Kiddipedia
By Michaela Sparrow @Thelongevityremedy Naturopath, Nutritionist, Anti-Ageing Practitioner
It can be hard to get lots of healthy foods into your family, especially when you have picky eaters or everyone has different tastes. I find the best way to cut down on the stress of preparing meals is to just sneak all the healthy foods into a meal that you can.
The best way to sneak extra nutrition into your meals is with mild tasting, nutrient dense foods, one of my favourite foods to do this with is sprouts. There are a wide variety of different sprout options all with their own health benefits. The great thing about sprouts, I find during cooking they “disappear” into the meal, so great for those little eagle eye detectives who can pick out something healthy (and therefore yucky) a mile away.
Before I give you some ideas of sneaking healthy ingredients in, let’s talk about why I love sprouts so much.
Sprouts are rich in healthy proteins, fibre and healthy carbohydrates, whilst also being packed full of essential vitamins and minerals like magnesium, calcium, folate, vitamin c, iron and vitamin k. These are all vital for good health at all ages, but especially in the early developmental stages. Basically, they act like nutritional insurance for your meals.
Not all sprouts are created equal though, I love the brand Aussie Sprouts, because they are Aussie owned and grown, they are fresh picked which means their nutritional value is still high and most importantly they are extremely affordable, in fact I would say sprouts are not only one of the most powerful superfoods you can find in the grocery store, they are also one of the cheapest.
So how can you use Sprouts to sneak into the meals of picky eaters? Here is some ideas:
- Mung bean & alfalfa sprouts added to taco mince or spaghetti bolognaise (I also like to grate up lots of carrots and zucchini into my mince meals for extra nutrition too, and they tend to disappear into the meal)
- Sprouts added to a stir fry add extra texture and are mild tasting
- Mashed potato: Lightly sauté’ or steam the sprouts and blend up through the mashed potato (or any mashed vegetable)
- Sprouts are also easily incorporated into frittatas, omelettes, scrambled eggs and fritters
- Make some homemade dips like hummus, baba ganoush or guacamole and blend raw sprouts through them, serve with whatever dipping snacks your family likes
- Make a banana smoothie and blend some sprouts through, mung bean sprouts & bean sprouts especially as they are lighter in colour and won’t affect the appearance of the smoothie too much.
For meal time recipe inspo, head over to https://www.aussiesprouts.com.au/recipe-ideas
