If you and your children eat a low- UPF diet, what does a typical day or week of meals and snacks look like?

[Uffadoo]

I'm watching a documentary about UPFs (ultra processed foods) and it's made me realise that I think we have far too many in our home. I would really like to cut this down, we have a 9month old, 2 year old, 7 year old and 12 year old. The baby, 7 and 12 year old will eat absolutely anything but the 2 year old can be picky to the point of having lost weight in the past and was referred to a dietician and paediatrician (she has now put on weight and generally eats much better but not always great). I do make a lot of things from scratch but a couple of nights a week, after clubs, I might stick on frozen pizzas or chicken nuggets. Snacks in particular tend to be UPFs (we do have yoghurt and fruit often as snacks too though).

I would love to hear what a day or week of meals and snacks looks like for you and your family to get some inspiration. Is there any tips for foods that you can get that wouldn't be UPFs if you get them elsewhere? For example DD2 loves sausages, if I get sausages made by the butcher would that be better or are they a no go?

DH makes the kombucha and all the bread items (we do have a bread maker). He also blitzes the ginger and Tumeric for the hot shots. This sort of stuff can be done in half an hour on a weekends morning or one evening. We meal plan together and do a big shop together fortnightly.

I do alk cooking. DH does the dishwasher and the clean up. He also does the kids packed lunches everyday.

I have one teen and one pre teen. One does a lot of of football and the other does alps of music and gymnastics. We are busy.

Dh is in senior mgt and works 40-50 hours a week and is away 2/3 nights a fortnight. He WFH the rest of the time.

I work 30 hours a week 2/ at my workplace and 2 days at home.

It is manageable because we plan for and prioritise it.

@Neurodiversitydoctor it’s isn’t a huge amount. Dh works full time, I work part time 1/2 year, full time other. We do work from home though.
But something like a pasta tomato sauce would be chop onion and garlic and peppers, add fresh tomatoes in summer (tin tomatoes when we don’t have own) and roast 30 mins. Done. It will be enough for several pasta and pizza sauce portions.
I don’t make own bread due to time.
Something like pizza dough dh makes with toddler on Sunday afternoon, takes 10 mins. Then it sits in fridge until we need it weekdays.

I don’t think it takes much more time than other cooking? We have always cooked this way so I guess it’s just of like, we couldn’t afford to buy all pre made either a lot of the time

The ones I use have that listed as an ingredient, but when I consider their diet as a whole I don’t see it as detrimental 😊

i would say 95% of our main evenings meals take less than 30mins to make, which I think is a reasonable time. Things that take ages like lasagne we dont make often. I will make a homemade korma curry, rice and fresh roti tonight, it’s max 30 mins start to finish.
It’s the kind of thing we do most evenings starting around 6pm, and we eat by 6.30pm.
If work goes pair shape or 3 year old having meltdown and dh isn’t home to help I just do something even quicker like boiled eggs and toast, and give 3 year old fruit after and he will survive

A lot of this is about having time and money and energy.

I don't disagree with this. A lot of products that don't have UPFs but are still convenient are more expensive, it is true. And I suppose you need the time and energy to research and read lists of ingredients.

I wouldn't say our shopping is any more expensive overall to be honest though because quick, easy dinners are now things like egg on toast whereas previously I'd have bought a ready meal to stick in the oven. We eat more simply but I feel much better for it.

Personally, I think completely eliminating UPF is unrealistic. It is absolutely everywhere. So I just started by focusing on swaps for our main UPF culprits.

Bread is now Jason's sourdough or Crosta&Mollica wraps. Both are more expensive than a bog standard loaf of sliced white but what I noticed was we could eat countless slices of cheap, soft, white bread before feeling full. One slice of proper sourdough, which actually takes time to eat fills us up a lot more and is more satisfying.

Flavoured yoghurt is now plain yoghurt with fruit.

Cereal is now porridge or something with a short list of ingredients like shredded wheat.

Biscuits are now all-butter shortbread if buying a packet or I'll bake some if I feel like it...but I normally don't!

