Easter weekend is coming up and whether you celebrate the Christian Easter festival or not, chances are your house will see its fair share of chocolate!
Have the egg hunt, pack an Easter basket with bunny goodies and treat the kids. But when you're planning the family meals, see our few great ideas that won't increase the sugar load but will add to fun factor.
Here are a few tips by Gert Coetzee, pharmacist and founder of The Diet Everyone Talks About, for making sure that you and your kids can enjoy their Easter meals guilt-free.
Breakfast: bunny pancakes
Breakfast can be the perfect combination of health and fun. You can make bunny head-shaped pancakes, using fruit to complete the face. Choose low-carb fruit to make this a balanced meal that will provide your kids with the nutrients and energy they need.
Makes 16 pancakes
Prep time: 10 min
Carbohydrates: 2.1 g per portion
kJ: 168 kJ
Ingredients:
6 Eggs, well beaten
150 ml Canola oil/olive oil (= less CHD)
125 ml Cream
250 ml Water
150 ml Soy flour / cake flour (= more CHD)
To taste: salt
Sprinkling: mix cinnamon and powdered sugar substitute
Optional: lemon juice in the pancake mix
Method:
1. Whisk everything together (except sprinkling) and make a soft, smooth batter.
2. Bake the pancakes in a little oil.
3. Sprinkle the cinnamon sprinkles over to taste.
Decorate:
- Place a pancake on a plate – this will be the face.
- Cut a fig in half and use it as a nose.
- Use blueberries as eyes.
- Cut a pineapple into two pieces and use each piece as an ear.
- Use some raw honey to spread a smile on the bunny’s face.
Recipe from The Diet Everyone Talks About: Eat Slim/Eet Slim.
Lunch: sandwiches
Make bunny-shaped sandwiches, using whole-wheat or brown bread. Fill with delicious ingredients like lettuce, tomato, cheese and tuna or lean-cut meats. Symbolising Easter, don't forget the boiled eggs on the side! You can also add vegetable sticks with Greek yoghurt as a dip. Cutting fruit into fun and exciting shapes for your kids to enjoy is also another option.
Dinner: chicken breasts
How about making stuffed chicken breasts for dinner? Fill the chicken breasts with mushrooms, ham, cheese, onion and maybe some garlic to taste. This can be served with a crisp fresh salad or sweet potato wedges. The health benefits of chicken include its supply of protein, vitamins and minerals, and it also helps reduce the risks of high blood pressure as well as cancer.
Snacks
Fill plastic eggs
Buy plastic eggs and fill them with healthy snacks such as biltong, nuts, vegetable sticks and pieces of fruit. These can even be used for the egg hunt if you don't want chocolate to melt out in the sun... but I can't guarantee that's going to fly with the kids!
Fruit kebabs
Fruit kebabs as well as chocolate-covered fruit are also great snack ideas for Easter. You can dip the fruit in melted chocolate then roll it in chopped nuts. This snack will serve as a chocolate fix with a healthy dose of fruit.
Low-carb chocolate brownies
Here’s a decadent yet healthy recipe with only 2g of carbs per square!
Makes 30 squares
Prep time: 30 min
Carbohydrates: 2g per square
kJ: 270 kJ
Ingredients:
125 ml butter, room temperature
3 eggs
100 g unsweetened chocolate slab
10 ml chocolate extract / essence
30 ml water
30 ml soya powder
125 ml coarsely chopped walnuts / pecans
0.5 ml Nice-n-Sweet
40 ml chocolate liqueur / crème de cacao
Recipe from The Diet Everyone Talks About: Eat Slim/Eet Slim.
Activities
- Make the classic egg hunt even more fun filled if you challenge the kids with finishing times or quantities collected.
- Have a dance off! Turn on some of your kids' favourite tunes and let them show off their best moves.
- Leapfrog can also be a fun family game. Pretend to be bunnies instead of frogs.
- Getting your kids to paint boiled eggs can also be fun.
More Easter fun:
- EASTER FUN AND CRAFT IDEAS
- Print these Easter cards
- Events: Keep your kids entertained this Easter holiday
- Chocolate mousse cake for Easter
- 5 recipes for chocolate lovers
Send us photos of what you and your family are eating this Easter weekend! Send to chatback@parent24.com and we may publish them.