Healthy eating for families

Woman and Home Food Bloggers

My ‘Healthy Eating For Rubbish Cooks’ has been featured in Woman and Home Magazine

Posted on by MummyWhisperer

Woman and Home Food BloggersOk, so don’t choke on your coffee, but I’ve been picked as one of Woman and Home’s BEST FOOD BLOGS!

Yes, I know that’s a bit ironic as I’m a rubbish cook.

And I really hope the other foodies aren’t upset, as I know that food blogging is a serious thing in the UK!

But I’m really chuffed.

It’s because of my features about ‘Healthy Eating For Rubbish Cooks‘.

I must admit that after writing a few background blog posts I got a little distracted.  But I’m back in the game and over the next 6 months I’ll be adding all the basic recipes I use to feed my family in a healthy way, but without any cooking ability or more than 3 ingredients at a time.  (hint hint, subscribe now so that you don’t miss out).

 

I’m very passionate about teaching people that healthy eating doesn’t have to be as extreme as eating cardboard, that treats are fine in moderation and that diets are NOT necessary when you are eating healthily.

The media only loves an extreme story (normally), so I’m incredibly chuffed that Woman and Home magazine have noticed me, even just a little bit.

 

I don’t know why chefs have to over complicate things and have more than 3 ingredients in every recipe.  But there is a serious ramification; it puts people who are rubbish off cooking and sends them straight to the ready meal section.

The majority also seem incapable of putting together a meal which actually has healthy proportions of food.  So people aren’t even used to seeing a balanced plate.

Jamie Olivers 15 minute meals are plainly more like an hour for someone as incompetent as me (I do love you though Jamie!).

I thought that maybe Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall might be onto something with ‘3 Good Things’; but that should be called ‘3 Things I wouldn’t want to eat anyway’.

Nigella is gorgeous, but her food would kill me of diabetes and heart attack really quickly.

Oh and don’t get me talking about Annabel Karmel, just note that when she is dolled up to the nines cooking her ‘easy’ meals, there isn’t a toddler clinging to her leg!

 

So rubbish cooks never fear; I am here and I’m going to get you healthy!

Good Cooks, you might want to check my stuff out anyway; you can always add extra ingredients to make the recipes clever!

And Congrats to all the ‘proper’ cooks in the list!

 

Top Tips For Healthy Eating In A Family

Posted on by MummyWhisperer

As part of my series on ‘Healthy Eating For Rubbish Cooks‘ I’m starting with a description of what on earth healthy eating might look like.  This isn’t a whole treatise on nutrition, just a set of simple rules for a family to look at and apply as many as are reasonably possible.

15 Simple Rules To Remember

 

What are the rules I try to follow that make my cooking healthy?

  1. Eat 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables a day (a portion of fruit is probably a handful, otherwise it’s obvious with apples/ bananas/oranges)
  2. Eat different colours of fruit and vegetables a day
  3. Limit the wheat intake per day so not cereal, plus a sandwich, plus pasta for dinner
  4. Eat the brown version: bread, sugar, rice, pasta
  5. Assume any ready meal or ready sauce will have extra sugar and fat, so don’t buy them apart from emergencies
  6. Cook from scratch as often as possible
  7. Don’t buy low fat, it’s probably high in sugar
  8. Don’t buy low sugar, it’s probably high in fat
  9. Don’t buy low fat, low sugar, it’s high in bad stuff for you
  10. Don’t eat stuff with chemicals in it or has had loads of chemical processing
  11. Don’t fry in fat where grill/oven/stir fry would work just as well
  12. Eat a **mixture of carbohydrates, protein, dairy, fruit and vegetables
  13. Have snacks in the morning and evening
  14. Eat at least something little in the morning for breakfast
  15. Treats are fine, just not every day and not all day

 

**Definitions of the ‘mixtures’

Carbohydrates are things like potatoes, bread, pasta, rice, cereals, porridge.

Whole Grain Carbohydrates is full of fibre and very good for your digestion (i.e the brown versions of things)

Protein is meat, fish, eggs, beans

Dairy is milk, cheese, yogurt

Weaning babies only need to balance their weekly intake of food, as they grow older you will look to balance their daily intake, until eventually most meals are balanced as adults or teens.

 

 

So What Would A Main Meal Look Like?

Healthy Eating For Families

 

  • One portion of protein the size of your *palm
  • One portion of carbohydrates the size of your *palm
  • Half a plate of salad or vegetables

A Palm is not your HAND! It’s the middle bit where there are no fingers!

My kids probably eat more like a quarter of a plate of vegetables, but then eat more fruit than me for dessert

So it’s pretty simple isn’t it with just 15 rules?  I know that there are fabulous nutritionists out there who have written massive books on this subject.  So when the kids have grown up and you’ve got more time you can go and find out loads more.  But in the meantime these simple rules will keep you on the straight and narrow, plus I’ve got a pile more posts to come to help you when tackling a few more specific issues with healthy eating in a family.

(BTW there is also more information if you check out my weight loss posts)