Whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner, every meal is an opportunity to introduce your children to the joy of eating, help them discover new tastes and textures, and boost their nutritional intake.

Following on from their highly successful debut cookbook, the hugely popular One Handed Cooks (Allie Gaunt, Jessica Beaton and Sarah Buckle) have created a new collection of recipes and mealtime advice to provide inspiration and ideas for family-friendly food that’s healthy, simple to prepare and packed full of flavour.

The book aims to help parents:

– Introduce solids, textured meals and finger foods to babies in ways that encourage mindful eating and food acceptance

– Make every meal count by maximising the nutritional content of favourite home-cooked meals, snacks and sweet foods using easy swaps and additions, to support your child’s growth and development

– Manage and move on from common fussy eating behaviours, including food jags and food refusal

– Create happy family mealtimes that nurture positive associations with food

– Use daily structure, mealtime routines and pre-meal sensory-based activities to reduce anxiety around eating and instead encourage discovery and enjoyment

– Adapt a single meal to suit the whole family – baby, toddler and adult

– Cater to common allergies and intolerences (such as dairy, gluten and wheat) with simple substitutions that don’t compromise on nutrition

CHOC CRUNCH MUESLI

MAKES 5 cups (500 g)

PREP TIME 10 minutes

COOKING TIME 25 minutes

1⁄4 cup (25 g) cacao powder

1⁄4 cup (60 ml) pure maple syrup

1⁄4 cup (60 ml) coconut or macadamia oil

11⁄4 cups (110 g) rolled oats

2 cups (70 g) puffed rice or Rice Bubbles

3⁄4 cup (60 g) shredded coconut

1⁄2 cup (80 g) mixed seeds, such as pepitas, sunflower seeds, chia seeds

1⁄2 cup (70 g) roughly chopped macadamias

4 medjool dates (80 g), pitted and chopped milk or plain Greek-style yoghurt, to serve

There’s something about chocolate cereal that takes you straight back to the holiday mornings of your childhood. But what if it didn’t have to be something to be eaten only on special occasions? Thankfully, our chocolate muesli is healthy enough that it can be enjoyed every day – by adults or kids!

1 Preheat the oven to 160°C (140°C fan-forced) and line a baking tray with baking paper.

2 Place the cacao, maple syrup and oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the cacao has dissolved and the mixture is evenly combined, then

set aside to cool.

3 In a large bowl, combine the oats, puffed rice, coconut, seeds and macadamias and stir to combine. Add the melted chocolate mixture and stir to coat.

4 Place the mixture on the prepared tray and spread evenly. Bake for 5 minutes, give the pan a shake, and bake for a further 20 minutes, checking at 3-minute intervals, or until toasted to your liking. Allow to cool and stir through the dates. Serve with milk or Greek-style yoghurt.

BOOST YOUR BASICS: Seeds, nuts, cacao powder and oats all contribute to an impressive list of valuable nutrients and antioxidants that you wouldn’t expect to see in a chocolate muesli.

STORAGE Keep in an airtight jar for 10 days.

ALLERGIES/INTOLERANCES: Gluten/wheat: use quinoa, quinoa flakes or buckwheat flakes instead of the oats as a gluten-free option and rye or barley

flakes as a wheat-free alternative to the oats. Nuts: replace the macadamia oil with coconut oil, and the macadamias with extra seeds or simply omit.

Dairy: use dairy-free milk, and instead of the yoghurt, serve with a dairy-free alternative such as coconut yoghurt.

NO-BEEF BURGERS

MAKES 8 small burgers

PREP TIME 20 minutes

COOKING TIME 16 minutes

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 carrot, peeled, coarsely grated

1 brown onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 egg, lightly beaten

3⁄4 cup (60 g) rolled oats

3⁄4 cup (55 g) fresh multigrain breadcrumbs

400 g tin brown lentils, drained and rinsed

1 small handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped

Pinch of salt and pepper

8 small multigrain bread rolls, to serve

1 cup (40 g) baby spinach leaves, to serve

Fried onion, 1/2 cup grated cheese, tomato sauce or favourite toppings, to serve

Always on the hunt for that elusive no-beef burger recipe? We think this one fits the bill. So easy to make, these burgers hold together beautifully and when topped with your favourite sauces and fried onion, there will be no holding back!

1 Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the carrot and onion and fry for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and fry for a further 2 minutes. Add the maple syrup and cook for 3 minutes or until slightly caramelised. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Stir through the Worcestershire sauce and egg until well combined.

2 Combine the onion mixture, rolled oats, breadcrumbs, lentils and parsley in a food processor and season with salt and pepper. Pulse the mixture until it

just comes together, being careful not to over-process and turn it to mush. Use a 1⁄4 measuring cup to scoop and shape the mixture into patties.

3 Heat the remaining oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium–low heat. Add the patties and cook for 3 minutes each side, or until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and continue with remaining mixture.

4 Serve on bread rolls with baby spinach, fried onion, grated cheese and tomato sauce or other toppings of your choice.

BOOST YOUR BASICS: Some young children find a loaded burger literally too hard to wrap their head (or mouth!) around. Try mixing up the way you serve it: some may like it in a soft bun, while others prefer it chopped into fingers between 2 slices of bread – or simply just slice the patty and offer as finger food.

STORAGE: Store cooked patties in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. To freeze, you can either flash freeze before or after cooking. Store with

baking paper dividing each patty in a freezer-proof bag for up to 2 months.

ALLERGIES/INTOLERANCES: Gluten/wheat: use gluten- or wheat-free breadcrumbs and bread rolls, use quinoa flakes instead of rolled oats, use gluten-free Worcestershire sauce or omit. Dairy: omit the cheese. Egg: omit the egg or substitute a ‘chia egg’ (see page 5).

NOTE Traditional Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies, so choose a vegan version or substitute with soy sauce for a vegan alternative.

NEVER-ENOUGH FROZEN FRUITS

MAKES 12 of each flavour, depending on ice cube tray size

PREP TIME 10 minutes

FREEZING TIME 4 hours

BERRY VANILLA

1⁄2 cup (140 g) sweetened Greek-style yoghurt or vanilla yoghurt

1⁄4 cup (40 g) fresh or frozen berries

MANGO

1 mango, peeled and flesh chopped

1⁄4 cup (70 g) plain Greek-style or natural yoghurt

It can be hard to keep up with demand for these cute little frozen yoghurts! They’re a sure-fire win with the kids and so simple to create – you can freeze

leftover smoothies, fruit purees and homemade juices. Find some fun silicone ice cube trays, experiment with your own flavours and inject some excitement into this easy and delicious snack.

1 Place the fruit and yoghurt of your chosen flavour in a food processor or blender, blend until you have your desired consistency, and spoon into two silicone ice cube trays.

2 Place in the freezer for 4 hours, or until frozen solid.

BOOST YOUR BASICS: The simple flavours suggested here are a win with almost all kids, but you can begin to experiment with fruits they may be less familiar with or often refuse.

TIP: For kids who may be reluctant to hold the frozen yoghurt fruits in their hands, cut food-grade paddle pop sticks in half and stick them in each of the ice cube moulds before placing them in the freezer to make them easier to handle.

STORAGE: Pop the fruits out of the trays and store in an airtight container or zip-lock bag in the freezer for up to 3 months.

ALLERGIES/INTOLERANCES: Dairy: omit the yoghurt or substitute with a couple of tablespoons of coconut cream or coconut yoghurt.