By
Jo Tweedy
10:36 EST, 17 June 2013
|
11:54 EST, 17 June 2013
The summer holidays are just around the corner, which means resorts all over the Med will soon be playing out the following scene: 8:30pm, a toddler falls asleep, head resting gently against a strawberry sundae. Her older siblings run riot around the table, having drank their own body weights in coke and picked at a few ketchup-drenched chips. The couples without kids readjust their life plans. The parents reach for another glass of red.
Hands up if you don’t want dinner! Avoid too many treats while on holiday
It doesn’t need to be this way, says Annabel Karmel, the UK’s best-selling author on children’s food.
If you haven’t got children, then you’ve probably never heard of her. If you’re a parent of young children, then she might well have saved your life on a few occasions. Recipes such as hidden vegetable penne – where you effectively bury nutritious legumes by blending them into a tomato sauce – have persuaded thousands of kids to eat veggies that they wouldn’t ordinarily touch with a bargepole.
In recent years, Karmel has turned her attention to former fast-food holiday havens including Butlin’s, Haven and a trio of theme parks; you’ll find her sundried tomato penne trying to tempt children away from the burgers at Alton Towers, Chessington and Thorpe Park.
Childs play: Teach toddlers to enjoy different flavours and you can take them anywhere, says Annabel Karmel
All well and good for a day trip or short break but how can you encourage your own ankle-biters to maintain good eating habits (if you’re lucky and they have them, that is) when you’re on a holiday that effectively shreds up your normal routine?
It’s no mean feat. A study released earlier this year by the European Toddler Nutrition Index found British kids to be amongst the fussiest in Europe.
Go local: If you’re travelling to a destination like India with children then try out the food at home first. Lentil dhal, pictured, can be an unexpected hit
Choosing hotels with self-serve dining options is a good place to begin, says Karmel. “Buffets enable your children to try lots of different things. Turn dinnertime into a game and get your kids to
vote on their favourite foods.
“You can always save food for later too,” she adds.
“Children naturally get hungry again quite quickly…if you save them a
piece of fruit, then you don’t have to buy them an ice cream.”
And if you’re going somewhere more exotic? “Before you go away, take them to a restaurant which serves the kind of
food that you’ll get in the country you’re going to or try and cook something
at home, for example, Indian food. Get them used to it rather than arriving in a country and having
the food be alien to them.”
Although Karmel, who’s written 26
cookery books for children and babies, advocates taking some family
favourites along in your suitcase, she does advise against parents doing
all of the cooking while you’re away.
“Take
a few favourites, like Marmite, which is easy to put in your suitcase
but don’t feel like self-catering is always the best option. Mummy wants
to have a rest sometimes and cooking breakfast,
lunch and dinner isn’t relaxing.
“If you do self-cater, plan six or seven
meals that are really simple: for example, you could buy a cooked chicken and later make it into a
pie or a stir fry.
Don’t even try and think about making exotic meals or you’ll just be a slave to the kitchen.”
Keeping to some sort of routine is the real key though. The food entrepreneur has little sympathy with parents who let their children eat junk food and stay up late.
“Children can’t stay up late! Try and balance breakfast, lunch
and dinner so there aren’t too many snacks inbetween. If you have breakfast at 8am and you don’t have lunch until
you’re on the beach at 3pm, the kids are going to just eat rubbish
inbetween. When they get to the table, they’ll be disruptive. Or already full, then what do you do?”
Be prepared: If you know your little ones won’t like airline food, make sure you have enough healthy snacks so they won’t go hungry
It is the airlines that feel the real wrath of a woman who has sold four million books worldwide though. She dismisses the sandwiches served onboard some short-haul flights as ‘disgusting’.
“You go on easyJet and it’s extra to
buy Pringles or a Heinz tomato soup that’s just about passable. [A sandwich might be] white bread with a bit of cheese
and ham in it, it’s disgusting and you pay extra for it. I’m on holiday I
want to have a treat!”
It’s even worse with kids, she adds, because flying can be hard enough without having to worry about bad food.
“There is no choice, no menu…just this, this
or this. You get what you’re given. And it’s usually got a mars bar in
it and a bag of crisps. I would suggest you buy some
healthy food before you fly. Be prepared. There is nothing worse
than your child saying I don’t want to eat that and being hungry on a
flight when you’ve nothing to give them.
“[The] trouble with airlines is that they make the meals, they go into the oven
and they leave them for 30-40 minutes and they don’t take it out early
enough and it’s massively overcooked. I’ll make a sandwich or a pasta salad from home.”
Put that lolly down! How to leave the food wars behind and eat well with kids on holiday
If you’re self-catering, try and find meals that
the whole family can eat together. Don’t try anything too exoticUse a reward chart on the wall so when they
try something new, they get a star. Even if they eat just the tiniest
bit of it. With food, you’re better off praising them for trying
something new and ignoring bad behaviour then making a big battle for
mealsKids often like very simple things like macaroni cheese – you could add a
bit of broccoli to it and it’s a healthy mealKeep meals short and pleasant. If they won’t eat, don’t worry – you
know they’ll be more hungry at the next meal and less fussyCooking clubs can work really well – encourage your child to take a cookery course if there’s one available to get them more engaged with food
Flying is something Karmel is getting used to, with a recent business tour in Australia and the Far East under her belt as she tries to grow the brand globally. It’s all good for inspiration though, with new recipes being picked up along the way.
“I talk to a lot of mums and they often give me recipes. In India, for example, I learned about lentil
dhal, okra and other things that are good for kids. Children of two eating
lentil dhal!
“I love working abroad. I meet lots of people and get a real
understanding of what kids eat there. If I didn’t travel I wouldn’t be
able to write what I do…my books have a very international flavour.”
Her own children (she has three) are now in their early twenties. Were they fussy eaters?
“They were all very fussy, which I thank them for because I
wouldn’t have written my books. Now, they’re adventurous and I put it
down to the fact that I made good food at home.
“Parents think kids like
pizza and hamburgers and they don’t think about all the wonderful food
from around the world that children love… like fajitas, which they can
wrap up themselves.
“If you get them used to different flavours at home, then wherever you take them, they can eat.”
Annabel Karmel’s Quick and Easy Toddler Recipes (RRP £9.99) is published on 20th June by Ebury Press.
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Oh just let them munch on ice cream for the sakes of Venelope from Wreck-It-Ralph is so annoying it is what holidays are for – treats! centre parks
Pearla from the Moon
,
Liverpool, United Kingdom,
17/6/2013 22:47
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Ok, text me later but no more teasing about my ice cream binge (hee hee)i’ll text you later about the Hamptons.I miss all of ya,too-gee ,had no idea B is back in town….just been so focused ….tooo focused!!Luv ya all.Just text …
Spooky
,
SW Somewhere, Bermuda,
17/6/2013 22:27
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OMG,this reminds me so much of The Hamptons.ICE CREAM-YAYOMG, my friend is so right he throws the best party(sorry DM your party advice sucks)”He just texted me and said “Baby,you should totally come out to the Hamptons to party with us.I haven’t seen you in a while and you know i’d love to see you.If you can’t make it on Friday i can drive out and pick you up”.hee hee,he is so cute ….he has been trying forever but we r only good friends.So cute though.And he really does throw the best parties.Always tells me to come out when he has ‘DM victims ‘stop by ,but i just don’t really care.
Spooky
,
SW Somewhere, Bermuda,
17/6/2013 22:11
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c’mon. let them eat ice cream.
Nikolas
,
Rauma, Finland,
17/6/2013 21:36
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Annabel Karmel"s top tips for getting children to eat on holiday
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