Thursday 19 September 2013

Dining alfresco on an autumn day

Guest post

While there's still the possibility of some more sunshine, it seems a shame to dine indoors. More often than not, dining in the home can cause distractions. Items surrounding the kids, such as the television, game consoles and any toys that may be lying around, can often preoccupy their minds.

This is one of the reasons we choose to dine outside as much as we can. When eating outside, it’s wise to stick to a number of simple dinner recipes. Summer salads, sandwiches, cold meats, tortillas and pastas are all good options and if you make too much then leftovers can always be eaten cold the next day.

These are often the meals that create memories and a picnic in the park or at the beach is a great option. Packing a picnic basket is an enjoyable activity for many children and unpacking its contents is just as fun. When eating in the great outdoors, our moods often change and we become more relaxed. This is the same for children.

From a very young age, kids tend to enjoy setting up makeshift tea parties. As they get older, buying them their very own tea set or picnic basket is a great present and one that will probably get a great deal of use. If you’re looking for tasty summer recipes to fill this picnic basket, there are a variety tochoose from on the super savvy me website.

Getting the little ones to help prepare a number of meals will allow them to learn where each and every food type comes from. It is important to teach them that real foods don’t come from a factory; nor do they live in a box.

If you can, create a vegetable patch in the garden. Let your little ones help you grow the likes of potatoes, carrots, lettuce and cucumber. By doing this, they will begin to understand that healthy food comes from the ground. They’ll also enjoy watching their own produce grow and learning what they can do with it in the kitchen once it’s ripe.


Allowing them to help you prepare certain dishes in the kitchen is a great way to teach them a few simple meals. This knowledge can then be applied to more complicated dishes as they grow older. 


In association with SuperSavvyMe.

11 comments:

  1. I'm a big fan of getting kids involved in meal preparation - they are more likely to eat it too! x

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    1. Yep, providing there's some edible result, it does help! x

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  2. I've been getting Roo to help me cook since she was a toddler. I agree with Annie, meals are definitely less of a battle when the kids have helped prepare them.

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    1. I know I should have started earlier Steph, mine would have been a pro by now! x

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  3. My children have a little veggie patch and run outside every day to see what we can harvest and eat.

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    1. Ahh that's lovely Sandy. We have a small patch, we had spuds and beans today.

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  4. We love eating outside, we try and do it often, even in Autumn and my daughter always says that "mummy's homemade food is best" ..... I have clearly drilled this into her :-)

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  5. I think our days of eating outside are over for this year unfortunately. I tend to do a lot of cooking with the kids in Autumn though so that's good.

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  6. My children love putting together the picnic and we have had many picnics lately including on the beach.

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