I attended Knox Cooks Network last Thursday. The main objective of this networking session is to allow professional early learning centre cooks to share healthy recipes and tips for making meals healthier for children. In order to ensure the long day care centres are providing children aged 0 to 5 with the essential foods they need ..... we, as a centre cook, have to submit our menus in a very detail manner to Healthy Eating Advisory Service for assessment. Having a menu assessment also assists long day care centres in working towards meeting the requirements of the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care.
Two issues that make me think twice during this meeting were :
1. Kids who are three year old and above are recommended to have low fat milk instead of full cream milk.
2. Frozen vegetables are as equally good as fresh vegetables.
Is a "very healthy meal" a "happy meal"? I am not so sure.
Anyway I still love to use "original" ingredients in my daily diet although low in fat, sugar and salt and high in fibre are the guidelines I use in my professional and home cooking.
Banana and Walnut Bread with A Twist
I used Curtis Stone's Recipe
2 cups walnuts, 1 2/3 cup self raising flour, 1 tsp soda bicarbonate, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 cup caster sugar, 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 tbs vanilla yoghurt, 3 large bananas and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
Use freshly-whipped cream to serve.
The Centre owner Tamika Hicks and the kinder four year old kids
