The nutrition of my kids and family has always been my number one priority ever since I got pregnant, even before I had any formal education about it. Perhaps it was a foreshadowing of what I would eventually be doing. 

When I talk about how I started Mesa ni Misis, it always goes back to taking care of my own family first, and using them as guinea pigs for my healthy recipes. 

People always ask me, “How do you get your kids to eat healthy?” “How do you get your kids to eat vegetables?” The most honest answer is that my husband and I always have vegetables with every single meal, so the kids see us eat them. 

Modelling a behavior to a child is the most powerful form of teaching. Mothers are our children’s first nutritionists, their first chefs, and their first teachers. It’s important to pass on the right ideas and habits about food while they are in our nest. I often test out recipes that they don’t like, and then find recipes they do like. It’s not every day that I make their absolute favorites; I constantly push the boundaries of their palates in order to expand it. 

My favorite way to do this is to cook with my kids. Ever since they were little, we would bake and do activities in the kitchen. When they were little, I would take the kids to farms to see how food was grown, so they understood the effort of nature and of people in the growing of food. I also made sure to take them to the supermarket and markets with me, so that they could see where food came from, and choose new vegetables and new food to try. 

Having children create food together with you is a multi-faceted learning experience. The physical touch, the listening and learning, and then the satisfaction they get when seeing the finished product they create, not only entices them to eat what they create, but also helps them learn the value of food. 

This way, children also learn to avoid food waste—by knowing the pain of seeing something that was worked so hard on, go to waste. 

My kids came up with the idea of using camote for gnocchi, a potato-based pasta, early on when I was starting Mesa ni Misis. They created the dumpling-shaped pasta by hand, and although sometimes too large or too heavy, they created them and ate the whole dish. 

My daughter prefers a tomato-based sauce with her gnocchi, while my son loves olive oil and makes a garlic rosemary sauce for his. Mashing and molding the gnocchi is a great sensory experience for your kids, so making this together will give you a great teaching and bonding experience with your child.

Some nutrition tips you can share while making the camote gnocchi:

1. Camote is rich in vitamin A. This is good for your eyes!
2. Pressing down on each piece of gnocchi with a fork creates a groove for the sauce. Create your own pattern!
3. The entire camote plant is a nourishing one. Its leaves can be eaten.
4. Camote leaves can be boiled and drunk as a tea. It’s high in antioxidants and is believed to help when one has dengue. 

Camote Gnocchi

Ingredients

3 whole camote, boiled and peeled
1 1/2 cups flour
Rosemary garlic oil dressing
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 sprigs rosemary
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspooon salt

Making gnocchi:

1. Mash the camote well using a fork or potato masher. 
2. Combine with the flour. You can add a little water to help the ingredients stick together. The goal is to have a dough with the camote and flour evenly distributed. You need to get it a little sticky to combine it so add water as necessary. If it gets too sticky, add a little flour. 
3. Once the consistency is correct, roll the dough into a cylinder, around 1 foot long. 
4. Cut off sections, about the size of one segment of a finger. 
5. Once the gnocchi are formed and rolled out, take the back of a fork and make an imprint on the gnocchi. This is so that the gnocchi picks up any sauce you will add. 
6. Lightly dust the gnocchi with a little flour when you are done. 
7. Boil a pot of water. Drop in the gnocchi and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. You will know they are ready when they float to the top. 

For the sauce: 

1. In a pan, turn the heat on the lowest setting and add the olive oil. 
2. Add the rosemary, garlic, nutritional yeast, and salt. The aim is to infuse the oil with flavor and not to cook the garlic and rosemary.