Cooking with a chef for picky eaters.

I am pleased to introduce to my readers, a guest blogger and a personal chef from NJ, Debbie of Debbie’s Home Cooked Meals. Debbie is working to incorporate recipes that help host families and Au Pairs  in teaching us how to create healthy menu items and are pleasing to the picky eaters. 

Hi everyone,

I love cooking and my promo is “The Little Bit of Love I Add To The Food, Makes It Taste So Good”.

Today I would like to share one of my recipe with busy families and au-pairs. Many kids are picky eaters and it is a problem to provide them with healthy and nutritious meals.

One of my most recent blogs was a recipe on how to camouflage vegetables into a tasty entrée and all the children loved the dish and mom was extremely happy that her children were eating healthier. The children had no idea the veggies were hidden within the tortillas, they liked the dish so much and got the nutrients along with the protein. Here is a recipe of

Tortilla Rolls

Ingredients 2-3 chicken breasts, Salt and pepper, Garlic powder paprika 1 1/2,  Cups shredded cheddar cheese,  1/2  of a yellow squash.http://debbiesmobilekitchen.com/category/blog

I  share my thoughts, ideas and some of the recipes from a personal chef in New Jersey. Some of the blogs post do offer information on how to incorporate certain foods into dishes and some are just helpful tips and advise.

Enjoy the recipe and stay healthy, Debbie

 

Related articles

• Kids friendly food (goaupairphiladelphia.wordpress.com)
• Survival Guide for Parents of Picky Eaters (kidsloveacupuncture.com)

Cake for Mother’s day.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing moms and especially the host moms who opened their homes and hearts for Au Pairs!

Dear host mothers, I hope you will be invited to special places, pampered and honored by your families and Au Pairs.

A “sweet” way to say thank you to your host mom is to make a cake project for Mother’s Day with host kids.

Here is a video recipe of Chocolate Zucotto cake with ice cream. It is a simple and an easy recipe and  Au Pairs may teach host children how to make this special cake for mommy.

I recommend to add fresh strawberries or any fruits and mix with ice cream, and also decorate the cake with fresh fruits. It will make this cake  healthier and taste better.

Au Pairs with kids can cook a delicious cake and desert and make Mother’s Day special. I hope all host moms will enjoy their special day.

I wish that every day be treated like Mother’s Day!

Teaching host children healthy eating skills when playing.

I’ve posted about healthy eating and forming good habits with Au Pairs help in the previous posts.

But what can you do if you have the pickiest eaters on the planet and every meal becomes a battle?

Read more on the host mom’s from Go Au Pair blog post Toddlers and Picky Eating about her kids and her helpful tips on proper response and attitudes to the picky eaters.

Au Pairs may teach host kids about food groups, nutrition, and do fun food activities to help their children eat healthy food. As a new project, an Au Pair with kids may open a restaurant in the Host family’s kitchen,  in the play room or even outside and play cafe with kids.  It’s a lot of fun and very educational for kids.

Kids will learn reading, counting, fractions, budgeting, weighing, measuring, problem-solving, sharing, fine motor skills and much more – eating  fresh healthy food. An Au Pair helps make an assortment of healthy items for play — fruits, veggies, and cheeses.

Kids and Au Pairs may take turns being the cook or the customer or may cook together with toys. Playing  together with kids  provides a natural way for the Au Pair to discuss healthy food and nutrition and teach kids healthy eating skills through play.  As a result, kids will be more likely to follow the suggestions to eat something healthy during their meals.

When kids play restaurant and cook healthy food for toys or family members, there are fewer mealtime battles and more willingness to eat healthy and to try new foods. Finally, one day host families will have fun eating healthy meal with their kids.

Related articles

• Ways to get children to eat more nutritional foods (goaupairphiladelphia.wordpress.com)
• Go Au Pair or Nanny? (goaupairphiladelphia.wordpress.com)
• How Much Should You Pay Your Nanny at Bucks County? (goaupairphiladelphia.wordpress.com)

Au Pairs cook healthy food with kids.

Talking about  healthy eating and forming good habits, mentioned in the previous post, will take time and  also a lot of effort.

Let kids cook healthy food with Au Pairs.  Au Pairs may help in teaching  host families’  kids to cook healthy food and much more. They will teach kids healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime!

As a new project,  Au Pairs may plan healthy meals together with host kids and host parents, and find new recipes.  Healthy meals prepared from scratch usually contain more nutrients and fewer calories. Au Pairs may take kids shopping for the vegetables or maybe even use veggies from a vegetable garden.

It is important to keep the recipe simple. Au Pairs will teach kids to follow the directions and measure the ingredients.   Kids not only are being entertained while cooking , they will also learn a lot – reading, counting, fractions, budgeting, weighing, measuring, problem-solving, sharing, fine motor skills and much more – eating  fresh healthy food. Kids will be far more likely to eat vegetables if they helped cook them.

