Gails kitchen at Maraylya Early Learning Centre


	Gail's Kitchen At Maraylya Early Learning Centre, we believe in making meal times fun and interesting – after all, it’s an important part of our children’s development. Toddlers and pre-schoolers are at an age when they start to show their independence and often have a reputation for being fussy eaters. Well have no fear, our chef Gail has made a huge impact on the tastebuds of our Maraylya munchkins. Gail is a qualified chef who has worked in a number of a la carte restaurants, and she is a mother of two herself. Her innovative approach to enticing children to try a variety of tastes and textures has proven to be a big hit with our children and parents alike! Using a wonderful range of recipes, coupled with clever ideas to make the food look “child-friendly”, Gail and Dianne Omundsen - the other half of our dynamic cooking duo - produce meals and snacks that are both nutritionally balanced and delicious. All our meals are made on the premises with no preservatives or artificial colourings or flavourings. We even have our own vegetable and herb garden to use in our cooking!

	Themed Days Throughout the year, we orient our meals around specific programming. For example we often talk about different countries and cultures, and what better way is there for the children to get a feel for multiculturalism than to try food from different regions? Some examples of what we have done include: Chinese Chicken Chow Mein (using chopsticks) Indian potatoes dhal with cheese and garlic naan Mexican burritos Italian toasted ciabbata, lasagne, fettucini bosciola Pad Thai Lebanese mjuddra French chicken provincial Russian beef stroganoff Hungarian chicken paprika

	Etiquette and Serving We also use meal times as an opportunity to teach the children table etiquette and self-serving skills – all with a little help of course! Setting the table Table manners Using knives, forks and serving utensils Serving the food Pouring drinks Cleaning up

	Recipe of the month Sausage Rolls: 1 Packet Puff Pastry 350g sausage mince 3tbls chopped parsley 1 grated carrot 1 egg ½ cup breadcrumbs Black pepper Mix all together. Roll mixture in puff pastry. Brush with (extra) beaten egg. Bake in oven at 180 C for 10-15 minutes.

	If you have a recipe that your child loves and you’d like to share it with us, we’d love to hear from you. Click here to send us an email with your recipe.

Gail's Kitchen