Planning the school holidays to have the perfect balance between awesome adventures and down time relaxing is not a challenge when you remember that kids need time to recharge the batteries between school terms.
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Spending time with the kids enjoying things you don't normally have time for is the key. One of these activities is planning the food for the week and another is constructing the meals to engage the kids in the process, (often during term we are far too busy to have the kids participate).
GW Meats
Glenn Wheat, from GW Meats next to Aldi, Brighton Avenue, Toronto, suggests that one of his meat packs can make school holiday meal planning a breeze.
Have the kids play a Masterchef Game and plan a meal using their assigned secret ingredient.
Have them use the myriad of recipes on the internet as inspiration.
Help them understand the techniques and taste combinations that they might like.
For example a child who loves Chicken and Carrots this recipe from Good Food magazine, October 2010 would be fun to plan and make.
Chicken pie with a Carrot Thatch
Ingredients
- 1 large carrot or 2 small
- 1 large potato or 2 small
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
- 1 slice cooked ham
- 3 chicken breast fillets
- 3 tbsp frozen peas, defrosted
- 4 tbsp double cream
Method
Steps for the Grown-up
Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan, then boil the carrot and potato whole for 5 minutes, then put them in a bowl of cold water to cool down. When cold, peel them carefully.
For the little ones to help with
- Grate the carrot and potato (cut them into chunks first if you are using a rotary grater).
- Put the grated carrot and potato in a large bowl, add the melted butter and mix it all together.
- Cut the ham into small pieces using scissors or a small knife, then cut the chicken into pieces.
- Put the chicken and ham in a pie dish with the peas and cream and give everything a stir.
- Spoon the carrot thatch onto the pie and ask your grown-up helper to put the pie in the oven for 50 minutes or until the chicken and topping are cooked through.
Recipe from Good Food magazine, October 2010
Yes Optus Toronto
Mark Morgan-Jones, owner of Yes Optus in Toronto Town Square suggests another activity for school holiday fun.
"With the internet being so widely used these days, especially by children doing research, a great holiday activity would be to explore the local area on the internet by doing a scavenger hunt."
Together, come up with a list of items, animals or landmark features to try to locate within same 10km of your home.
Then set about together or if you have a large family in teams finding images or references from the local area showing these items.
With older children you could also use Google maps to work out the best route to take to visit these items or places.
Take your own pictures on your mobile phone and create a slide show or video to create a memory of your adventure.
Yes Optus in Toronto Town Square has great pre-paid deals available this holidays pop in and have a chat with his team on which suits your needs.
