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A giveaway from Lunchboxes with Love!

This month’s competition is courtesy of the fabulous and inspiring Cath at Lunchboxes with Love. She was an early Vegie Smugglers supporter, supplying me with props for my Lunchbox Planner e-book. We’ve been in touch ever since and I love watching her business grow. Go Cath!

Here’s what you can win…

All this could be yours!

All this could be yours!

• Sleek design, black Zippered Sleeve. Insulated, water-resistant and food safe (no lead, BPA, PVC etc). Rrp $30.
Bento-style Primary Lunchbox Set. Versatile, compact, and easy to clean (microwave & dishwasher safe). Pack and stack the containers in the fridge the night before. Store neatly in the cupboard when not in use. RRP $30.
• 10 Various Styled Leaf Picks. Gorgeous little picks to create a garden in your lunch. RRP $16.
Luv It! cutter that quickly cuts food into small bites, complete with a matching popper that instantly pops out fun shaped pieces – hands are clean, food is untouched. RRP $16.

See full details of all the products here.

With so much AWESOME, your kids will be eating up every little scrap of their lunches. Especially once you start whipping up recipes from my new ebook, “10 quickbakes plus 10 sandwich spreads”, which will be available in a day or two.

To be eligible to win all of these items from Lunchboxes with Love, you must be an Australian-based Vegie Smugglers subscriber, then, simply comment below on the items that are most popular in your kids’ lunchboxes. Inspire us all!

Entries close Monday April 22 at 5pm AET.

24/4/2013 – THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR ENTRIES – AND CONGRATULATIONS TO DEB JAY FOR TAKING OUT THE SET – HOPE YOU ENJOY IT DEB!

And of course, visit Cath at www.lunchboxeswithlove.com or at her totally popular Facebook page.

Comments (152) »

Movin’ right along (ba da bum ba da bum)

How does your family go on road trips? The VS family loves a trip to the country and after years of travelling a couple of hours to visit grandparents, the kids are pretty awesome in the car. No screens, they each pack a bag of things to do, and good tunes are essential to make the trip more interesting (and distract them from whatever argument they’re having).

As a child, my family never left home with out the Muppet Movie soundtrack. But we’re not such nice parents and actually, after a couple of years, kids songs were making me a bit stabby. We went on a music offensive, determined to get them onto stuff we liked too. If you’re still stuck on non-stop rotation of Wiggles, here’s a list of songs that saved my sanity and got the kids onto more palatable music.

These days, the kids’ tastes are awesome and we can chuck on anything. Which leads to the new interesting dilemma of swearing in songs. We usually just let them slide by and mostly they don’t even notice. In fact, after several intense weeks of Icona Pop, Miss F only realised there was naughty words in it when she was in a friend’s car and they heard the bleeped radio edit. And of course, my kids mostly sing along to most songs with their own mondegreens, which makes the whole swearing thing much easier. Like this Yacht track, which we belt out with “When the ship hits the sand” (awesome video but maybe watch first and decide if it’s ok for your kids). Also on our playlist, this Unknown Mortal Orchestra song is apparently all about Ninjagos and Miss F is positive that Florence Welsh is singing, “long live salami” in What the water gave me.

Which segues us nicely into pizza territory. Finally I’ve done up a Vegie Smuggling pizza sauce, which I dollop generously onto small pita breads (conveniently bowl shaped to hold more sauce), and top with salami or ham and cheese for the kids and more elaborate with roasted eggplant, olives and rocket for the adults.

vegie-smugglers-pizza-sauce

Six-vegie pizza sauce

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 tsp brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, peeled, grated
1 zucchini, grated
1 large potato, peeled, grated
4 button mushrooms, grated
1 tsp Italian herbs
2 tsp Balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp tomato paste
400g can crushed tomatoes

The onions cook slowly for a while – get them going, then do the rest of your prep while they’re cooking.

Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan over low-medium heat. Add the onion, and cook slowly for 10-15 minutes. Keep the pan covered, and just stir every couple of minutes. When the onions are translucent, remove the lid, sprinkle over the sugar and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring often, until the onions are golden brown.

