Last week I watched Foreign Correspondent’s Globesity documentary and it scared the sh*t out of me for children in poorer countries, such as Mexico, Latin America and India. And, as often happens, it renewed my determination to feed my kids the healthiest diet I can possibly muster. So starting this week I’m overhauling my lunchbox menu and re-focusing my energy. Here’s what I’m starting with.
My kids, by and large, eat reasonably well. And living in Australia we have no excuse for a poor diet. We have cheap (relatively), readily available fresh fruit and vegetables and also the education to go along with creating a healthy daily diet.
On a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being Maccas every day and 1 being vegan, we’re at a solid 5. The kids eat fruit almost every day (once in a very rare while, on a Friday, we’ve run out and they don’t get any). Most evening meals are simple – meat and vegetables. We eat pasta and bolognaise usually once or twice a week.
But of late, I’ve taken the easy route with the kids’ lunchboxes. I routinely throw meusli bars in, along with a packet of Rice Wheels or Vege Chips. Both the Rice Wheels and Vege Chips are marketed as a health food alternative to potato crisps but my objection is to the highly refined, highly processed nature. The fibre content is low and the salt content is high. So – no more!
Getting three kids ready in the morning – when you’re not an early riser – can be tricky. On Mondays and Tuesdays I work, so have to be out the door by 8am. I get up at 7am. That’s an hour to shower, feed three kids’ breakfast, eat my own breakfast, make three kids’ lunches and my own lunch and get out the door. Not long.
Yes, yes, yes. I could easily pack lunches the night before. You’re right. But I’m an inveterate procrastinator and I don’t see any reason why I should do today what I can put off until tomorrow.
But now, with my new obsession with feeding my children whole foods wherever possible, I’m going to have to become more efficient with my time and definitely pack the night before.
READER TIP: UPDATE ADDED 9AM 30/7/12: Children who make their own lunches are more inclined to eat it. “My kids made their own lunches from yr 1 and cooked a family meal once a week. Hard work early, bliss now they are older.” From @mincle. (Follow @mincle for lots of interesting stuff!).
I’m going to work to limit the amount of sugar and highly processed foods. I’m also going to prepare foods in advance. Each week will have a slight variation in the menu to make sure things don’t get boring.
Here’s this week’s menu and accompanying recipe:
- Wholemeal dinosaur banana muffins
- Strawberries (these have just come into season and are excellent quality)
- Wholemeal blueberry pikelets
- Carrot sticks + dip
- Ham and avocado on wholegrain wrap
Wholemeal dinosaur banana muffins:
This is from a Women’s Weekly cookbook. I substituted wholemeal flour for white refined flour. I left out the sugar. Bananas are sweet enough without additional sugar. I also, accidentally, forgot to add the 1/3cup of oil to one batch (I did a double batch). Can’t tell which is the batch with oil and which is without! Finally, I used skim milk instead of buttermilk.
- 2 cups SR flour (I used wholemeal SR flour)*
- 1/3 cup plain flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar (I left this out)
- 1 cup mashed banana (I added about 1.5 cups)
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup buttermilk (I used skim milk)
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
*When substituting wholemeal flour in place of regular white flour you will likely need to add a bit extra liquid as the wholemeal absorbs more moisture making the batter stiffer.
- Preheat oven to 200oC/180C fan-forced. Great 12-hole muffin pan. To create additional interest I bought some dinosaur shaped cupcake moulds from Kmart for $3 each.
- Sift flours (don’t sift wholemeal flour!), cinnamon, soda and sugar into large bowl; stir in banana, eggs, buttermilk and oil. Do not overmix. Spoon mixture into pan holes.
- Bake muffins about 20 minutes. Stand muffins in pan 5 minutes. Turn, top-side up onto wire rack to cool.
Easy peasy!
Wholemeal pikelets with blueberries:
- 1 cup of wholemeal SR flour
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp caster sugar (which I omitted)
- Handful of frozen blueberries
As with the muffins, I made a double batch to make sure I had plenty for the school week.
Dip:
This week will be hommus, which the kids like.
- 600g canned chickpeas, drained, rinsed
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 100ml olive oil
- 2 tbsp tahini paste (which I routinely leave out, but when hubby makes it, he puts it in)
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- Juice of 1 lemon
I’ll send that to school with carrot sticks or wholegrain rice crakers.
And that’s it for this week’s lunchbox. My goal is to train my children’s palate so that they prefer whole foods, crunchy, fresh foods. Even though children seem to be universally drawn to sugar, I’m going to try to re-train their taste buds to prefer flavour over sugar. All the while, my one, simple, guiding principle will be – whole foods wherever possible.
And if you get a chance, watch the Globesity episode. It’s frightening.
Sounds like a great plan Felicity! I think the less processed food we all eat, the better. But it does take planning, that’s for sure. I had a giggle at your 1-10 scale, though, as I went vegan at the beginning of the year as one of many health changes I’ve made recently and its the best thing I’ve done! I will check out the globesity program – I find the number of children being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes these days just tragic.
