Stressed Mum

Archive for August, 2009

I took my son to Imperial War Museum North yesterday. If you haven’t been and you are in striking distance of Manchester you should go.

I was immediately impressed by the dramatic architecture of the building and the inside impressed me even more.

It was educational, moving and entertaining all at once. It is hard to describe the sound and picture shows each hour which cover the high, white walls of this ultra-modern space with the images and memories of war, which touch your heart and make you wonder how anyone could wish the horrors of war on their own people or any other yet also bring out the courage and humour of people who coped because they had to.

My son is twelve and the exhibits contained the right mix of facts, images and artefacts to keep us both engrossed for almost four hours. A timeline from the start of the First World War to modern times explains how wars started and who was involved, a special exhibition on prisoners of war gave a different perspective to the conditions of their lives and their escape attempts than any film I’ve seen.

There is a pleasant café overlooking the canal and the added benefit of The Lowry Outlet being only five minutes walk away across the bridge! An excellent day out.

They did this

I did this

Is it only me that hates Alton Towers? I took my 12 year old son there this week, the first time I have been, and it was awful. We queued on the road to get in the entrance, we queued all the way to car park J, we queued to get the monorail to the park entrance then we queued for half an hour to get our tickets. We had been there an hour before we got into the park! Now, I am British and know how to queue but this is ridiculous.

I used Tesco Clubcard vouchers to pay for our tickets so it felt like a free trip but I had actually had to buy £3800 worth of groceries to get the tickets for myself, son, daughter and daughter’s boyfriend. Daughter and boyfriend were essential to the trip as I no longer go on rides since getting a whiplash injury at Blackpool Pleasure(??) Beach 20 odd years ago!

The weather was fine but not too sunny, we were armed with a picnic and a map and headed off into the park to spend the day queuing! The queues were so long that in the eight hours we spent there they managed to go on only seven rides. I spent the majority of the eight hours walking or standing around as there was nowhere to sit to wait for them as they queued for half an hour or so for a two minute ride. To crown the day I got stung by one of the several million wasps that were buzzing around!

The one pleasant part of the day was a peaceful hour sitting in the beautiful gardens reading Mansfield Park on my Sony Reader but I don’t think that alone would be worth the entrance fee of £37. My son had looked forward to this trip for weeks as a highlight of his summer break and he did enjoy it but was frustrated at the lengths of the queues and the number of rides he couldn’t go on, including most of the big ones he was looking forward to most. I suspect it will be a long time before we go there again.

We are all aware that we should be eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day for the sake of our health. So how do you persuade your fussy children to do the same? Here are a few suggestions that have worked for my family, try them and see if you can turn your faddy eaters into healthy choosers.

The most important thing is to start with what they like. Don’t make too many changes at once and try to add to the foods they are already happy with rather than giving them completely new foods. You may have adventurous youngsters who love to try new things, I’ve heard they exist, your little one may refuse to eat anything except chicken nuggets and marmite or, most likely, you’ve got something in between. It doesn’t matter. Start from where your child is and make the changes small and gradual.

The best way I found to give my finicky eaters more of what I wanted them to eat was to hide it in something they already liked. When my daughter was six she decided to become a vegetarian. I couldn’t argue with this, as I am a vegetarian myself. The trouble was she didn’t really like vegetables! While she was at school the food processor came out and in went onions, mushrooms, butter beans or chickpeas for protein and any other things she wasn’t too keen on. Then I made a casserole with potatoes, carrots, peas and sweet corn and incorporated my healthy puree into the sauce. She had no idea how healthy her tea was. It is easy to do the same with a tomato sauce for pasta, add in some red lentils which cook down to nothing, carrots, onions, courgettes, broccoli and herbs and whiz it up in the blender. You can spread this sauce on a pizza too.

A great way to incorporate vegetables into meals is to make soup. Even the cheapest stick blender will hide any number of vegetables beyond recognition. Onions, carrots and potato fried gently then cooked with some stock and herbs and a tin of tomatoes will blend into a sweet, tasty soup most children, and adults, will enjoy. Lentils can be added to any mixture of vegetables and stock to give a more substantial soup. Serve the soup in bowls as part of a meal or in mugs to drink after school in the winter, filling, warming and good for you too.