Add in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds or so before tossing in all of the vegies. Again, you want to sweat them down, so give the mix a good stir, cover and give them about 10 minutes cooking time (lift the lid and stir every few minutes).

Remove the lid, add in the herbs, vinegar and tomato paste. Pour over the can of tomatoes and mix really well before recovering and simmering on the low heat for 10 minutes more.

Blitz the sauce up and use on pizza or mix through pasta.

Makes about 4 cups & freezes really well.

Make mini pizza & customise toppings to suit.

Make mini pizzas & customise toppings to suit each person.

Like this recipe? It’s from my latest cookbook, ‘Kitchen Collection’. You can check out a copy here.

Comments (16) »

Is there about to be a Gen X versus Gen Y parenting war?

I'm sure Gen Y will help their kids make better fashion choices.

I’m sure Gen Y will help their kids make better fashion choices.

It’s interesting, the topics that get people’s knickers knotted. On the VS Facebook page the other day, it was a massive debate over supermarket etiquette. I posted this…

“Acceptable or unacceptable. Holding up entire line of pre-Easter supermarket shoppers so that your toddler (under 2) could complete the card transaction for you – complete with fumbling, card dropping, and “just wait for it to say remove card, darling” then more fumbling, and finally lifting child over checkout so that she could take the receipt.”

Response was swift and vehement. Many people found it entirely acceptable. Comments like…

” Acceptable. Even with fumbling around it would have taken less than 5 minutes. I think it’s a sad reflection on society that we can’t give a few moments of our time to make a child’s day.”

” Oh come on… Were you in such a rush that you could deny a little one a happy moment? Were you never a child??”

” Acceptable. I would do it with my kids. In fact, if people were getting stroppy over it, I would prolong the whole thing just to annoy those people more. My time is as valuable as anyone else’s; I’m not going to stress my kids or myself just because you can’t wait an extra minute. If you were really in that much of a rush you probably should have picked another time to go shopping. My schedule revolves around my family and my time, no one else’s. Expecting me to deny my child a tiny bit if joy for the sake of sparing you 30seconds is asking a bit much.”

” Man the comments on here make me feel bad for your kids.. My 2 year old and I do this and whether or not others are unhappy about our pace is of no concern to me when I am standing there teacher her how to do a real life situation that she sees mommy do everyday. I have patience with her and understand that everything is a learning experience for her in this big world. She wants to be part of and involved in. People should slow down their lives a moment.. Im sorry some of you are in such a rush you must not be fully enjoying your little ones and more angry all the time.”

” Life’s not a race, if you’re rushing around at the shops today, that’s not the toddlers fault, it’s not the mothers fault, it’s YOUR fault for being disorganised. We should be complimenting good parenting and seeing a child being happy doing something that the rest of take for granted as a mundane task.”

” Is your time really so precious that you won’t let a child learn?”

Then there was team ‘unacceptable’…

“Not cool. It’s about consideration of others and mum should also be teaching her toddler that (certainly a far more important skill than using a damn credit card machine). It’s not ok to assume that unnecessarily holding people up has only a small or no impact on the rest of their day. Being in a hurry is not always about mere impatience. Take all the time in the world to “slow down” when it’s just on your own time.”

” I don’t let my son (9) do card transactions but I certainly encourage him to do cash payments for things he wants with pocket money. Teaching him confidence and manners to say hello, thank you etc.”

” Perfect way to raise self-indulgent & inconsiderate children. Looks like there’s gonna be lots of them!”

And on and on it went. About 230 comments in all – you can read them here.

Along with lots of advice to me, to chill the hell out and factor in a few spare minutes each day, the main argument had dissolved into greater discussion over the way we’re parenting – issues such as selfishness, lack of consideration and indulgence of our children.

I was sorry I hadn’t asked people to prefix their comment with their age, because I’m wondering if we’re now getting some strong parenting divides based on our own generation.

I turned 40 last year, placing me in Generation X. Gen Y are 10-15 years younger and are just having their children now. Are we going to parent differently?

The online world is a brutal place – I cop it often, despite the fact that I’m online trying to be helpful. No one is safe in cyber space, and debates over parenting choices seem to be especially angry and intolerant.

So in the midst of such a volatile setting, is a generational parenting war just starting to erupt?

