwich Ideas: Is your toddler getting bored with marmite and cheese?
Use 2 slices of whole grain bread, a pita pocket or tortilla wrap and choose a tasty filling:

* Grated carrot + crushed pineapple
* Cottage cheese + chopped nuts + pinch curry powder + sprouts
* Grated carrot + crunchy low salt peanut butter
* Creamed corn + chopped celery
* Mashed egg + unsweetened natural yoghurt
* Lite cottage cheese + finely chopped dates
* Mashed banana + squeeze of lemon juice
* Low salt peanut butter + honey
* Sardines + spring onions
* Smoked chicken + lite cream cheese + dried apricots
* Salmon + low-fat mayonnaise
* Mashed banana + lite cream cheese + walnuts ... read more >>

Do your eyes start to glaze over when you hear other parents and the media start talking about diets? Well The Gluten Free Diet is perhaps one you should get a little understanding of. The reason is that most kids (and adults) eat far too much wheat and wheat products, and you will be amazed which foods contain wheat that perhaps you never thought of. A gluten overload in children can lead to one or more of the following symptoms:

For young children
• abdominal bloating and pain
• chronic diarrhoea
• vomiting
• constipation
• foul-smelling stools
• weight loss

What is Gluten anyway? ... read more >>

If have kids and you are anything like me you may often end up, somehow, with several over ripe bananas constantly in the bottom of your fridge or in the fruit bowl. My mum would always make a banana cake with these but I like to make these very simple muffins and the kids love to help. In fact this recipe from www.theworldrecipebook.com uses only one bowl and one wooden spoon in the whole process. Apart from over mixing (which my little boy particularly likes to do with vigour) you can’t really stuff them up.

The kids love to weigh the ingridients as they put them into the bowl. My kids are of the age where as we weigh the ingridients I get them to add the weights together on a piece of paper and we check the final weight against their answers. The whole process only takes 5 mins, really!

So if you find some black or over ripe bananas lying around (you can freeze bananas in a bag for a later date) Crank up the oven and you will have muffins in 1/2hr. These last for 2-3 days in a sealed container in the cupboard. The recipe makes 6 large or 12 small. ... read more >>

Often it seems mum’s seem to dominate the kitchen space in most homes and dad rules the garage. This of course is a broad generalisation and of course if you are a single dad you soon have to pick the slack in the kitchen otherwise you will be surviving on takeaway food or TV dinners.

What ever your situation is though, kids love to mess around with food in the kitchen and this is a great way to spend some quality and useful time with them. Whatever the age there are recipes to suit. We don’t really want to get the toddlers too close to a raging deep fryer used for cooking doughnuts or fish n chips, but for a teenager, its crucial they get used to the more , lets say risky forms of cooking. Toddlers can have fun with other types of food preparation though. Making Pizza is one recipe that spans all ages.

I’m a single dad of two kids 5 and 6, and pizza night generally co-insides with the end of the week and more often than not a movie rental. ... read more >>

Our 20-month old boy is always hungry. Not a huge surprise what with all the growing he has to do I guess but we were sort of running out of healthy food options that don't need preparation (for snacks between meal times). There's of course always fruit ... but some fruit represent a choking hazzard, are too hard, too soft, messy to eat or take time to prepare (especially compared to say a biscuit). So I was looking around for other healthy options and came across puffed up grains.

We started with millet puffs, then rice puffs and are now exploring other grains (you can just about get any grain in puffed up form). It's a fantastic snack - for a number of reasons:

* healthy (it's just pure grain - no sugar, no fat, no additives, some of the grains are very low in gluten, etc)
* safe (because the grains are puffed up they instantly melt in the mouth and can easily be swallowed) ... read more >>