Back to School with Panasonic.

The transition back from summer holiday freedom to early morning school runs has been tough and it hasn't helped that Archie is still on half days for another week and a half.  The freedom to wake, eat and sleep when we wanted to has gone and now I can guarantee that at 3:15 on the dot two little voices are declaring that they are 'so hungry'.

We have been working with Panasonic and Daniel from The Naked Nutritionist to solve our back to school food problems and he came up with three delicious recipes for us.  Both boys have school lunches and whilst I know that they have to follow certain guidelines, I also don't know what they are eating at school so I want to make sure I get as much fresh and healthy food into them as possible when they are at home.

My children always come out of school hungry so my first question was about after school snacks that will give them the energy to get through the rest of the day without making them too full up for their dinner.  Daniel created a green juice recipe that would help get some vegetables into them and was a great way to get them involved too.  We used a Panasonic MJ-L500 juicer which slowly presses and crushes the food with its stainless steel screw to keep more nutrition in.  The children loved getting involved and feeding the vegetables into the juicer and I love how easy it is to clean afterwards as you can take it apart and pop it in the dishwasher! 

I wanted some ideas for dinner times too as we always resort to the same vegetables which we know they will eat (peas, carrots and sweetcorn). Daniel came up with two brilliant recipes to get the children eating fresh and more variety.  The cauliflower mash is perfect for the days when they are not that hungry as it is lighter than mashed potato and we loved it with cream cheese added as well. The Panasonic MK-F800SXE food processer whizzed through the steamed cauliflower in seconds creating a creamy mash.

The boys ask for a pudding every evening and so Daniel taught me how to make a chocolate and avacado mousse that was sweet and delicious but full of hidden avacado which is such a great food for getting all the right vitamins to keep their brains working well.  The food processor has 33 functions and we have made so many different things with it by swapping the attachments.  (Next up is our own nut butter!).  Along with the classic hiding veg in a pasta sauce, I think hiding avacado in a chocolate pudding works great!

The recipes for all three of these are available on the ideas kitchen website and if you want to see Daniel and I cooking them then check out the facebook live we made on Panasonic's facebook page.

I have no excuse not to serve up something fresh and nutritious to the ravenous school boys at 3:15 each afternoon now!

In collaboration with Panasonic.