"Mom, I want some candy!" I hear this sentence several times a day, and when I pretend not to hear it, it is repeated at five-second intervals until I answer, "No, you ate today!" or "Okay, but after lunch.", or "Wait a minute to make something quick" :) One of the quick healthy desserts that, at least in my home, resists sweets from the shelves of megamarkets is a slightly neglected Rice pudding, a gentle combination of rice, milk, sugar, and cinnamon. But before I explain in a few sentences how I prepare this well-known dessert, I will write a little about the topic that bothers parents and children today.
An unfair fight
Against sweets, parents are fighting a big and unfair battle! They themselves against today's very affordable confectionery products present in a million different unhealthy combinations of sugars, emulsifiers, and colors, against aggressive advertisements that represent all sorts of sweet delicacies as sources of minerals and vitamins, against grandparents, uncles, and aunts who always want to please their most beloved little relatives not with one, but with a full bag of sweets, and sometimes against themselves, torn between responsibility and the desire to please their angels.
In my case, this child nutrition problem started when my son Vuk(who is now ten years old) was a year and a half old, and when he realized he could say “I like to eat this, but not this.” Vuk, meanwhile, grew up and became a brother.
Vuk has always wanted to have an older brother. His wish didn't come true. He got a younger sister who loves him a lot, but who also bores him ... I will never forget his conversation with his friend when they were both five years old.
"Miona, my mom will give birth to my older brother"
"That's impossible. Do you know how long it takes for a baby to become your older brother"
Mila entered his world and imposed a new rhythm on him. Although they are brother and sister, they have different temperaments and each of them likes to eat something special. They love each other, they often disagree, but when it comes to sweets, they are always on the same side. 😊
Pancakes are their favorite food. Vuk helped me to make this gif.🙃
Vuk is very emotional and empathetic, so he has a more refined sense of taste than Mila. Mila mostly likes to eat everything :) She often tells me:
- "Mom, my stomach says he's hungry"
- "Mom, my heart hurts how hungry I am"
And when I prepare something very tasty: - "Mom, my stomach says thank you"😀
So what I’m going to write is mostly about my son, which doesn’t mean Mila won’t change her attitude towards food when she grows up a little
With Vuk, I started perfecting the psychological battle and developing tactics of outwitting, and sometimes when I don't know what to use, blackmail, but here I will still present finer techniques. :)
Food camouflage
How can a child eat healthy and tasteless food? One of the techniques is chopping to invisibility and mixing with food that the child has already accepted. That is why you need adequate tools (sharp knife, blender, etc.), but you must be skilled so that the child does not smell and see what he is actually eating.
It is desirable to fool him with some stories so that he does not look at the plate, so the probability grows that everything will disappear from the plate.
In any case, you will be caught in that attempt at some point.
Like a superhero, your child will develop a microscopic vision and extract crumbs and crumbs from the plate that make him vomit and ask you with a disgusted expression: "What is this?"
A play on words
I love the most interesting period in the development of speech when children begin to understand the meaning of words, but not fully, and when they apply words in the most ingenious ways.
So it is with food in the "I like this, I don't like that" period. This sometimes has nothing to do with what they like or don't like. They just don't like something and they won't even try it. But, fortunately for us, they are still naive enough, so you can outsmart them. :)
Scene 1:
VUK: "Mom, I don't like peas!"
ME: "It's not peas, son, it's green balls, fresh, from space."
VUK: "From space?
ME: "Yes, aliens eat them!"
VUK: "Yummy, delicious balls!" :)
Scene 2:
VUK: "Mom, I don't like chicken!"
ME: "It's not chicken, son, it's meat."
VUK: "Meat? Okay!"
Like the previous tactics, this one is short-lived, because our little geniuses smell fraud very quickly!
Compassion
Vuk is an old Serbian name and means wolf. It was given to children to protect them from diseases because child mortality used to be high.
Although wolves are known for their organization in the pack and for how much effort they put into getting a piece of meat, my Vuk could be a vegetarian. I would not be surprised if he became, because even now, at the age of ten, he avoids meat. He adores animals! He very quickly concluded how the meat ended up on our plates in a cruel way.
"I don't want to eat egg yolks. I don't want to hurt the chick!"
"I don't want to eat fish. The fish should swim, like this (points with his hand) and have a son."
I lost this battle!
Ah, that chocolate!
Who can resist chocolate? I have to admit that I’m a big chocolate lover myself. We have the most problems with this candy because it seduced the sense of taste of my boy and my girl.
"Mom, give me chocolate!"
"Okay, but after lunch!"
"Please Mom, give me the chocolate, just to smell it."
Or
"Vuk, give me some chocolate!"
"I'll give it to you mom when I eat everything!"😄
How was it once?
Today, chocolate is all around us. But, how was it? I put this title just to tell you the story my father-in-law told me. He is 85 years old and for the first time, he ate chocolate that literally fell from the sky. Namely, after the Second World War, the Americans threw chocolates from the planes that flew over the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
There is no decency when you like juice
I don't usually buy juices, but I squeeze the fruit myself or make cherry and chokeberry juice. In my opinion, they are worse than any candy because juices are full of sugar. Our friend's mother makes excellent homemade peach juice, which Vuk adores.
Friend: "Vuk, are you cold?"
VUK: "No, but I want to drink juice!"
A healthy alternative
One of the best methods in the fight against sweets is to find a healthy alternative. Although parents are constantly in fifth gear today, they should find some time for the kitchen and prepare "something sweet" for the children at home. Only in this way you can have some control over what your child eats.
A good alternative is squeezed juices, fruits, nuts, chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa. But I’m not a fanatic when it comes to sweets. I'm trying to find a balance. That is why I try to prepare sweets at home because whatever that cake is, it is certainly healthier than the candy bought from the store.
Rice pudding
One such dessert is a simple rice pudding that is ready in about 20 minutes. I have to admit that this is not my children's favorite dessert, but they definitely love it. That's why I prepare it from time to time. I will show you the classic variant, but I also made it with coconut and chocolate.
The measure for my rice pudding is a cup of tea (roughly for four people to sweeten up nicely), which will also be a measure for liquid. I washed the rice well, then put it in a pot with a thicker bottom and poured one cup of water over it, and cooked on a higher heat with frequent stirring. When the rice absorbed all the water I added another half cup of water and waited for the rice to absorb this amount of water as well. Then I slowly added one cup of milk, stirring constantly. When the rice soaked up the milk I added another cup of milk, 4 tablespoons of sugar, and 2 bags of vanilla sugar. When the desired density is obtained, ie the rice softens, remove the pan from the heat and leave the sutlijaš to rest. When it cooled, I put it in bowls and sprinkled it with more cinnamon because I adore it.
This is the end of this sweet story. I hope you liked it. If you have similar and interesting experiences with children, you can share them with us in the comments. Children are an inexhaustible source of ingenious stories and ideas.❤️
I wish you a sweet rest of the day :)
With love,
Snežana