Comments (17) »

Easter hamping and a remedy for all that chocolate

The tent. Smaller than we remembered.

The tent. Smaller than we remembered.

Did you go camping over Easter? You’d be un-Australian not to. Perhaps right now you’re wrangling a damp tent back into a bag that seems impossibly small and cursing the mess that has somehow magically manifested in four short days. Hopefully some drizzle is ensuring you’ll have all your stuff airing in the garage for the next month or so until you can be bothered to finally pack it away.

Due to work commitments we cheated and did a bit of hamping – home camping. Considering we hadn’t had the tent out since before Miss F was born, we figured it was probably safer – see which bits of our outdoors kit are still useable and which need upgrading. The kids didn’t care about the cheap-arse location; they loved every minute of it.

Turns out that a four-man tent only fits a newly-in-love couple or two small children, so Mr VS & I retreated to our own bed. The kids happily slept two nights out in the yard, alone. Post-firepit marshmallow cooking sessions, they were possibly both in sugar-comas. Luckily the Easter bunny still found them out there in the wild.

It was interesting that the pack up was relatively simple and it took us only one try to get the tent folded into the right size for the cover. My memory of previous expeditions is that it was always a fairly fraught, tense experience as we bickered over how to do it. I suppose nine years of marriage, parenting and umpteen pieces of flat-pack furniture construction have made Mr VS and me into a pretty slick team.

After copious amounts of chocolate, we were all ready for something healthy last night. So I whipped us this really yummy tomato and lentil soup. Nice and hearty, it’s great with buttered sourdough. I won’t mind if you decide to crumble over a bit of crispy bacon or mix through some leftover sliced sausages.

A few lentils to push that chocolate through!

A few lentils to push that chocolate through!

Brown lentil & tomato soup

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp curry powder
3/4 cup dried brown lentils (rinsed, drained & picked over)
800g can crushed tomatoes
2 carrots, peeled, finely diced
2 potatoes, peeled, finely cubed (or 1 potato and 1 parsnip is also delicious)
4 cups vegetable stock (stock cubes are fine)
Parsley & thyme, finely chopped (about 1 tbsp total)
Pepper
1 cup frozen peas

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Pour in the oil and when hot, saute the onion, stirring often, for 4-5 minutes until starting to soften. Add in the garlic and curry powder and stir for another minute until everything smells fantastic.

Tip in the lentils and mix well then add the tomatoes, carrots and potatoes. Combine really well, tip over the stock, add in the herbs and season with pepper. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove the lid and simmer for 20-25 minutes more until the lentils are cooked through (they’ll retain their shape but will be nice and yielding to chew on – no hard bits).

Pour in the peas, and simmer for another 5 minutes before serving with bread.

Serves 2 adults and 2 kids. (Add in a few chopped bits of sausage and you’ll be able to pad it out to 3 kids)

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Ideas for a fun Easter

Ready and waiting

Ready and waiting

Lordy me, wasn’t it just summer? Looking at the calendar I see that Easter has rolled around again! Bit early this year and not wedged into the middle of school holidays.

The bright side of the unusual timing is that there’s an Easter bonnet parade to enjoy at school this year. Odd celebration isn’t it. Apparently it started when the tradition was to have new springtime clothes to parade about in. The lovely new threads would guarantee you luck and abundance over the coming harvest.

Of course in Australia that tradition is ridiculous (especially since it’s Autumn), so we celebrate instead by sticking cardboard chickens on our kid’s heads and taking a heap of incriminating photos.

Easter baking is more something I can relate to. You can find my hot happy buns recipe here. This year I’ve got a couple of new things I want to try. This Easter bread looks interesting and I’m keen to try this Russian kulich recipe. Although I’m not sure what they mean by citron – I guess it’s lemon rind and then I’m planning on adding in some dried fruit too. There’s no citron in the kulich recipe listed on the ‘Orthodoxy and the World’ website, but there is saffron and vodka, which sounds a bit irresistible. And for ridiculous cuteness, it’s hard to beat these Martha Stewart chicken cupcakes.

