Family Food Management Made Easy – Part 2
What my children eat and why
Thank you all so much for the positive feedback on my last blog, I know I said that I’d cover wheat next but I wanted to give you all a really practical and visual blog today that shares HOW I implement my food management principles and why I do what I do.
1. We juice every morning. The boys get involved, we have lots of fun, usually singing along to music at the same time and it means we kick off the day being healthy and happy.
2. The boys don’t have sandwiches at school. They either good quality chicken goujons with black olives, corn on the cob or wheat free pesto pasta with vegetable crisps and on the bottom part, they have a wheat free dark chocolate beetroot muffin and a fruit tube.
3. The boys don’t snack on lots of carbs, even the wheat free versions. Kids have way too many carbs in my view! They tend to snack on nuts, seeds, olives and fresh fruit.
4. If I need a quick on the go lunch, I make them wheat free wraps with good quality lean ham / chicken with sweetcorn and sometimes pesto in too. I put them in plastic cups, great for when they are in the car.
5. As I said before, I think children have too many carbs. If the boys have wheat free pasta or a wrap at lunchtime, they don’t need a carb with dinner. One of the boys favourite meals is fish goujons with peas and sweetcorn. House rule no.2 in our house is vegetables at every meal and whilst they don’t eat lots of different kinds, I am consistent with their daily veg juice and sides.
6. Quinoa is a staple food in our house and I actually got the boys to eat it by telling them that it was ‘Road Runner’ food (they love Coyote and the Road Runner). They love it with pesto or sun dried tomato sauce stirred in and here they have it with taste the difference breaded cod (more fish and less crumb), but I also stir in peas and sweetcorn and tuna and ham.
7. If I need a quick dinner I don’t need a ready meal in a microwave (I don’t use microwaves as they zap nutrients of food and cause a series of health issues –( http://www.the-open-mind.com/microwave-test-an-eye-opener/#LcW54uCa4d4MMZem.01), I do things like scrambled organic eggs with chopped up ham / chicken, I always have cooked and chilled corn on the cobs in the fridge and they love baked beans which I have no problem them having a few times a week, choose the no added sugar version though. I also stir mashed sweet potato into the beans too!
8. The boys love baby sausages and although these are not healthy, I allow them to have them once a week. But again, if the boys are indulging in sausages, they don’t need to have a load of heavy carbs on the side. There is enough carbs in things like peas and corn and makes a meal like this slightly healthier. They like gravy too, only about once a week and I’m a bisto girl!
9. If we go out, the boys love sausages, chips and peas and if we go out they are of course allowed pudding. They probably have 2 desserts a week and like I said in my other blog, we just don’t end our meals at home with anything sweet, even fruit.
10. As a mum, it is important to me that the kitchen is associated with fun, love and happiness. I never make my children eat anything they don’t want to and I never encourage them to finish what’s on their plate. From about 2 years old I believe children know when they are full and have had enough. One of the ways I make meal times enjoyable is to get the boys involved with cooking, laying the table, putting the shopping away and from about 18 months old they have helped me empty the dishwasher. The boys love Master Chef (Not sure whether that is because they are related to Rick Stein, perhaps it’s in their genes) and we often have master chef competitions. Here we had a risotto-off one Sunday. As a rule, our risottos are made with 40% rice 50-60% vegetables / fish or lean meat.
My point in sharing this with you is that healthy eating doesn’t need to be complicated. This is really easy and not time consuming at all. It’s no to very low wheat / dairy / sugar, there is lots of goodness in it, there are obviously a few indulgences and ‘off-food principles’, but that is fine and should be considered as part of life long food management in my view.
Health comes from being consistent and having balance, and for me, this means nine times out of ten, you need to be putting in A LOT more good in your body than bad.
If you book the Food Management Made Easy online programme in July you get 3 hours of bonus family health Q and A’s with me that I’ll be recording in August. There is also lots of family food advice in the food management as well as food principles, daily and weekly planning strategies, portion control, understanding labels, long term health and stacks more!
Janey x