Au Pairs may also show the kids how to make a recipe from their home country. They can  teach kids about their culture through food.

Kids are much more likely to eat what they make. Is there anything more fun than eating your own art project?

Useful and harmful habits.

We all know that we can acquire bad habits very quickly, but is is not easy to get rid of them. Bad habits are acquired rapidly, whereas for the good habits it will take time.

Scientists have conducted studies and have proved that the acquisition of good habits should be a few months. As an example of this: in order to run in the morning with pleasure, you will need three months.

A special experiment was carried out. Volunteers, who took part in it, had to drink every morning fresh juice, and then make a run. Some volunteers drank the juice, but did not run. Others have continued with the whole experiment even though running daily was very hard. However, three months after they got used to it, they could not imagine a single day without  jogging.

Habits, resulting in the rapid increase of the hormone of pleasure are very difficult to get rid of. For example, eating junk food. 

Eating healthy food is very important, especially fresh cooked food prepared from fresh vegetables or vegetables from your garden.

Another Local Area Representative (LAR)  from Go Au Pair has a great idea to post recipes for Host Families and Au Pairs  that are quick and easy and focus on  consuming large amounts of vegetables.

Healthy eating makes you feel better and look better. You may want to follow this video How to choose healthy foods from Dr. Pamela Peeke, the author of “Fit to Live”.

You can start to eat healthy and maybe three months after you can not imagine a single day without eating healthy food.

Start a vegetable garden with an Au Pair.

Many of my host parents complain that their kids don’t eat vegetables and ask how to encourage kids to eat more vegetables.

If you have a space in your back yard, why not start a vegetable garden with an Au Pair?

The new project makes children spend quality time growing vegetables with an Au Pair. They will spend time in the fresh air and learn  firsthand about how to grow veggies and even some fruits, for example strawberries.

There are many other benefits to this project:

• educate children about how vegetables are grown,
• give kids the experience of growing a garden,
• help develop new skills and responsibility,
• bring a sense of accomplishment and contribution to the home,
• see the magic of watching something grow,
• promote healthy eating habits and nutritional food,
• cook and eat the vegetables they harvest.

Kids usually are very attached to the products of their own efforts.  They will eat almost any vegetable that they have grown or harvested themselves.

A host mom from Go Au Pair, who is a doctor and has three small kids,  posted a very interesting post about encouraging kids to eat more vegetables. She  said that, “Maybe, buying bowls and dishes with vegetable pictures on it will help vegetable consumption at home.”  Please read more at Getting Kids to Eat More Vegetables.

My busy but fun life as an Au Pair.

Hey everyone!

It’s been a while, I know… but I’ve had my hands full in the past month.

My life as an Au Pair is busy,  fun, challenging and special every day.

On March 17th we celebrated Joey’s birthday (everyone wearing something green, of course) and he had a blast!

Last week my host family returned from Montego Bay, Jamaica and I was surprised to see how much Joey missed me, he came in and jumped on me like a koala bear (it’s the only way I can describe the way he locked his legs around my waist and his arms around my neck, hahahah). I had spent the week here, going to school, Target and the mall.

I’ve been going to school for my German and Photoshop classes and received my certificates. Something extra to put on my resumé. 😀

On my free time, the movies have been my hiding place. I watched Hunger Games, Mirror Mirror and I’m planning to watch The Three Stooges with Joey.

The kids and I get our daily dose of exercise when we go to the basement or in the backyard and play with our swords and throw sticks with the dogs for hours. Hey, it’s better than going to the gym.

Easter was AMAZING. We went to Allison’s parents’ house and I met a lot of great people. When we got home, all the kids wanted was the easter baskets the easter bunny had left them early.

Things were already going great and they got better yesterday when my mother said she’s coming to spend my birthday (May 9th) and mother’s day with me. I loved it!

Well, that’s it for now…but I’ll be back soon with more. So, what cool activities have you done?

Au Pairs becoming lifelong friends.

The friendship between Host Families and their Au Pairs are so meaningful and lasting.

From my  experiences working with Host Families and Au Pairs for several years, I see how incredibly powerful Au Pair program is!  Au Pairs become a part of the families, a big sisters/brothers to host family kids.

Au Pairs often develop a life-long friendship with the parents and, especially, with the kids. They become an extended family members. Small kids from a Host Family that came from India called their Au Pair “anty”.

Au Pair program offers what other forms of childcare can’t:  the  benefit of giving the family exposure to other languages, lifestyles, customs and making friends around the world!  The Au Pair program also opens minds and hearts to other cultures and makes kids responsible citizens of the world!

One of  host families from Go Au Pair in Philadelphia had five Au Pairs from South Africa over the years. They continue stay in touch with them. The parents together with their five children are planning to visit South Africa and meet all their five Aupairs.

Luckily, we have facebook and SKYPE  now that brings Au Pairs and Host Family close to each other when the time to leave comes.