It has been a while since I last posted a kid’s recipe. My daughter reminded me of that because last week there was the Food Day 2008 and she got a lot of advices from her teacher about healthy food. She’s always telling me know that: vegetables are healthy, we should eat a lot of fruit, onion is good for our tummy and so on. I take advantage of her advices and when she doesn’t want to eat a certain ingredient I tell her: That’s good for our tummy. Yes… I know I’m mean but don’t tell her ok?

Today I bring here a recipe with a lot of vegetables,. Although it takes around 1H 40M to get read, this recipe is very healthy and tasty for adults and kids. I picked this recipe from All Recipes. Here is a comment from Kris W.:

“This soft-textured meatloaf is speckled with vegetables. My kids and I love the flavor of this dish. There’s always enough for sandwiches the next day and crumbled into spaghetti sauce the day after that.”

So here it is the recipe for Pork Turkey Meatloaf prepared for 4 people:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 pound ground turkey
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1-1/2 teaspoons cooking oil
• 1/2 carrot, minced
• 1/4 red bell pepper, minced
• 1/4 onion, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons thawed frozen chopped spinach
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup wheat germ (optional)
• 1 eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1-1/2 teaspoons honey
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ketchup

DIRECTIONS:

• 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
• 2. Set the ground turkey and ground pork out at room temperature to warm slightly.
• 3. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat; cook the carrot, bell pepper, onion, garlic, and spinach in the heated oil until soft; set aside to cool.
• 4. Mix together the turkey, pork, bread crumbs, wheat germ, eggs, 2 tablespoons ketchup, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add the vegetable mixture and continue to mix until evenly combined; shape into a loaf; lay on the prepared baking sheet.
• 5. Whisk together the honey and 1 tablespoon ketchup in a small bowl; spread over the meatloaf.
• 6. Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, 60 to 70 minutes; remove to a serving platter and allow to rest 5 minutes before slicing.

I hope you and your family enjoy this recipe.

This a crossed post with my blog Buy Better and Have a Better Life. This book is worth to be mentioned twice.

Nowadays children have really bad eating habits that end up in obesity, diabetes among other diseases. Creating good eating habits is a frugal point while feeding the youngest. Eat This Not That! for Kids!: Be the Leanest, Fittest Family on the Block! by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding is a book that all families with kids should have. This book is a excellent guide to know what kids should eat and what should not eat.

Product Description
It’s no secret that children are getting fatter: 17% of this country’s youth are overweight or obese, and the number of diabetic children has nearly quadrupled in the past thirty years. Now, to help combat the problem, David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health, and co-author Matt Goulding have created Eat This, Not That! for Kids. This must-have guide for concerned parents offers detailed analysis and nutritional tips on thousands of the most popular food choices for kids. Covering the best and worst options available at the most popular restaurants in the country as well as the healthiest—and most harmful—foods in the supermarket aisles, if kids are eating it, this book is probably analyzing it.

Other features include:
-Restaurant Report Cards on the best chain restaurants for your kids
-Drink This, Not That! for Kids
-The 20 Worst Kids’ Meals in America
-10 “Healthy” Foods that Aren’t
-The 8 Foods You Should Feed Your Kid Every Day

School year is starting in two weeks and although the school provides lunch I have to prepare a snack for each of my kids. Healthy food will be the Menu.

Being a full time worker, everyday I struggle with cooking. Cooking is important for the family and even more important when there are kids involved. Keeping the meals attractive can be difficult therefore I always make an extra effort to innovate.

Keeping the kids involved in the confection of the meals can be interesting although most of the time they make me waste a lot of time preparing them. The easy way to overcome the waste of time is to choose recipes that are easy to prepare and in which the preparation of the ingredients keep them busy while we take care of the dangerous parts like hot oil or boiling water.

From now on from time to time (I still have to establish that…) I’ll posts recipes that will help our kids to grow up healthy and some recipes specially arranged for “family cooking” where the kids are the “chefs”.

I saw this easy recipe at FamilyFun.com that can be done “in family”. Let your kids help you and you’ll be glad to see a smile on their face.

EASY AS A APPLE PIE

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:

• 8 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced thin
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 refrigerated double pie crust
• 1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, toss the apples, lemon juice, lemon zest, sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sprinkle with flour and mix to coat evenly.

2. Place the bottom pie crust in a 9-inch glass baking dish, pressing it firmly against the sides of the dish. Pour the apple mixture into the crust.

3. With a sharp knife or aspic cutter (tiny cookie cutters), make cutouts in the top crust. Gently place the top crust over the apples and fold excess top crust under the bottom crust. Flute the edges with your thumb and forefinger. Whisk the egg with 2 tablespoons of water and gently brush over the top of the pie; bake in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Yields 6 to 8 servings.

Have fun!!