Staying with friends a couple of years ago, they introduced us to their family tradition of drawing a picture and leaving it for the Easter bunny. It’s a tribute picture of course, featuring the magical rodent himself. It’s a cute idea and one that leads to a nice record of how your kids change and grow each year.

If it’s just a bit of colouring you want, then I’ve done up an Easter colouring-in page. There’s not a vegie in sight, but hey, there’s only one Sunday in the year when you’ve got permission to eat as much chocolate as you like, so let’s enjoy it.

A bunny, eggs and cute stuff to colour.

A bunny, eggs and cute stuff to colour.

What happens at your place? Are you campers? Is there a particular feast? Or maybe you’re one of the fabulous people who head to church and understand was the whole celebration is really about.

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Do your kids take you for granted?

Last year I was working two days a week, but since the closure of that magazine I’ve been home full-time. Luckily I have this business and a bit of freelance design work to keep me afloat.

I’d like to say the extra time at home makes me a better parent, but it doesn’t. I’m still snappy and impatient, although the house IS usually full of baked goods and the lunchboxes are a bit fancier.

Somehow I’m still just as busy, but the tasks I’m caught up in are more mundane. School canteen last Friday, netball gala day on Saturday, play dates over the weekend, parent supervisor at band yesterday and reading groups volunteer today. Apparently, once upon a time, there was a stack of mums to share all these tasks around. But these days we’re a bit slim on the ground, so out of obligation you pick up more and more (although I’m strongly resisting the P&C).

I don’t mind, I quite like it and maybe one day my kids will look back with affection at everything I did for them. It’s fair to say though, right now, they’re pretty comfortable taking me for granted and just expecting the house slave to be at their beck and call.

Being regular kids, they’ve phased in and out of periods of rudeness and have never been particularly thankful for my presence (perhaps that shows what a great job I’m doing at creating a secure environment). In the past I’ve not been bothered about it. When you’re working out of the home you have other stuff to think about. But when you’re parenting full time it’s hard not to take it all bit more personally. Finding job satisfaction at home can be difficult.

It’s the small signifiers that show me when I’m doing well, like when a meal disappears. Which this stir-fry has done every time I’ve made it. It’s really easy too. You can marinade the meat all day and have everything chopped ready to throw together at dinnertime.

Which is good, since we’re out three afternoons a week. The kids having lives and me being their taxi driver and chief spectator. Sigh.

I never take an easy, tasty and popular meal for granted!

I never take an easy, tasty and popular meal for granted!

Pork stir fry

400g pork fillet (you used to have to go to the Chinese butcher for this cut, but I’ve seen it in regular supermarkets now – see here)
1/2 tsp Chinese 5-spice powder
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp shaoxing wine (Chinese rice wine)
1-2 tbsp peanut oil
1 red onion, sliced in half moons
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1/2 red capsicum, cut into strips
1 carrot, peeled, cut into thin diagonal slices
Handful of green beans, trimmed
Handful of snowpeas, whole or in strips
Splash extra of shaoxing wine

Rice & coriander to serve

Slice the pork into thin, 5mm strips. Toss in a bowl with the 5-spice and sauces. Cover and refrigerate for as long as you’ve got (I do this in the morning and leave it all day)

Prepare all your vegies before you start cooking.

Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat (as hot as you dare).

Add your oil (do not leave the kitchen!). Cook the pork in batches, stirring often until totally browned but not quite cooked through. This will take 1-2 MINUTES. That’s all! Keep it undercooked. KITCHEN TIP: Do cook the meat in batches – it is so quick to cook that it only takes a jiffie and will be about 10 times yummier than stewed, overcooked pork.

Remove the last of the meat and set aside. Reduce the heat slightly, return the pan and add more oil if needed. Stir fry the onion for a minute or so then add the ginger, capsicum and carrot. Keep it all moving for another minute before adding the beans and returning the meat and all the juices.

Cook everything for another minute, adding the shaoxing if the pan gets too dry.

SERVES 2 ADULTS & 2 KIDS

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Another idea for helping your kids like vegetables

Always keen to share ideas on this whole healthy living thing, I’m breaking my usual blog format so that I can introduce you to a fabulous woman who’s also focused on getting our kids to love vegies. Here’s the chat I had with her last week…

I love it! Vegetable school!

