New Year Food Resolutions For Kids.

A very Happy New Year to all you lovely readers and your little ones. 

Each year I set out some food resolutions for myself. I will be sharing how I fared last year and my resolutions for 2015 with you pretty soon. But before I do that I wanted to share some food resolutions that my little chefling made this year (With her mum's help ofcourse). 

We are very excited about this and would love all you parents and children to join the two of us.

This year I will help Sara:

• To learn one simple recipe each month: We will master one recipe a month. It could be a simple omelette or putting together her favourite sandwich. A muffin or a salad. At the end of the year she will know 12 recipes. 12 recipes! At the end of twelve years when she goes to college she will know 144 recipes and will not have to eat boring and unhealthy dorm food! Okay clearly I am going a little giddy with all this excitement but the point is that helping our children learn to cook is a very precious gift we as parents NEED to give them. It is a gift for life.

If you'd like to join us: Choose age appropriate recipes for your children,  food that they already enjoy and are familiar with. Depending on their age/interest/ mood they may or may not be able to/ want to cook the entire recipe and that is perfectly alright. Most importantly always be there with them in the kitchen. 

• To volunteer for one dinnertime chore each night: Each time when we sit around the dinner table, enjoy a home cooked meal and talk about our day there is a very impatient kitchen sink in background full of dirty dishes, there is a refrigerator that is begging us for a clean up every few weeks, there are dishes to be put away after a meal and there are placemats and plates that need to be carried to the table before we begin eating. Our children may or may not realize this depending on how much they enter the kitchen. Sara often helps me with little tasks like taking the cutlery to the table or always putting back her plate in the sink. This year, I'd like her to partner us with a chore she chooses to do for the entire family. It could setting up the table or filling up water, basically something that she can do on her own. Helping  mum and dad with these chores make children realize the hardwork that goes behind each meal. It isn't just about cooking. The little ones also feel proud when asked to do "adult" tasks and when we begin to "depend" on them and they share responsibility.

If you'd like to join us: Talk to your child about what she/he would like to do so that they enjoy doing it and not look at it as a "chore".  Let them do different things for the first few days. It will help them figure out what they like doing. But make sure post that they stick to it. This will help them realize that mum and dad depend on them for "this  task" and also teach them about commitment.

• To choose and try one new food from a country of her choice each month: Our kids are so lucky to be growing up in a world where food from other countries is easily accessible to them in whichever part of the globe they are in. A lot of them also have friends from different nationalities and that presents them with a great opportunity to taste what their friends eat at their homes. Some of them are also reading and learning about different countries in their geography or history lessons. Picking up a country of her choice each month, knowing a little more about the food that grows there, the recipes that are made in the kitchens there and trying out the cuisine is what learning and growing is all about. Exposing Sara to new foods through this fun exercise that we will play with the globe kept on her bookshelf will help expand her palate.

If you'd like to join us: Help your child choose a country each month. Read about the vegetables and fruits that are grown there, the national dish/es of the country, the recipes that it has shared with the rest of the world. There is a wealth of information/ recipes available online else just give me shout out and I will be there with Sara to assist you. 

• To start one new food tradition that involves all of us: My parents gifted me some lovely traditions that revolved around the dinner table. Some I still observe for they have become a part of my life and take me back to a very happy place in my head and heart called childhood. After Sara came along we began to have some new ones that we didn't consciously make but became a part of our lives somehow like Friday mornings are for ALWAYS for pancakes. I'd like to start a new food tradition with her this year. It could be anything really, may be homemade pizza night each Thursday that we all make together and eat watching a children's movie. Something to look forward to each weekend and something to look back at once she is a little grown up. 

If you'd like to join us: Do you have any weekend or weeknight traditions revolving around food that you'd like to continue this year and share with us? Any new ideas that you have been already thinking about? 

Sara and I would love you to become part of this. Choose one resolution or two or all four. If we are in this together I can assure you the year will be exciting and we will push each other to do this through the year. 

So how do we do this:

• Share your pictures on the Orange Kitchens facebook page, on instagram or twitter
• Remember to use the hashtag #okfoodresolutionskids when sharing so that we can all get inspired and learn from each other. 
• Share these resolutions with other parents who you think would like to be part of this mini food revolution (feel free to share the image above).

