KIDS, EAT YOUR VEGGIES!

Do you, like so many Mums have trouble getting your kiddie winks to eat their veggies?  I know, I know, it’s tough isn't it?  I remember when our son was little we would go out to a restaurant, trap him in his high chair and order him a side of steamed vegetables that he would seriously hoe into.  Then something happened, out of the blue, he developed his own little mind and all of a sudden started to order his dinner based on price in order of the most expensive dish if you please! Atlantic Salmon, Fillet Mignon, Barramundi etc, etc and we would shrug our shoulders and pay the bill, secretly happy that he was developing a sophisticated palate.  But when he started leaving his veggies on the plate that was the end of it.  “If you are going to order an adult meal then you must eat it, vegetables and all.” we would say.

Nowadays we don't have that sort of trouble, not since we discovered how yummy green smoothies can be and how easily we can incorporate at least two vege and two fruit into a drink we have at afternoon tea time.  

Also we have discovered the very best chocolate cake in the world which is loaded with beautiful beetroot puree.  I have made this cake for an adult friends birthday dinner and served it up to my husband’s Board of Directors.  The children across the street are putting in requests for me to make it again on the weekends, and our son has it in his lunchbox most days.  I recognise that it is just a chocolate cake after all, filled with butter and sugar and all sorts of other not so healthy ingredients (if not taken in moderation), but this is a seriously deliciously addictive cake with the benefit of containing vegetables!  

CHOCOLATE BEETROOT CAKE  from current issue of Earth Garden Magazine

Ingredients:

100gm dark chocolate

3 medium free range eggs

300gm brown sugar

180 gm butter

300gm cooked beetroot

1 tsp vanilla extract

30 gm cocoa powder

100 gm almond meal

100gm plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Method:

1. To cook the beetroots wash thoroughly and place in a pot full of cold water.  Bring to the boil and cook until soft when poked with a knife. Cool, rub off skins, and then blend to make a puree.

2. Preheat oven to 180 C.  Grease and line your cake tin, either one square 20 x 20cm or 2 x 22cm tins.

3. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler and leave to cool to room temperature.  I use the microwave and heat for thirty seconds, give it a stir and another fifteen seconds and stir again.

4. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk together the eggs and sugar.

5. Slowly add the cooked beet puree, the melted chocolate and vanilla into the egg mixture.  Beat until just combined.

6. Sift the cocoa, flour, baking powder.  Add this the almond meal and salt to the beet batter.  Fold until just combined, do not over mix.  

7. Pour into the cake tins and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the cake just springs back if you touch it.  Leave to cool then ice if desired.  We just dust with icing sugar and serve like a brownie, with a dollop of double cream!  YUMMMMMM!

No trouble getting kids to eat this one.  Give it a try and let us know what you think.

BEAUTIFUL BEETROOT.

With the busy lives we lead currently the whole idea of community takes on a different bent.  We use social media to connect with our friends and family and neglect to give them a call or go over and visit them face to face.  So when a little red headed five year old stands at my fence calling out “Hello, hello!” with increasing intensity, hopefulness in his voice, I am heartened to know that the neighbourhood I live in is still in tact.  I am always excited and encouraged to have the neighbourhood kids lean over the fence when they see me in the garden watering or pulling weeds and ask if they can come in and look at the vegetables.  So this week when the children from down the street were over for another visit to coerce our son for a turn on his Xbox, I distracted their interest by telling them it was time to pull up some beetroot.

There has been sufficient rain and copious amounts of sunshine to ensure that the little rosy cheeks of the beetroot were starting to push up through the soil.  I had a copy of the latest Earth Garden magazine earmarked with a beautiful beetroot and chocolate cake recipe that I was dying to try for lunch box treats.  So off we trotted into the garden and Tommy pulled the biggest one out by the variegated leaves and held it up for my approval, grinning from ear to ear.  It wasn't quite as big as I would have liked so we opted to pick some beans instead of disturbing the growth of the other beets.

He went back to the Xbox and I grated and measured all the ingredients for a delicious and healthy staple, my Carrot and Beetroot cake, as the beetroot wasn't sufficient for the other cake that I was hoping to make.  Soon Tom was back in the kitchen to help with the mixing and addition of ingredients, enjoying the attention and for me it took me back to my days as a Home Ec teacher as I explained processes and answered questions as we made the cake.  Now while Tom might enjoy the growing, watering, harvesting and even the cooking of vegetables, mention the words “carrot” and “beetroot” in the same sentence as “cake” and he is not the least bit convinced!  So our beautiful desert remained untouched until husband and friends arrived and our son was able to pry his hands from the Xbox controller.

One of my favourite recipes using beetroot is Jamie Oliver’s Food Processor Salad.  I call it Rainbow Salad and I have altered it for my taste by omitting fennel bulb and substituting yellow zucchini.  Basically you set up the grater attachment on the food processor and grate a small beetroot, a red carrot, a yellow zucchini, a green zucchini and as luck and centrifugal force would have it the salad is created in layers for you right in the bowl.  Gently invert onto a plate and serve alongside your favourite dressing.  I make Jamie’s Tarragon and Yoghurt dressing to go alongside as it gives tang and a bit of bite to what is essentially a modern take on coleslaw.  My sister in law after asking me how I made the salad was amazed that you could eat raw beetroot as she had always boiled it first….

Whats so great about raw beetroot Tanya?

MMMMMM Beetroot, you can beet an egg but you can’t beet a root apparently, well at least that is what my husband always says when he is adding beetroot to our vegie burgers!

Don Tolman refers to beets as “The Vegetable Jewel”, so I have a vision of the 7 Dwarfs singing “Hi Ho Hi Ho it’s off to work we go, to find the jewel of the vegetable kingdom, Hi Ho Hi Ho Hi Ho”. (Sorry if you now have that tune stuck in your head)

Beetroots are loaded with potassium, magnesium, beta-carotene and folate.  Fresh beetroots have at least twice as much potassium and folate and other nutrients as canned beetroot. You also need to consider when using canned beets is the added sugar, other nasty’s and of course the issue that the lining of the cans are not BPA free.  Fresh beetroots are beautiful in juices, salads and you can also bake them like a potato.

Other Benefits Include

• Works for cancer

• Protects your heart

• Controls blood pressure

• Conquers kidney stones

• Strengthens bones

• Prevents gallstones

• Treatment of gout and jaundice

• Anaemia

• Disorders of the bladder and kidneys

Beetroot leaves are also yummy and nutritious, cut the tough part of the stem off just below the leaves, warm in olive oil or coconut oil add a little Bragg’s All Purpose Seasoning, Celtic Sea Salt and your beet leaves, sauté till they are soft, enjoy like that or you can add to omelettes, stir-fry, warm salads. Have fun with this and experiment with different dishes, you will be surprised how they add colour and texture to your meal.

Another wonderful and fun thing to do with beetroots is hand dying natural fibre cloths, sheets, or whatever tickles your natural fibre fancy. The results are always different and you are not harming the environment or your family with harsh chemicals.  Love and Light Tanya ox

So ditch the tinned, sugared beets and try a bunch of round and raw and enjoy the benefits!  Do you have a favourite beetroot recipe?  Let us know in the comments below.