We are aware that our children are in the age of development and therefore we use products that we believe to be reliable in our kitchen.
We take care with the preparation of the foods which we purchase to produce tasty as well as healthy foods for our children to enjoy.
NOTE: We keep samples of the dishes we cook for 3 days so that they can be examined if necessary.
A balanced diet
The healthiest foods for children are fresh fruits and vegetable dishes with meat. Therefore, vegetable and meat dishes are important and our menu has been prepared so that our children can have a balanced diet with vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy products.
We consume beef
As for meat, we only consume beef and we have been buying our meat from “Şatıroğlu Kasap” since the day we were founded. We do not use chicken in our kitchen for the health of our children. We are afraid of consuming fish food in I.P.S. due to the risk of fish bones, however, we strongly recommend that parents should feed our children fish outside of school.
We consume seasonal fruits and vegetables
As a rule we consume fruits and vegetables according to the season. For example, tomatoes and cucumbers in the summer are replaced with carrots or fruit in the winter for breakfast; we use carrots & red root vegetables for our salad. We also prefer seasonal fruits in our fruit selections.
Also every season we consume vegetables grown by our children and the fruits we collect from our gardens. It makes us happy to see our children love the fruits and vegetables which they didn’t like before, because of the joy of growing them themselves.
Eggs and the oils we use
We don’t buy our eggs from the market, we go personally to the neighboring villages or get supplies from reliable people knowing they are farm eggs.
We mainly use olive oil in our meals and butter in our breakfast and afternoon snacks. However, for the preparation of some dishes, we also use some sunflower oil. Due to the risk of allergy, we do not consume hazelnut, we don’t use margarine because of the harmful trans fats it contains and it is synthetic & artificial, we don’t also consume corn oil because of GMO’s (Genetically Modified Organisms).
We drink "Daily Milk" (Pasteurized) instead of UHT Milk
UHT milk is generally preferred because it lasts for a long time. But the milk needs to be sterilized for it to last a long time, the beneficial substances in milk are lost during the UHT (Ultra High Temperature) process. For this reason, our children drink daily pasteurized milk, which is processed at a lower temperature, therefore close to the content of natural milk instead of UHT milk for breakfast and snack times.
Other drinks at IPS
We do not consume readymade juices with high sugar, lemonades or drinks made with powders that are unsuitable for children. Instead, we prefer daily milk, our own low-sugar compotes or our own homemade lemonade and fruit teas. Since all our grocery is bought fresh, there are no additives in it. We make a special beverage called IPS drink by boiling linden leaves which we collect ourselves.
Since the children consume a lot of water, it is very important that the water they drink is healthy of course. It is reported that high levels of contamination have been detected in some of the bottled waters even in well-known brands, which are seen as a solution to tap water. Even if there is no contamination in bottled water, scientists say that harmful substances mix slowly to the water from carboys which are made from plastic. As a solution, we have decided to use a purifier to make our own water. The system is carried out by a special company which come for control, measurement and filter change periodically.
We do not use readymade foods
We do not give foods such as wafers, readymade cakes, candies, potato/corn chips at IPS at any of our meals due to the additives they contain. We do not also consume readymade soups, puddings, meat/chicken stock tablets, ketchup and mayonnaise because they contain intense additives. When we need to use any of these, we make it ourselves.
Less sugar, more fruit and legumes/veggie snacks
A fruit plate is available in our afternoon snacks every day. Along with the fruit plate, we prepare one of the following; a buttery cake made with low sugar, cookies, buns, lentil balls, roasted chickpeas, potato salad, semolina & milk dessert, pudding made with little sugar, mini lentil/apple/carrot balls. For our parents who have never used it, we would like you to know that cocoa can be used in our afternoon snacks once a week.