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Yummy food - happy Mommy!

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There’s a new chef in town, and he might just be Cape Town Moms’ new best friend…

I have always been a bit of a skeptic when it comes to ready-made food for kids (not a big fan of sugar loaded, salty mush that needs to be heated in a microwave), so when the Elephant Cafe asked me if I would let my kids review their products, I first did some research. Here’s what I found on their website: “We are the creators of a new kind of ready-meal for kids that has no added sugar or salt and is full of goodygoodygoodness! All our meals are freshly prepared each day and can be delivered direct to your door.
We try to use only the best ingredients to help give your little one the best start in life and we do not add salt, sugar, additives or preservatives.” So I’m starting to think - this could actually be worth trying out, so I said yes.

Yesterday afternoon, three paper packets were delivered to my door, very conveniently on a day where I knew I was going out in the evening and my husband was working late, so we would not be eating together with the kids like we usually do.
First ‘aha’ moment: I don’t have to juggle the cooking with keeping the kids occupied - I can spend the time playing with my girls because someone else did the cooking!
We were all curious and inspected the packets, which contained two servings each of ‘Fab Fish Pie’ and ‘Charlie’s Cottage Pie’, as well as some very tempting, colourful pouches with ‘SQUISH’ written all over them.
Second ‘aha’ moment (after reading the list of ingredients); These guys are serious about providing healthy food for kids and peace of mind for parents - it’s all ‘proper food’, not an ‘E’ in sight!

It was time for an afternoon snack so the girls didn’t have a hard time convincing me that the SQUISH stuff had to be tested. They each selected their favourite according to colours - one pink, one purple, the blue one for Daddy, and the silence that followed proved that the all fruit smoothies were indeed very yummy. I had a quick taste myself, and must say that I preferred the Pears & Berries as well as the Bananas & Strawberries, but who wants to know what Mom’s favourite is?
Third ‘aha’ moment: as we are moving towards summer, the girls are becoming increasingly obsessed with ice lollies and we make our own by freezing fruit juice. Today, two very happy girls are sitting in the afternoon sun with their own special smoothie-lolly! Today’s favourite: Tropical and Banana & Strawberry (which, for some reason, is pronounced to taste like chocolate…).

And now for the real test: supper time!
In our case, the test actually came to whether the girls would accept not seeing what is in the food (contrary to the purpose of these meals - to hide the vegetables from fussy eaters…), as they have both always been more keen on plates of clearly separated food. As I mentioned earlier, all I needed to do in today’s food preparation was to get the oven heated up to 180 degrees, transfer the delicious looking pies to an oven proof dish and wait the 12-15 minutes it took to heat up.
We do not own a microwave and prefer conventional heating. The food was fresh and already cooked so really just needed warming up.
Initially I thought the portions looked quite big, but boy, was I wrong! Both girls selected the Fab Fish Pie and polished it off in no time - having fun finding the peas and loving the taste of it so much that they both wanted…‘AHA’ moment # 4:... MORE! I happily put one of the cottage pies in for heating, and even this disappeared in no time.
Both girls (3 and 5 years) announced that both dishes were “yummy but the fish was more yummier than the other one”.
Our verdict: Well done to Elephant Cafe for creating a free afternoon for me and healthy food for my kids - all at very reasonable prices. We will be coming back for more!

Eli,
Cape Town Kids owner and Mom of two young girls

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