Stressed Mum

Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

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.

One of those weeks. The neighbours had obviously gone away and left a teen or two in charge, with predictable results! The first couple of times we asked them they turned the music down, only for it to become even louder half an hour later. By half past 12, however, they were shouting and laughing and then a fight broke out. Having put up with several evenings of this I had had enough and called the police. That worked! I overheard one girl saying she had cleaned the blood off the carpet then someone saw the police car and they went into overdrive. Bottles were thrown into the recycling bin, music turned down and peace finally descended. I haven’t heard a peep out of them since.
By Thursday there were nine of us in the house. My three daughters were arguing, boyfriends and friend keeping out of the way, son hiding with the computer. I was getting stressed about feeding and finding bedding for everyone (only one had to sleep on the floor and all had quilts and pillows!), hubby went to work! Daughter and friend brought with them a dog and two rabbits, other daughter brought a turtle, I don’t like animals. A warning light came on in my car; I took it to be checked out at the garage as I am driving to Wales in it tomorrow. Cancel that, it won’t be fixed until Monday so I’m driving to Wales on Monday. My nephew has helped find temporary night shelter for the dog, one daughter and her boyfriend have departed to Lourdes and things are a little calmer. When the children were small I thought life would be simpler when they were more independent. No chance. When am I ever going to get the peaceful life I crave? And will I want it when it comes?

Yesterday was my eldest daughter’s graduation. My husband took a day off work and we drove up to the university in good time. We got on the graduation shuttle bus from the car park to the robing rooms, she emerged looking every bit the bright young lady she is and we were very proud parents indeed. She had a lovely day meeting up with her friends and we came away with a beautiful set of photos, unusual nowadays for her to let us take even one photo so they will be treasured.
The ceremony itself was a cross between Hogwarts and Parliament with a touch of church service thrown in. There were gowns and funny hats, processions and trumpets, organ music and hand shaking. All that was needed were a few owls swooping over the graduates heads and some candles hovering over their heads and it could easily have been part of a Harry Potter set or maybe some incense and a couple of hymns to complete the picture of a church service.
The main thing is we have come through high points and low, tantrums and tears, successes and failures and now have an educated, adult daughter ready to make her own way in the world. We are there for her always but she has to take her own path now and make her own decisions. I pray that life will be kind to her.

When I decided to join the 21st century and write a blog I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to write about. I still have no idea. I do know that I like to write. I also like to cook, read, garden, watch Manchester City and sew. I do not like to clean, tidy, wash, iron…. you get the picture. I may write about cleaning, tidying etc. as I do those (almost) every day. I am more likely to write about the things I love.
The things I love do, of course, include my husband and four children so I may write about them too, but only if they do something interesting!
Currently the thing I love best is my new Kenwood Chef. My Mum had one of these when I was growing up but I was never initiated into its mysteries. I recently did some research (Google and talking to friends!) and decided to buy one with the proceeds of a few days teaching in March. I am a convert. I have chopped, sliced and mixed. I have made bread (lots), pasta, soup and cakes. I think I may be addicted to bread making. Looking for and trying new bread recipes takes time but the end result is very satisfying so I am trying to collect together a good selection of recipes. I will post on here any good ones I find.