Lets make this happen and raise healthy children who eat well and cook from scratch.

Eat real and stay healthy. 

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask!  Please feel free to share the image in this post.

Looking back at 2014.

2015 is three days away. Before we make new year resolutions let us look back at 2014. Wish you a 2015 full of magic, memories and madness.

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask! 

Food Revolution Ambassador Monthly Challenge: December 2014

Time for my favourite post of the month where I get to share the monthly challenges that we as Food Revolution Ambassadors look forward to doing each month.

If you are new here: At the beginning of each month the challenges are announced. These challenges are for inspiring the entire team and to make deeper connections with everyone (fellow food ambassadors, friends and family, anyone who wants to be a part of this challenge too), share our stories , whether we failed or conquered and more. The idea is to complete as many challenges as one can (Read about the October and November challenges).

For December:

Challenge One: Join #JamiesChristmas. Join Jamie and our global community in getting into the festive season, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, we can all celebrate the food revolution today! Look out for tips from Jamie and the team and some fun and games to join throughout the month!

Christmas is always a special time of the year. I studied in a convent so though we didn't celebrate Christmas at home initially, as I grew older and learnt more about Christmas I became very very fond of everything connected to Christmas and mum dad became part of this new tradition at home. 



When my little chefling came along she joined us in the festivities. Each year we work on an advent calendar for her, she makes Christmas cards, we make edible gifts, we sing carols, we play Christmas games, write a letter to Santa and she invites her friends over for Christmas festivities. 

This year we did the same and just like the twinkling fairy lights on the tree little eyes sparkled, just like the glowing baubles their faces lighted up and we celebrated Christmas.

I hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas yesterday.

Challenge Two: Share your greatest Food Revolution moment from 2014. Whether conquering a certain recipe, getting your picky eaters to try new foods, or joining FRD 2014 we want to know your best food revolutionary moments from this year - send us your quotes, images, achievements and favourite photos. 

Early this month, I had the opportunity of putting sixteen little children, red juicy apples, a couple of really really funny songs and a story in a room. In return I got giggles, grins, sparkling eyes that went wide, crunching and munching,millions of questions, amusing tales and a lot of fun.

This and more was exactly what I took back home with me from the Apple Workshop that I put together for the little ones as part of my Food Revolution Diaries (The workshop was for the children between the ages of 3-7 and was free for everyone who wanted to attend).

This for me would be my Food Revolution moment of the year. I joined the wonderful and very encouraging team of Food Ambassadors very recently (third month here so technically not the moment of the year type of a moment but hey it is the drop that counts!) and I am so happy that we enjoyed our apple story and biting into apples. Post the workshop even if a handful of kids out of the group of sixteen who came that day end up including apples in their diet and in turn convince their friends to try a bite from theirs I think we may have a little proud moment here.

2015 is almost here and it is going to be my goal to connect with more and more children this year through cooking, telling stories, getting parents and kids to be in the kitchen together, writing and more.

Then there is the big day on the 15^th of May that I can’t wait for and together we will bring about a Food Revolution at Dubai.

To the little changes. To the big ones. To healthy eating. To real food. To Food Revolution.

Read the complete post here

Challenge Three: Festive cooking. Share your favourite festive recipes from your home country, what food gets your friends and family together to share the love and enjoy time together?

I come from India where every festival, celebration, special occasion like so many other cultures translates into making and eating some Meetha (sweets). We take our "meetha" so seriously that "kuch meetha ho jaye" is like a national anthem (Let us have some sweets). 

India is a pretty large country where food habits change every few kilometers but what is interesting is that across the country we all have our very own rice pudding and that is what I'd like to share with all the other ambassadors who come from so many different countries for the third challenge. 

Our rice and milk meetha is something we all like to make to mark our special days.  Kheer,Khiri,Khir, Payasam, Payasa, Payesh, Payoxh, Phirni,Gil e Firdaus and more. Each state has its own variant. 

It is made by boiling rice with milk and sugar (sometimes jaggery); it is flavoured with cardamom, raisins, saffron, cashew nuts, pistachios or almonds. Ghee (clarified butter) / cream are added at times to up its richness quotient. 

