5 ways to entertain your kids on a budget

Entertaining kids can be a very expensive exercise, but it doesn’t always have to be. For every special (read: ‘expensive’) day out to the aquarium, or trip to a show, counter it with one of these cheap and cheerful ideas that can be just as much fun.

 

A CityRail train in Sydney

Ride the Rails

It’s no secret that kids love catching trains, so turn your next journey into an exciting adventure.

Mountain Bread Chips recipe

Mountain Bread Chips are our go-to chips for home made nachos, or to have with dips. The kids love them as they're crunchy, but each sheet only has 70 calories, so you can eat a big bowl full without feeling too guilty.

It's a bit of a con to call this a recipe, it's really just a matter of putting them in the oven!

Ingredients
Mountain Bread, cut into 'chip shapes' (rectangles or triangles)
Olive oil spray
Salt

Method
Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C. Place the cut up Mountain Bread on an oven tray, spray very lightly with olive oil, and bake for 5 minutes. They're ready when they turn slightly golden brown. Keep a close eye on them though, as they can go from brown to black in a matter of seconds!

They crisp up as they cool down, so best to leave them to cool for at least a few minutes.

Tweaks

• I like to add a sprinkle of savoury yeast flakes along with the salt for a cheesy flavour.
• You could also sprinkle with chilli powder for a spicy chip.

These don't keep very well, so you need to eat them on the day they're made (not usually a problem in our house!).

Awesome dairy-free banana muffins

I love baking healthy treats for my kiddies, first and foremost because that way I know exactly what's in them, and secondly because it makes me happy to watch their little faces light up when they bite into something yummy.

Yep, I'm a 'feeder', but I do try my best to keep our treats healthy and low in refined sugar.

I've been using coconut sugar recently as an alternative to refined white sugar, as it has quite a few minerals and nutrients in it, is low GI (only 35), and also has a really yummy caramel flavour. It is also high in fructose, so be aware of that. For a fructose-free sweetener, I use rice malt syrup, which is made from brown rice and is a blend of glucose and maltose. 

My other issue when baking is making sure everything is dairy-free for my little man, so I generally use coconut oil in place of butter, and use almond or oat milk if a recipe calls for milk. Most recipes take a couple of goes with tweaking different ingredients before they come out the way I want, but my kids and husband are generally happy to taste the 'practice' ones. "I'll take a bullet for you", says Mr McD.

Banana muffins are a weekly thing in our household, as they're the perfect way to use up the almost black bananas in the bottom of the fruit bowl, and they're also a great way to hide some fibre and other goodness from Little Miss, who is currently following the 'white food only' diet popular with 3 year olds the world over.

Awesome dairy-free banana muffins

This recipe is very forgiving, and I probably make it slightly differently each time.

Ingredients
4 large very ripe bananas
1/4 cup coconut sugar or brown rice syrup
1/3 cup coconut oil (warmed to liquid)
1 egg, very lightly beaten (or you can use 1 chia egg* for an egg-free/vegan version)
1tbsp white chia seeds
1 tspn vanilla bean paste
1/2 tspn cinnamon 
1 1/2 cups plain wholemeal flour
1 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda

Method
In a medium bowl, mash the bananas with a fork (leaving a few chunky bits), and then mix in the sugar, oil, egg, chia seeds and vanilla.

In a larger bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon together, and then pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir until just combined, then spoon into muffin trays.

I bake these at about 180 deg C (fan forced) - mini muffins take about 18 minutes, and standard muffins take about 25 minutes. Just keep an eye on them and test them with a skewer - they're ready when the skewer comes out clean and they're nice and brown on the top.

This recipe usually makes 12 mini muffins and 12 standard size muffins.

These freeze really well, or keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for 4 or 5 days.

Tweaks

• Add a handful of chopped walnuts and some Lindt 70% chocolate to the mixture for dairy-free banana-choc-walnut muffins. OMG. 
• A handful of frozen blueberries also works really well as an added extra.
• You can use plain white flour instead of wholemeal.
• If you don't have enough bananas, you can make up the difference with apple sauce (or I've been known to squeeze in a pouch of Rafferty's pureed apple).

*A chia egg is a decent egg replacer in a lot of baking recipes - mix 1 tablespoon of chia seeds with 3 tablespoons of water, and let sit for about 10-15 mins.