✓ 5 summer recipes for children

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Heat and lack of appetite go hand in hand and for children this is even more true. Here are five summer recipes, greedy and nutritious to prepare with their help, in order to entice them to eat.

Read also: Summer salads for pregnancy and breastfeeding

1. Meatballs and zucchini

Who can resist meatballs? None: small and tasty, they disappear in a single bite. The Lavender Honey blog offers you to meat e zucchini, at the peak of their seasonality in summer. Using them for these delicious meatballs could also be appreciated by those who, usually, do not particularly love them. There prescription, which can be prepared with the help of children, involves frying. Alternatively, baking should also guarantee excellent results.

Preparation time

30 minutes

Ingredients

250 gr of minced beef
1 egg
2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs (for the filling)
1 courgette
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 shallot
sale (q.b.) pepe (q.b.)
breadcrumbs for breading
Fry oil

First wash the courgette, remove the ends and grate it with a grater with large holes. Then sauté it in a pan with the chopped shallot and, once ready, cool slightly. Meanwhile, prepare the dough for the meatballs: put the meat, egg, breadcrumbs and Parmesan in a large bowl. Add the courgette and season with salt and pepper. Knead with your hands in order to obtain a homogeneous mixture and form the meatballs, rolling the mix of meat and courgette between your hands. Put the breadcrumbs in a saucer, bread the meatballs and proceed with frying.

2. Sweet zucchini muffins

Still on the subject of zucchini, the dietician Alice Cancellato proposes to use this vegetable in a sweet, perfect for breakfast or snack. Since it is necessary to turn on the oven to cook them, maybe you can take advantage of the first rainy day or make them in the evening, in order to surprise the family for breakfast the next day.

Preparation time

35 minutes

Ingredients

3 eggs
200 gr of courgettes
250 gr of type 1 flour
100g of almond flour
150 grams of sugar
1 large, very ripe banana
120 ml of cold pressed sunflower oil or butter
1 packet of yeast
100g of dark chocolate 70% cocoa

Wash the courgettes, remove the ends and grate them or chop them into julienne strips. Then squeeze them carefully, in order to remove the excess water (you can also put them in a colander with a weight on it while you prepare the dough). Beat the eggs with the sugar until frothy. Then gradually add the flours, baking powder, mashed banana, chopped chocolate, oil and chopped and squeezed courgettes. Mix the dough to mix all the ingredients well and pour it into the lightly greased muffin molds. Bake the muffins for 30 minutes at 175 degrees.

3. Presto spinach and basil pesto

This pesto and a little' Genoese and a little bit of Arm wrestling. It is certainly an excellent sauce for pasta, but it doesn't look bad either as a cream to spread on bruschetta, to dress salads, vegetables or cold rice. The peculiarity of this recipe, taken from the illustrated book "The little green spoon" (by R. Roth, Sonda publisher), is that it is vegan, that is, it does not involve the use of animal products or their derivatives.

Preparation time

10 minutes

Ingredients

2 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves
1 handful of basil leaves
½ cup cashews, macadamia nuts, pine nuts (or other nuts of your choice)
¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil
whole sea salt
lemon juice
½ clove of garlic

First, rinse the spinach and basil thoroughly. Then put all the ingredients in the blender and operate it until you get the desired consistency, more or less coarse or smooth. Season with salt, lemon juice or garlic if necessary.

Read also: Spelled recipe with rocket pesto and robiola (or crescenza)

4. Bruschetta with goat cheese

Some children prefer one salty snack, in this case the bruschetta are an excellent solution. The book "La cucina dei bambini" (by L. Rossetti and CC Cagnin, Blu Edizioni) offers a very summery one thanks to cherry tomatoes and basil, but at the same time complete thanks to the goat cheese. The version of the book involves using the oven grill, but you should also get excellent results with a toaster or a hot plate.

Preparation time

10 minutes

Ingredients

100 g of medium-aged goat cheese  
6 datterini tomatoes  
a handful of pitted Taggiasca olives  
3 slices of homemade bread  
3 basil leaves  
extra virgin olive oil  
salt and pepper

Cut the goat cheese into cubes and the tomatoes in quarters and in the meantime toast the bread under the oven grill. Season the bruschetta with cheese and cherry tomatoes, olives, oil, salt and pepper and bake them again, just long enough for the cheese to melt. Serve with fresh basil.

5. Bulgur alla Mediterraneana

Do you know bulgur? It is "broken" wheat: whole wheat and sprouted durum wheat grains are steamed, dried and then ground, until they are reduced to small pieces. It is a dish widespread throughout the Middle East. The book "Natural Recipes from weaning to 6 years" (by T. Valpiana, red! Publisher) proposes a Mediterranean version that can be eaten cold and prepare in advance: for a change from the usual rice salad. If you have difficulty finding bulgur try the same sauce for cous cous, rice, spelled or barley or even a cold pasta.

Preparation time

60 minutes

Ingredients

2 glasses of bulgur
2 onions
2 carrots
1 clove of garlic
12 pitted black olives
chopped parsley
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
sale

Peel the garlic clove and chop it, cut the onions into thin slices and grate the carrots. Heat the oil in a pan and brown all the vegetables well. Also add the olives and the bulgur and cook for a few minutes. Cover with four glasses of water, add a pinch of salt, cover and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts to boil, lower the heat and cook for about 30 minutes, the water must have been absorbed, but the bulgur must have a soft consistency. Serve with the chopped parsley.

Read also: Cold pasta: 5 summer recipes for children

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