Kids these days are really fussy eaters. Many a times, if the food brought to them doesn't cause the air to be filled with aromas that are intoxicating enough, you'd better be prepared for a pretty long battle to get them to eat. Sometimes, preparing something that's visually appealing can do the trick. After all, animal crackers and alphabet soups didn't become popular without reason. So much for fun food for kids. But what if adults could indulge and enjoy too, without feeling stupid? "How", you ask? Get yourself McCain's range of French Fries and Potato Speciality products. Their products are largely cholesterol and trans-fat free and filled with the goodness of potato. They're all pre-cooked in pure vegetable oil, and you only need to shallow-fry or bake them, for about three minutes.
My kid is usually not a fussy eater. Like me, his policy is 'if there's anything that can be eaten, it surely must be eaten'. But sometimes, he has these strange twists to his mood, twists that make him really selective about what goes into his mouth. At such times, the wife and I know that food will have to be made a little visually-appealing. The evening of last weekend was one such occasion, The little fellow was not interested in cake or biscuits. We struggled for almost an hour, but eventually gave up. By then, we were hungry too. I was desperately craving for some kind of crispy fried snack. In a moment, my thoughts raced to the pack of McCain Smiles that we has bought from the supermarket a week ago. Suddenly, I forgot all about my kid's snacking options. The thought of biting into crispy smiley-faced potato nuggets left me spellbound. I was brought back to reality only by the sounds of my wife chasing my kid with a bowl of fruit. How could I get my kid to join us in having McCain Smiles, and have fun while having it too? The smiley image might have been enough to grab his attention, but I wanted to add some flavour and personal touch to it. So yours truly came up with the following recipe, which is extremely simple to execute. The recipe is inspired by a brand of cream biscuits that I used to eat as a kid (and still eat secretly, when no one is watching :P).
CHEESY SMILEY SANDWICH
Ingredients:-
- A packet of McCain Smiles
- Garlic-flavoured cheese spread
- Tomato ketchup
- Pudina (mint) chutney
Procedure:- Shallow fry the McCain Smiles till they are crispy-hot. Smear the cheese spread generously over a Smiles nugget, and place another nugget over it like a sandwich. If you can manage to get some cheese to flow out of the Smiles' eyes and mouth by pressing the sandwich' together it would be a visual treat for your kid, but it's okay even if it doesn't work out that way. Serve the 'sandwiches' with thick tomato ketchup and/or freshly made pudina (mint) chutney.
Although it is not likely to happen, if your kid prefers to give the dish the 'cream biscuit treatment' by licking off all the cheese and leaving only the Smileys for you, I'm sure you're not going to complain ;)
For other interesting recipes, visit the McCain India website - http://www.mccainindia.com/
Bon Appetit!