With 2014 coming to an end and a promising 2015 almost here, I'd like to share this "meetha"with all you lovely ambassadors and my awesome readers. 

Phirni (makes 4-6 servings)

Ingredients

• a few saffron  strands
• 1 litre milk (full cream)
• 4 tbsp long grained (basmati) rice
• 6 tbsp sugar

To finish

• a few chopped almonds
• A few saffron strands

Instructions

1. To the saffron strands add 1 tbsp of warm milk and keep aside.
2. Soak the rice in water for about 1 hour.
3. Drain the rice and grind it in a mixer to a coarse powder.
4. Add ½ cup of cold milk and mix to make a paste. Keep aside.
5. Boil the rest of the milk and stir in the rice paste.
6. Cook for about 20 minutes on a low flame, stirring continuously.
7. Add the sugar and saffron milk and simmer for another few minutes.
8. Pour into individual containers and let it come to room temperature. Refrigerate. 
9. Serve chilled garnished with almonds and saffron strands.

p.s I added some cardamom pods to the milk as well.

Wish you all a sweet, sparkly and a shiny New Year. May 2015 be filled with magic, memories and madness. 

See you in 2015.

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask! 

Cooking with Sara.

This is the longest I have been away from the blog. Ofcourse there was tons going on in my life and I had been away from purplehomes for a while as well. But five months! 

The thing is I really didn't know what to write here at orangekitchens. What direction did I want orangekitchens to take. What did I want you guys to take away from here. Food is something I am really really passionate about and I love talking about it but for once I had no words.

But all the time that I have been away gave me much to think about. And it feels good to come back to this space. It feels good that I think I know what I'd like to talk about here at orangekitchens.

During the time that I have been away ofcourse I have spent a lot of that time in my kitchen. But more importantly, Sara and I spent that time together in our kitchen. Sara has always loved being in the kitchen. I remember as an infant I would put her in the pram and take the pram to the kitchen. There, talking to her (Read: Mum blabbering and baby smiling) many a cake were baked. Curries too.

Later when she turned one we would pull a warm rug and her kitchen toys all the way to our kitchen. And she loved throwing a bowl here and a plate there and would be very happy copying me.

This changed a little when she turned two. Like her mum she loved "reading" cookbooks at night. She would take my copy of Cupcakes and muffins by Ann Nicol and tell me which one she'd like to eat the next day. 

At three, she spent most of her time in her play kitchen, would only and only ask for cooking toys. Her favorite game being chopping wooden vegetables and fruits and making a wooden roast chicken for her dad and me. At times she would ask for her favorite star anise and cinnamon ( which till date she pronounces as cinnabon) and add to that to her play food. 

A new issue of Good Food gets her as excited as me and we together bookmark recipes to try. And before it seems like cookbooks are all she reads and playing cook is all she does let me clarify she does read books that children of her age should and paints and runs and does her puzzles and basically creates chaos at home too :) 

She turned four a couple of days back.

Many of her interests have changed over the last four years. At two, she wanted to be "cheft" (Read : Chef). At three, she wanted to both an artist and a gardener. Last I checked with her she wanted to be a ballet dancer, princess and a fairy. I tried explaining her that being a princess is not really a profession and being a fairy is a tad difficult but then I let it because she does look really cute with her wings and tiara. At times she even sleeps with her wings on.

Having said that, there is one thing that has not changed in the last four years. Her love for food is what has remained the same. And at at four now, I am having such a beautiful time being by her side in the kitchen. We are baking everyday. We are cooking our dinner together. We are sharing our meals. And after much thinking and checking with my heart I think that's what I want to talk about here at orangekitchens.

Cooking for and with Sara.

My little chef making her favorite Oreo milkshake

I want to share with you what we do in the kitchen, what cooking games we play and cookbooks we read together.Our love for food which I really really hope she doesn't fall out of. Ever. And more.

Oh and I will be still talking about my experiences with food in general but this New Year it will be primarily about my little chef and me.

Image : Personal Album
While you enjoy reading this post with visuals.Please do not use them without asking. 
They belong to Orange Kitchens unless otherwise stated.