When it comes to packed lunches and snacks you can have lots of fun. Make sandwiches tiny or in fancy shapes, my youngest daughter had a duck shaped cutter she loved when she was nursery school age. Make them appeal to the child’s taste, a wizard’s hat for your Harry Potter fan, chicks and Easter egg shapes, Christmas trees and stars, horses or cats. There are lots of cookie cutters available so make lunchtime fun. Children as young as one or two can easily cut out shapes with a little help. When it comes to fillings you really want a little protein and plenty of vegetables or fruit. Peanut butter, cheese spread or hummus make good fillings with salad vegetables. Don’t worry if they don’t like salad; add crunchy carrot and cucumber sticks, bags of mini carrots and grapes, satsumas or little apples into their lunchbox. When they need a drink or snack make that healthy too. Banana milkshake, strawberry smoothie, mango smoothie or fruit salad are always popular. If your children love their desserts then make some fruit puree to pour over ice cream or stir into natural yogurt. Stewed apples, pears or rhubarb are good with ice cream, yogurt or custard too and don’t forget that old favourite bananas and custard.

When you really want to introduce them to new foods you can hide them at first in sauces as above. Then try chopping the food up really small so it’s difficult to distinguish and only when they’ve accepted that should you move to bite size pieces. This may take several weeks or even months but it is worth the effort. Of course they may still resist but does it really matter? Think of any foods that you’re not keen on; there are probably a few. Does it affect your life or health if you don’t eat these foods? Probably not, so don’t worry if your children don’t like the same foods as you. As long as their diet is healthy most of the time and they get a variety of foods and nutrients during the week one poor meal won’t hurt them. You can always make a game of eating new foods too, a three year old can be allowed to have three spoonfuls of a new food before leaving the rest, moving up to four after a birthday.

When it comes to family meals no one wants to make several meals to give everyone their own choice. Try to make the choices part of the meal and your children may surprise you by trying things you may not usually offer them. A pasta bake can be made quite basic (with hidden vegetables in the sauce maybe) and then served with separate bowls of tuna, sweet corn and roasted vegetables for everyone to help themselves.

So, the general advice is to make the changes small at first. Try again after a few weeks if they resist change. Make mealtimes fun, relaxed mealtimes are pleasanter for everyone. Let the children get involved in choices and preparation. Lead by example, you may be so busy with the family you forget about yourself, so make sure you are getting plenty of fruit and vegetables too and eat a healthy snack at the table while the children eat tea if you are eating later.

Finally, don’t worry, faddy young children often grow up to be health conscious teenagers and adults, so don’t give up, have fun, enjoy your children and your food.

Back to the old catering problem again. The menu planning is working a treat combined with online grocery shopping but the plan is tending to be a little repetitive. I have however discovered a new way to cut down on the cooking. Get someone else to do it! This may seem obvious and other people in my household do know how to cook but don’t often wish to share their talents with the rest of the residents. Daughter 3 and her boyfriend often cook for themselves but he now wants to learn more dishes, especially Italian, so I have provided ingredients, recipes and assistance where needed and this week he has produced spaghetti Bolognese and shepherd’s pie. Tonight he is making chicken and bacon tagliatelle and on Sunday plans an Italian style roast chicken. He is also pretty good at Thai Green curry! I will soon be redundant in the kitchen! Not yet though and last night’s macaroni cheese was wonderful, especially with the addition of my home grown cauliflower.
Current favourite healthy snack is guacamole made with an avocado, large tablespoon of Philadelphia light, lime juice (or lemon if I’ve run out!) and a few Peppadew sweet peppers all whizzed together. Perfect for dipping freshly picked courgettes and carrots from the garden. Speaking of the garden, the sun is shining, previously mentioned cook/boyfriend is jet washing the patio (yes I’ve trained my girls well!) and my cup of tea and I might just wander out for a spot of light weeding.