I love it! Vegetable school!

Who are you?
My name is Simone Emery and I own Play with Food, interactive & fun fruit and vegetable classes for 1.5-5 year olds.

Why would kids need a fruit & vegetable class?

Sometimes kids won’t even look at what’s on their plate! Getting them to EAT it seems less probable than getting them on a play date with Mr Moon. There are many paths you can assail to get your fussy eater to devour their meals (or at least get one piece to their lips).

What happens at the classes?

At our classes your child will have hands on exploration of seasonal fruits and vegetables. The classes progress week by week through different techniques that engage the child with the fruit and vegetables for that week. Yes! We lick, sip, kiss, squirt, bite, smell, suck and laugh our way through 8 weeks of classes. The classes also try to include some culprits from your child’s dislike list. For example, a popular dislike is broccoli so that usually makes a grand appearance in week one. The classes involve child and carer participation in songs, whole piece tactile exploration, activities, games and sensory engagement. The class concludes with free time to play with food. It’s a novel activity for your child to take part in that helps them develop a very important life skill, healthy eating.

What results do you get?

I just had a mum email me that their child just ate a huge amount of peas and macaroni for dinner, and she tried the tomato. These are things that just would never have happened a couple of weeks earlier.

Which kids are best suited to your classes?

Any children between 1.5 and 5 years are suited to the classes. I encourage carers to come along with their children even if they have a younger sibling that is happy to watch. The classes aren’t just for fussy eaters. Healthy eating is a life skill just like swimming and other extra curricular activities. These classes are a way to enhance that life skill and help foster healthy food appreciation.

How can people find you?

We are online at www.playwithfood.com.au and by clicking the link on our “bookings” tab you can see locations and prices. If there isn’t an ideal location or time for your class, let us know. You can request a group booking (8 children) for another area in Sydney that suits your group. Email Simone@playwithfood.com.au, if you have any other questions!

And [insert infomercial music here] you’ve got a special deal for Vegie Smugglers subscribers?

When you book an 8-week package or flexible class pass online – select “Vegie Smugglers” as your referral option on our booking form and get 10% off the listed price. This deal is valid for ALL of 2013 – more locations and classes are being researched and set-up for later dates this year. Like us on Facebook to keep up to date with where we are setting up classes!

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Being held captive by my children and my cat

The other day I was gripped by procrastination so profound that no amount of cookbook-page-flipping or sitting-in-the-sun could satisfy it. Turning to the obvious procrastination aid (the computer), I found myself editing & deleting cataloging through obscene amounts of photos of meatballs, salads, pasta etc etc. Who knew it could take so many attempts before I get a shot that I’m happy with.

More alarming was that amongst the myriad food shots were an astonishingly large amount of photos of my cat. Asleep.

I never wanted a cat. I objected strongly to acquiring the critter and only did under intense emotional duress from the rest of my family. I’ve cursed him as I’ve cleaned up his poo off my kilim rug, I’ve tried not to cry as I’ve watched him bat a mouse around until it died and I’ve been scratched until bleeding by his sharp claws. Little bastard. So I was more than a bit surprised to see photographic proof that I’ve somehow evolved into a crazy cat lady.

It occurred to me that the internet just doesn’t have enough photos of cats so I thought I’d share.

On chairs, in a hat, stretched out...

On chairs, in a hat, under a blankie, stretched out…

Weird, isn’t it. This is just a sample of the photos I had. But there’s something about the little sleeping creature that makes me all tender. Just like when the kids would finally collapse, exhausted after a day of screeching and wailing and I’d sneak into their rooms and just stare at their little perfect faces and MARVEL at how amazing my life was. How LUCKY I was to care for such angels. All the pains of the day would be instantly forgotten.

Then they’d wake up 3 hours later (about 20 minutes after I’d drifted off) and I’d be back to wanting to kill them.

Stockholm syndrome, I think. Falling in love with your captors.

Sifting through the photos though, I was pleased to see that my food photography skills are coming along. I don’t always get it right, but I do like these ones…

vegie smugglers fruit pikelets

There’s no simpler joy than a perfect pikelet.

vegie smugglers yakitori skewers

Food on sticks is always a winner.

vegie smugglers vivid marble cake

The grooviest cake in town!

vegie smugglers beef triangles with vegetables and puff pastry

Yum.

