Play With Your Food, Please!
- Darrah Amiyrah
- Jul 29, 2017
- 3 min read
If we could count how many times we've all been told by our parental guardians
“Do not play with your food!”
then we'd be filthy rich!
Obviously, this is a fairly popular phrase utilized all over the world as we learn from a young age to eat what has been prepared for us, and to absolutely never waste or dilly-dally our time picking and playing with our nutrition. However, I beg to differ! In my adulthood, I find it almost necessary to engage with meals, especially during meal prep and often well into the meal itself. Let me explain…
Whole Wheat Toast | Hummus Spread | Layers of Lettuce with Ranch Dressing | Grilled Tilapia Atop Shredded Mozerella Cheese
Consuming a largely plant-based diet is a heroic accomplishment for your body. Please be aware of the major dilemma this diet maintains as it becomes necessary to constantly overthink your available food options in any given scenario; such as, in the event of dining out or while conducting restaurant research. Often, we can find ourselves restoring to the same meals we’ve become accustomed to enjoying and begin to lack a general excitement and zest for eating or a lack of enthusiasm in foresight of meal time in general. Thus, I offer you this quick and easy fix : let’s get messy with hummus!
Images in Sildeshow Style
I adore hummus, as do tons of others, and hopefully you also love it too!
During my most recent meal prep escapades, I discovered my love for engaging with food. A hands on approach to cooking while maintaining a majority plant based diet is almost a given rule of thumb. Between your choices of vegetables, fruits, grains, granola, nuts, peas, beans, rice, pastas and potatoes — there’s an endless melange of combinations at your disposal. Mixing either group together can just as effectively happen hands-free as hands on. I choose to be hands on, and for many of you with children, you may also choose to do the same.
Images in Sildeshow Style
Getting messy with hummus is an example of how to incorporate fun-loving-and-learning within the kitchen, as well as overall exploration into cooking, nutrition and comprehending our basic food groups. The activity of preparing a meal with your kids or with any child for that matter, especially within safe guidelines and a moderately messy environment, proves to be an amusing activity to say the least!
In this example, I’ve made 'veggie pigs in a blanket' naturally created with hummus, baby carrots and lettuce. (A mango or two for added encouragement to get messy!) As you can see, this is an entirely plant based meal as it incorporates a spread of Hummus for taste, pizzaz, and texture.
Encourage your children to be hands on with the design of their plate as you may delegate their number of lettuce slices, yet allow them the opportunity to artistically design or make a mess of their hummus and carrot additions at free will; only be sure to pay careful attention to their use of a butter knife or dish out your desired amount of hummus for them and allow them to apply with their fingers from their personal bowl like a painter!
At the end of the day, they’ll be happy you’ve let them lick their fingers and you’ll be happy because they’ve finally eaten all of their vegetables! Getting Messy in the Kitchen is a Win-Win for us all! Thus, please remember that it is always recommended for you to play with your food!
Wash your hands and begin to have fun!
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