Wow, Penny! Vegan! Was it a big change? Did the whole family go vegan or only you? The Globesity episode (let me know if you have trouble watching it) was riveting. Children in India being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes without being obese! They’re being programmed in utero by mother’s bad diet and also, because Indians traditionally have had a lean diet, when they do put on a little bit of weight it goes straight to their heart and vital organs, leading to organ damage and Type 2. You’ll love the stuff about Nestle. *shudder* Anyway, I’m hopefully doing better by my kids now.
Yes, it was a big change but I did it over time. For starters, the whole family eats a lot less meat here than we did in Australia (its more expensive here!). Then I went vegetarian a year ago which was the hardest change but after the first few days when I realized I needed to eat more than I was eating I felt fantastic. Then I finally made the decision to cut out dairy and eggs in February and I feel really good. I still cook meat for the family and have adapted many of my favourite family meals so I can do two versions of them (often meat for them and beans or some other protein for me) but they get the advantage of a lot more vegetarian meals too. I am far from a perfect vegan however: I still wear leather and I will eat eggs and dairy at birthdays, when invited out (so as not to be a pain in the a***) and when away on holidays.
I’m planning on watching the globesity program after the kids are in bed tonight. I’ll let you know my thoughts. I’m really interested in the area of health and fitness so I read quite a bit about obesity etc
Holy heck! I just watched the doco and I can see why it scared you into eating more whole foods! It scared me too! It just disgusts me what Big Food is doing in these countries. Some really interesting points I noted: that people in Mexico have the world’s highest consumption of soft drinks and the highest rate of overweight people, and the effect of malnourished children being born underweight, then undergoing very rapid growth putting them at much higher risk of later obesity. And what the heck was David Bowie thinking letting Coca Cola use his best ever song (Heroes) for a freaking ad!!
I really hate the Big food companies. They can talk all they like about personal choice (like the guy from the mexican food and beverage association tried to) but its so much bigger than that. It does make me all the more determined to keep my kids away from soft drinks. We almost never have them at home but since I quit drinking alcohol (another story!) I often order a Fanta when I am out at a restaurant – no more!!! Obviously its not just soft drinks, there are so many issues all interacting. It was great though to hear Marion Nestle speak (love how she said “no relation”). I’ve read a few articles or quotes from her from time to time and she seems to really have some interesting thoughts.
Thanks for posting this Felicity – it was very interesting viewing!
Oh I’m so glad you watched it! And got something out of it!! It’s really shocking, isn’t it?! It blew my socks off. So sad. What I don’t understand is why the Mexican government is subsidising gastric bypass surgery but isn’t doing anything to regulate soft drink and junk food consumption! Crazy. To any other readers, I’d urge you to go to the ABC Foreign Correspondent website and watch the Globesity episode: http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/globesity/ It’s life-changing.
Hey Felicity. This is an issue close to my heart. I have taken a radical approach to the diet we eat in our household over the last year and it has been the best decision but the hardest thing we have ever done as a family. Basically my family follows a dietary guideline known as Paleo or ‘eat like a cave man’. There are many forms or Paleo out there and ours is by no means strict but it has seen us cut out almost all processed foods from our diets, lose weight, gain energy, improve my mental health out of sight, and our kids are better behaved on average than they were before AND they seem to really ‘get’ the whole healthy eating thing now.
I watched Globesity and was so saddened by what I saw. Big business just sucks but as Marion Nestle said they are just a business selling a product to make money in in many ways they are not the bad guys it is the governments who do nothing to regulate them. I kind of agree with her there but really I do think Big business have a lot to answer for.
It takes a lot of effort to eat well, and I have to say it is expensive (we mostly try for Australian Certified Organic products) but it is possible and really rewarding. I have a few links for recipes and information if anyone is interested:
http://www.thehealthychef.com, http://www.pathtowellness.com.au, http://www.sarahwilson.com.au, http://www.thewellnesswarrior.com.au.
I use most of these daily and all of them are Australian. Lots of interesting information about living a chemical free life. Check them out if you are interested.
Helloooo HAC! *big, inappropriate hug*
How are you? So good to hear from you again. Amazing what happens when I actually write real posts – readers come back!
Anyhoo, thank you so much for the Paleo tip. I’m really interested in this stuff. You’ve articulated exactly what I’ve been fumbling and bumbling in the dark looking for, with my ‘whole foods’ mantra. In between reading your comment and posting my reply I googled Paleo and came across this beginner’s guide by Nerd Fitness by Steve Kamb. These are the principles I want to embrace for my family. It just seems to make sense to me. Processed foods, preservatives, highly refined flours – all seem to be things that are not ideal foods for growing bodies.
I’m going to move us towards a Paleo diet. I don’t know if we could ever embrace it 100% because I’m not organised enough. It requires some forward thinking and planning and that’s not always how I approach mealtimes or food. Sadly.
But we are definitely going to increase the whole foods ‘cave man’ approach to eating. I might even do a 30-day trial and blog about it! Thanks again, HAC!
Nothing inappropriate about a hug from an old friend
I am great !! and loving your new blog posts.
Your Paleo link is great btw. I have been trying to explain to many skeptics in my life about why my family is doing this and often I am failing with my explanations, my reasons are all too touchy feely even though I know there is science behind it all. So that link will now be on high rotation for me, it is gold.
I would love to hear about your approach to cave man foods via 30 day trial. Go ahead and give it a go !
You should give it a try Felicity! It would make for very interesting reading
Thanks again for this thought provoking post!