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The day I slammed a spider WITH MY BARE HANDS

Re-enactment.

Re-enactment.

I love those moments where the presence of your children makes you a bigger, braver adult. Like when we got into the car the other morning (already late for school), and Mr M&P started shrieking LIKE A GIRL and bouncing around the car whacking his head, his sister and also kicking me in the shoulder.

More shrieks and squeals. “SPIDER!” was all I could manage to decipher.

Louder. “SPIDER!” With finger pointing. Miss F joined in.

Shrieking, (in unison), “SPIDER!”

Now with both of them bouncing around and a general PANIC setting in, I looked at the medium-sized brown spider and knew that IT WAS UP TO ME TO DO SOMETHING.

I hate those moments. I much prefer to leave myself at the mercy of others, but I’ve found over the years of being a parent that quite often, the buck actually does stop with me.

Worried that the general pandemonium would scare the damn thing off and cause him to scurry somewhere hidden (rendering the car unusable), it occurred to me that not only did I have to do something, but I needed to do something FAST.

Marching around I flung open Mr M&P’s door, leant in and looked for a whacker. For once they hadn’t left a single shoe in the car. So with no weapon to be found, I realised that I was going to have to whack the poor little fella with my hand. Taking a breath and claiming calm I smashed him. Twice.

The shrieks continued, “Ewwwwwwwww!” But the tone had changed. The panic was mixed with a grudging admiration for the awesomeness of their mum.

And I was quite proud of myself. Never, ever would I have done that if the kids weren’t there.

And it occurred to me that quite often they make me into a better person.

And you? What’s a recent feat of awesome that you’ve done on behalf of your kids?

Comments (15) »

How exciting! A competition! With a prize!

I’ve got a great prize today from Superfoods for Kidz. The lovely Vanessa recently sent me a bunch of their products to try and now it’s your turn to win some for yourself. If your kids are fussy, then a combination of vegie smuggling and popping these powders into some recipes will be all you need vastly improve the health of your family. This is what’s up for offer…

Worth $158!

Worth $158!

I run competitions rarely, and I don’t get paid to run them. I asked Superfoods for kidz to team up with me for this one because like to support local small businesses that are focused on helping the health of our community. You can read all about them here.

So I’ve been experimenting and adding the powders into heaps of things really successfully. The C Berry Blast was a big hit in this smoothie…

Bananas, yoghurt, milk & C Berry Blast powder.

Bananas, yoghurt, milk & C Berry Blast powder.

A sprinkle of the choc berry blast has been gracing the top of our yoghurt and the kids were BEGGING me for the Berry choc chunk superfood bars. They’re a great snack size for younger kids and another great idea for lunchboxes.

And the Vital Veggie Powder worked a treat in these cheese & vegie muffins.

Cheese muffins

Perfect way to get vegies into a lunchbox.

Cheese muffins

1½ cups self-raising flour
2 cups grated cheese
125g can corn, drained
½ cup mushrooms, very finely diced
2 tbsp tomato relish
1 egg
¾ cup milk
60g butter, melted
Chives (optional)
2 tbsp Vital Veggie Powder (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 12x125ml muffin tray.

Mix together the flour, cheese, corn and mushrooms in a large bowl.

In a separate jug or bowl, combine the relish, egg, milk, melted butter and chives.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined. Divide between your muffin holes and bake for 25-30 minutes until very golden and cooked through.

MAKES 12

To enter, you must be a subscriber to this blog. Then below, suggest how you would use the powders at your place. You don’t need to supply a full recipe, but links are always fun. And links to MY recipes are bound to be popular really, aren’t they!

And it’d be great if you’d support Superfoods 4 kids on Facebook.

Entries close 11pm AEST, March 6. Winner notified via email March 7 and published here.

*7/6/13 – CONGRATULATIONS TO COLEEN SUMMERS – YOU’RE OUR WINNER! VANESSA FROM SUPERFOODZ & I LOVED THE IDEA OF POPPING POWDER INTO RICEBALLS!

Comments (81) »