Success with two new tastes

Falafel
For Friday night fast food my husband and I turn to packets of falafel mixture. These are about $2.50 and if you follow the instructions there is only 10 minutes of work and 40 minutes of baking before you have lovely nutty balls which taste awesome with grated cheese, natural yoghurt and lashings of hot sauce.

As we were snacking on leftovers on Saturday morning we discovered that the Toddler is also a fan of the cold falafel. I'd never bothered to offer them to her before because I thought that they would be too spicy. I was surprised at how much she enjoyed these nuggets of chickpea goodness and will be making them for her very soon. I was also amazed at how she calmly broke each falafel in half in order to get to the soft middle - proving once again that the Toddler intuitively knows what she likes and how to eat.

Ghee
Ghee is butter with the milk solids, water and salt removed. For years I have cooked Indian but ignored the advice in recipes to use ghee rather than butter or oil. It seemed like too much trouble to buy and I assumed that it was unhealthy. All that changed after reading 'Wholefood for Children' by Jude Blereau (my new favorite cook book - buy it or put it on hold in the library - it is divine). This book explains the health benefits of ghee for small children and as a result I finally purchased some from a standard supermarket for the princely sum of $5.50. I added one teaspoon to a serving of lentil and vegetable dal and it gave the dish a lovely rich flavour that the Toddler appeared to respond to (she ate more of the dish than she did yesterday when it didn't have any ghee). I can't wait to use this new fat in more recipes but I'll keep it away from the food for the adults in the house - I have a feeling it could be addictive!