Anna Redmayne-Porter
Serves: 3-4
Prep time: 15 mins
Ingredients:
12 crunchy taco shells
1 tin (400g) of black-eyed beans (can use alternative bean e.g. kidney bean, chickpeas)
2 avocados
a pinch of salt and pepper, to season
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 bunch of spring onions
Veg Portions / Serving: 3
These colourful, flavour-packed vegetable tacos are the perfect family meal – they involve no cooking, are simple to make, and are very hands-on and tactile for kids to make and enjoy. Plus, everybody loves tacos!
Method:
Wash the spring onions and peppers in warm water, cut the avocado and peppers into little cubes and mix the spring onions, pepper, avocado and beans in a mixing bowl. Add the salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil (make sure the vegetables are covered in this sauce). Spoon the mix into the taco shells. Enjoy!
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
These tacos are no cook and so perfect for kids to get involved in preparing as they are very hands-on. They can wash the spring onions and peppers, mix the veg together in a mixing bowl, and spoon the mixture into the taco shells.
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
Anna Redmayne-Porter
www.instagram.com/be_free_with_anna/
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