Macaroni & Cheese with Homemade Pasta Sauce

 
Once a week Ri has Mac n Cheese for dinner with a healthy value-add, homemade pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes. Recipe ? Puree sautéed onions with boiled carrots, broccoli and tomatoes. Add salt, required spices and oregano to taste. Let it simmer and serve as a saucey side to the Mac n Cheese dinner.
Ri being the toothless wonder that she is, prefers her food slightly goopy. So I give the macaroni a quick whirr in the processor. It’s healthy, simple to make and easy-on-the-hands for Mommy and easy-on-the tongue for babies. Enjoy!

I know a girl, a girl called Party, Party Girl

So much for being organised mom.

Ri was invited for a birthday party and it was quite a long drive from where we stay. So, I decided to carry the dress she would wear for the party along with pretty pink shoes and change her closer to the birthday boy’s home. Well, I’m not a huge fan of frilly frocks or anything that would make her uncomfortable on a summer evening. However, I did not anticipate that the new party dress would not fit and she would end up wearing an everyday Carters body-suit to the part instead. Ri did look a tad under-dressed but the bodysuit was new and worked. I mean, kids look cute anywhere, anytime and pretty much, anything.

On the topic of party dresses, Carters has some very pretty ones. I love their range with the new navy floral prints.

Key Takeaways: 

#1 If you’ve selected an outfit for an outing, make sure it fits before you pack it !!
#2 Make sure you carry extra clothes when you go out.
#3 Don’t put away bigger clothes for too long. Your little shopper can outgrow it before you even have the chance to make him/her wear it once.
#4 You think you know it all, but trust me, I always surprise myself with my goof-ups.

Blog Title: Party Girl - U2

Ceebeebies : Great programming for kids

Thanks to Ri and her liking for Teletubbies, I’ve discovered what a great channel CBeebies is. What I like about Cbeebies is that most of their programs have realistic figurines and soft settings as opposed to noisy cartoons in harsh settings. The presenters are friendly, the language is great and children can really learn so much from these shows.

This morning, I learnt ( in my very very late 20’s), how a Kangaroo moves thanks to a program called Boogy Beebies. Children are encouraged to be active and move their muscles to peppy songs, usually with a theme like animals, nature or sports with the hosts guiding them from the screen. Today’s movements were focused on The Kangaroo and some of its friends, the elephant, the emu and the giraffe. I carried Ri and tried to copy all the movements and we both found ourselves laughing. What fun! Small value-adds that I appreciated on the show was the presenters reminding the children to take deep breaths after the fun work-out, stretch and relax.

I’ve also turned into a huge fan of Mr Maker who is really cool. Making his creations could be a great birthday party activity or a really good recreational
past-time for children. Ri is too young to really understand everything the channel has to offer but enjoys seeing the characters of Waybuloo, In the Night Garden and Five More Minutes on screen.

Their website is pretty comprehensive as well, each show comes with a small note to adults on what the aim of the show is and how it will benefit the child. The only downside is that all the online songs are not playable in India. Hope Ceebeebies will do something about that soon.

Otherwise, great shows, great programming and great concepts, a channel that does not make a parent feel guilty for allowing their kids to watch Television.

Vegetable and Cottage Cheese Medley

Sharing a recipe that I made for Ri and one she seemed to like. An easy to make combination of protein-rich cottage cheese/panner with tangy tomato, flavorful onion and healthy brocolli florets among other vegetables.

Ri had this for dinner and it was a meal by itself. For older children, serve with bread or rice.

 Ingredients

Paneer or Cottage Cheese – a small piece
Tomatoes - 2
Broccoli – 2-3 florets
Carrot – a small piece
Potato – a small piece

Chopped onion – 1/2 cup

Butter – 1/2 tsp.

Salt and Spice to taste

 
Method

Boil the tomatoes, potato, carrot and brocolli florets. De-skin the tomato and potato and set aside. In a skillet, saute the chopped onions in some butter. In a food processor, grind, chopped onions and the other boiled vegetables till it becomes a chunky paste. In the same skillet, let the chunky paste simmer for 4-5 minutes. Add to this the crumbled paneer or cottage cheese. Add salt and required Indian spice to taste.

Recommended Indian Spices: 1/2 tsp Garam Masala or 1/2 tsp Sāmbhar Masala or 1/2 Tsp Dhana Jeera powder. Select spice and quantity based on your child’s taste. The cup shown in above picture, has only 1 serving but the goodness of 2 whole ripe tomatoes. I would recommend cooking the vegetable instead of store-bought tomato sauce or paste.



Dinner is Ready!