Food Days – Toddler Tales day 6

Like every other kid, we have one at our home and the tantrums are no less. He needs his drumstick in sambhar, he cannot eat potato fries hot, the milk should be warm, grapes should be cut, pomegranate peeled and washed, poha with bhujia, roti plain, bhindi fried crisp. Food is a form of expression for all of us. Same stands true for our toddlers to .let’s make the most of it. Here are some recipes for toddlers to try at home.

No cooking Fruit Salad prepared by toddlers

Ingredients: 2 inch piece of banana, apple, watermelon, some honey, 2 cashew, 2 raisins

Parents steps to follow :

Wash, peel and chop all fruits and dry fruits and place in a bowl

Place all ingredients in a tray

Toddlers steps to follow:

• In a plate put the fruits and dry fruits with spoon one by one

Drizzle honey on top of it

Tadaa! Serve with a smile. Done the fruit salad is ready

No cooking Vegetable Sandwich prepared by a toddler

• Slice tomato and cucumber
• Open the cheese slice cover and place it on a tray
• Lay all the ingredients on a plate or tray

Toddlers steps to follow :

• In a plate place, the bread spread the butter
  Place tomato and cucumber alternately on buttered bread
  Sprinkle some salt and pepper
  Place a cheese slice on the sandwich
  Close the sandwich with another piece of bread.

7 Colourful and healthy paranthas for toddlers

Here is a post which covers 7 healthy colorful paranthas for kids. One for each day of the week. Give them a try and share your pictures. I will put them up on my blog with your name. Toddlers see color in food. Even a simple parantha or poori is brown parantha and poori. Use colorful ingredients in your food and interest them. Simple tomato chutney is red tomato chutney. A beetroot parantha is a red parantha.

Age-old pretend play – kitchen and food

Toddlers love to do everything like adults so let’s start with cooking. Pretend play preparing chaosti using rolling pin or belan is just the beginning. Make a chef’s hat for your little kids. Give them some cut vegetables, a bowl of water, few measuring spoons and a frying pan. You can even get some kitchen set toys, wooden vegetables, fruits, foods toys.

Rhymes and poems to sing which are related to making food fun

1. Pat a cake Pat a cake
2. Jhonny yes papa
3. One potato two potato
4. Hot cross buns
5. Aloo Katchaloo in Hindi
6. I like to eat apples and bananas
7. Do you know the muffin man

Vegetable and fruit sorting

Place all the fruits and vegetables in a basket or place in a newspaper.
Let your toddler sort the fruits and vegetables. It’s a great exercise to match and sort shapes, color and objects.  Touching and tasting fruits as a whole enables them to register the shape, texture, sweetness, sourness and freshness. Knowing our food helps us build a connection with it and get the most nutrients out of it.

Create a grocery shopping list

This may sound insane but very effective to teach food grains, fruits and vegetables to kids. And also it gives the opportunity to teach them how monthly menu, budget and meal portions work.
Even today in our ancestral house our grandparents prepare shopping lists for every month. There is a monthly meal plan for the house and they only go shopping once a month. Milk, fresh supplies every day but the majority of shopping is done mostly in the first week of the month. How cool and forward-thinking they are! Social distancing seems like a piece of cake.