Bento Making And Portion Size Tips At “Kids Eat Right With Naturel Bento” Workshop at Bayan Indah, Culinary Retreat

One of the perks of being a blogger mom is the invitations to various events and the latest one is “KIDS EAT RIGHT WITH NATUREL BENTO” workshop, which I attended for free! Haha!


Got style or not?

The workshop was organized by Naturel at the Bayan Indah Culinary Retreat, in Sungai Penchala. The session was led by food consultant and founder of Bayan Indah, Rohani Jelani, who has more than 20 years of experience writing recipes for publications and teaching cooking classes.

The workshop started with a talk on portion size tips for kids by Indra Balaratnam, a Consultant Dietitian. In her short but packed-with-info talk, I learned that portion size of different food groups is a key point to note in children’s nutrition. She said

“An optimum meal serving in terms of variety, nutrition and portion sizes are difficult to achieve on a daily basis. Mothers can look at their children’s nutrition intake over a period of a week or a few days instead of on a daily basis,”

Which means, if your kids refuse to eat any greens today, you can stuff it down their faces on the the next day or within a week period! LOL! See, this is why I can’t become a Consultant, I cannot explain anything without making it sound torturous and painful! LOL!

Myself listening to Rohani Jelani (in green apron) and Indra (in tan dress)

Anyway, Indra has more than 16 years experience in dietary counseling, a mom of a 5 year old and most importantly, she is fit and hawt! Haha! That’s why I believe her… Have I told you guys about the time I went for a trial at Fitness First and never came back because the Body Jam instructor was CHUBBY?? OK, I’ll you about that in the next entry… LOL…

During her talk, I took the opportunity to ask a question I have wanted to ask Dr Oz and Jessica Seinfield. I saw it on Oprah; how they promote “disguising” fruits and vegetables in form of purees inside all sorts of food such as muffins, pizzas, cakes etc. It strike me contradictorily with my understanding that vegetables and fruits loses their nutritional values from over heating. So how can you first puree, and then bake carrots in a cake, feed it to your kids and sleep at night thinking they have gotten Vitamin A????

Thank you to Indra, I got the answer to that question… She enlightened to all of us that only ascorbic acid will diminish when cooked, but riboflavin and fibre are still maintained.

Which means, VITAMIN C JE YANG TERHAPUS, TAPI ZAT-ZAT LAIN ADA LAGI.. BAIK KO BAGI ANAK KO MAKAN GITU, WALAUPUN SIKIT LAGI BAGUS DARI TAK DAPAT ZAT LANGSUNG!!

LOL! I told you I can’t become a consultant or a lecturer or something… haha!

After the talk, we were ushered to Rohani’s gorgeous open kitchen where bloggers and members of the media were given hands on tutorial on cooking delicious and healthy food using Naturel products. Naturel cooking oil is made from 100% pure and natural ingredients and it provides a balanced ratio of Omega 3 and 6 and is cholesterol-free. Naturel cooking oil range now includes Naturel Blend, Naturel Sunflower, Naturel Canola, Naturel Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Naturel Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Naturel Pure Olive Oil.

In addition to cooking oil, Naturel has a range of margarine which include Naturel Soft Margarine, Naturel Reduced Salt Margarine, Naturel Reduced Fat Spread and Naturel Fat Spread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

I was paired with a journalist from a Chinese newspaper and we baked a rainbow cake, cooked Minced Chicken & Tofu patties, and also some pasta. Other groups got to learn how to make sushi-style rolled omelette with fillings. I wish I could learn to make that instead of the pasta, because with pastas, I am already a pro. LOL! Rohani will vomit blood in disgust if she reads this! Haha…

However, I am so glad I learned how to make that chicken and tofu patties because it is super easy to make, delicious, and most importantly healthy! If I knew about this recipe earlier I would have made it for Miki’s birthday party last month.

Making chicken patties.. sampai nak terkeluar urat2 tangan…

Look at my facial expression in above picture! LOL!

Indra also joined the class. Rohani helping with my cake…

Rohani explaining the recipe too me personally because I was the slowest student in the class…

I wish I have the determination to type the recipe here for all of you but I guess you all might as well get all the recipes from this amazing cookbook given out with Food & Travel magazine February 2011 issue. I have gotten a copy myself and I am definitely gonna try all of the easy healthy recipes for my family. Trust me you all should too, so go get the magazine now coz no one is borrowing mine! (kedekut) haha!

Now enjoy the pics!

My rainbow cake…

Naturel oil with some of the bentos that we make..

Me posing with my oily face and the awesome Rubbermaid products courtesy of Rubbermaid

The beautiful and green Bayan Indah…

Me and fellow blogger, Puteri…

I made new friends! Great! From left Eti Karim, Shasha and Puteri….

Bloggers and members of media with Rohani Jelani and the great Naturel products

The last picture is my favourite picture! These are FREEBIES! haha! Thank you Naturel, Rohani Jelani and Rubbermaid. Owh.. and in this pic is my own kitchen, my favourite place in the world! Happy cooking everybody…