JulieBhosaleAchive

Lasagna is family comfort food at its finest! A great way to get vegetables in a larger amount is with a vegetarian dish - as you are 'encouraged' to use more vegetables then normal in replacement for meat. This vegetarian lasagna is a favourite in our house, nice and soft for little mouths with enticing bubbling cheese on top!   Ingredients: 500 grams pumpkin 1 and 1/2 cups of spinach (fresh or frozen) 2 x 400g tins of tomatoes 200g of cottage cheese 200g of ricotta cheese 1 Tb Italian or mixed herbs 4 large pasta sheets Edan cheese (approx 1 cup grated) 1 Tb Olive oil   Just a Note - check what size lasagna dish you have at home and also how you like this layered (see directions). You may like to buy an extra tin of tomatoes and more ricotta and cottage cheese to make more layers. Gluten-Free Option  - You can either use gluten-free pasta or use eggplant in place of the pasta. Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and place a pot on the stove to bring water to the b

Vegetables are often one of those battle grounds when it comes to feeding little ones. How do I get my child to eat more vegetables?....is a question I am frequently. Vegetables in particular have a lot of different textures and tastes - and don't come with fat or sugar to sweeten the deal like a lot of other foods do - natural ones included. Animal based proteins all contain fat, fruit contains fructose, milk contains lactose...as some examples. Often as parents we expect that as our children are 'eating solids' that suddenly they will eat almost anything put in front of them! Research shows children often need to try a food up to 16 times in a variety of ways before they adapt - and with 2 monkey's myself I know how disheartening this can be - just remember good nutrition is a life long learning journey and will have it's ups and downs along the way. What I find helpful to know is just how much vegetables should your children be eating a day (you may just be surpr

Every year I see posts on healthy ideas for Easter – I am drawn to them, it is my work after all, but do you know what….sometimes we want to have our cake and eat it too…or in this case the egg/hot-cross bun/Easter chocolate goodness thing….So here are some tips and tricks so you can have an easy, healthy Easter – chocolate included.   Plan your treats – In a world where there is no shortage of Easter temptations you need to be one smarter – they will call your name, even more so if you are sleep deprived and have cranky children (are we ever not sleep deprived with cranky children...?). So plan ahead, aim to have one treat a day and that is it. The less you buy and have in the house the easier this will be for you! You will be surprised and how in control you feel when you plan for this. Timing is everything – The hard thing about Easter is that your treats often come in the morning which is the hardest time to have a treat as you have the rest of the day to battle your blood sugars

I have been wanting to create a sugar-free hot cross bun recipe for a while now. After reading 100s of recipes and also including what I love most about these Easter treats I have finally done this! I love a fluffy bun at Easter time but I just really don’t like sultanas and so many have these in them! Also dried fruit does still contain sugar from fructose – I found this amazing product called Crasins (from our local Pak ‘n’ Save) which have 50% less sugar that normal dried fruit has – total winner (plus I love cranberries). So this recipe is free of refined sugar and uses spices and dried fruit for sweetness. My disclaimer with this recipe is that it is very much a labour of love ! The process involved in proving the dough is very time consuming and takes some understanding (especially for a busy mum with children who just cannot wait for their hot cross buns) so please file this one under ‘advanced’. Also, because they don't contain the preservatives of the store brought ones th

A crockpot (aka as a slow-cooker) is honestly a mum's best friend and one of my ultimate #dinner hacks . I make a crockpot 1-2 times a week (at least!). This is a super easy curry made with basic yet nutritious ingredients and can be quickly thrown together in the morning (2 children hanging off you included).   Ingredients 1 onion Extra-virgin olive oil (about 2 tbs) 2 tbs of crushed garlic 2-3 tsp of tumeric 2-3 tsp of masala 1kg of Chicken Drumsticks 1 large kumara 3 carrots 1 tin of coconut milk 6-8 bay leaves Salt (to season) Directions: Prepare all the vegetables; finely dice the onion, peel and roughly cut the kumara and carrots. Heat a small fry pan on medium heat, add oil and when hot fry the onions gently moving with a spoon. Quickly add the crushed garlic, turmeric and masala stirring continuously with a wooden spoon to form your curry base. Take off the heat. Add the chicken and vegetables to the crockpot and pour the curry base on top, then add the coconut

Hi, I’m Gemma the Owner and Editor of The Baby View. I am a Mum of one beautiful 3 year old girl who looks like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth (but on some days I know better!) I absolutely love kids! When I left school it was my intention to become a teacher, so I started a BA at The University of Auckland. When I got to the end of my BA, I didn’t want to stop so I continued on with an MA. By the time I had completed my MA I had spent 5 years at Uni, so was sick of the poor student life! It was my intention to work for a couple of years and then come back to finish off my teaching diploma. Well, that didn’t end up happening! Instead of doing that, I got married, bought a house and joined the Corporate business world! Then I fell pregnant with my daughter. I had always said to my husband that I wanted to spend as much time at home with our children as possible, but unfortunately money does not grow on trees! I was very lucky to have an employer that allowed me to work some of my day

There can be a lot of confusion around when to start little ones on water and how to graduate them up to a proper cup. I am going to keep it as simple as possible for you this in blog while sharing the latest guidelines and research. When to start? Breast milk and infant formula are the sole sources of nutrients and fluid for an infant up to around six months of age. Once an infant has started with complementary foods, milk (breast milk and/or formula) remains the main source of fluid throughout their first year of life (Ministry of Health, 2012). Balancing fluid in and out: A balance between fluid input and output is essential for good health. Fluid is lost through urine, faeces, perspiration and breath. If too much fluid is lost, such as with diarrhoea, or not enough fluid is provided, the infant or toddler can become dehydrated. When starting solids this will mean there is a change to that balance and therefore offering water at each 'meal-time' or time your baby tries some