Ham is now parma or serrano ham.

Snacks are fruit.

But I try to be realistic and haven't changed everything. DDs are currently eating crumpets which are UPF but they've had porridge the rest of the week. I think the 80/20 rule is reasonable to aim for. We're not there yet but we are eating a lot better than we were. Batch cooking has really helped us so when I have time I make big portions and keep for leftovers. It really doesn't take much more time to make a portion of chilli for 8 than it does for 4 and saves me a job another day.

I think a bit of Mayo is fine if it persuades the kids to eat the sandwich. The goal is it reduce as much as you can. I’ve replaced the ham & salami sandwiches that I often reached for out of handiness with chicken - I cook up chicken breasts in the airfryer the night before.

you can buy seed butter or tahini paste in health food shops. One of my children accepts these - the seed butter is more likely to be acceptable I think , especially with a drizzle of honey on it.

thanks for the ideas. Ive seen some mayos which look a lot better on the ingredients list so I'll swap to those once i run out of the current jar.

i bought frozen mango and frozen cherries today together with plain yoghurt .i actually think its cheaper than individual tiny pots.

upf went out the window when i bought m&s hot cross buns though - extra fruity!!

For sandwiches I tend to rotate cheese, parma ham, egg, tuna or hummus. Sometimes chicken if I've done a roast at the weekend. There are a few mayos out there that aren't UPF. We get the duchy organic one from Waitrose or the Sainsbury's organic one.

DDs sometimes like sliced banana with honey on a sandwich or with peanut butter (at home, no nuts allowed at school.)

I really try to reduce UPF but it definitely does cost a lot more, either in time or money.
The most ultra processed foods we had previously were bread products, kids yoghurts, pasta sauces, squash and freezer foods.

Some of those things I now mostly make from scratch eg loaves of bread (breadmaker) and pasta sauce. Still buy jarred pesto though.
I'm more mindful about buying peanut-only peanut butter.
I give the kids plain greek yoghurt with frozen berries or honey in it rather than frubes.
One child is a fussy eater but I have started giving her plain chicken breast mini fillets done in the airfryer rather than nuggets.
Mine love tortilla wraps but we have now switched to either supermarket own brand pittas (very cheap) or the Crosta Mollica flatbreads (very expensive!). I occasionally buy sliced sourdough when I can't be bothered to bake bread.
Squash - I try to buy Belvoir or Rock cordial instead of Robinsons but it doesn't last long and the kids don't like it as much!

@Cuwins Scones

3 tsp (generous) baking powder
3 cups self raising flour
1 tablespoon sugar
125g margarine
1 egg
1/2 cup milk (use oat milk)

Grate the margarine into th flour, add the sugar and use your fingers to rub together to form what looks like fine breadcrumbs.

Mix the egg in the milk and add to the mixture. Knead well together.

Roll out and cut into rounds - you want them to be quite fat, say 2 cm (you can play with this).

Place on a baking sheet, prick, glaze with an egg wash and bake at 180 for 12-15 minutes.

One thing to note: I use butter instead of margarine and reduce the flour because otherwise it comes out too floury. I suspect that using margarine as per the original recipe, that won't be necessary, but I imagine it does rather depend on what margarine you're using (which is why it was fine for whatever my mum was using 30 years ago but maybe not today).

While I am here, my dairy free banana pancake recipe is a total win and super easy:

Mix 6 super heaped dessert spoons of self raising flour and add 1/2 tsp salt.
Add 2 eggs, a teaspoon of vanilla essence and just enough oat milk so that you can whisk out all of the lumps. You should be left with a very thick, very smooth batter. Mash two bananas then whisk them into the batter. You should land up with a fairly thick drop scone-like consistency. You need to cook them immediately though as the bananas will release liuquid and the batter will get runnier very quickly. Head a non stick frying pan to a medium heat and add a little bit of cooking oil (you need the oil for a bit of sizzle and I don't know the science behind it, but it definitely makes the pancakes fluffier). Drop a large spoonful into the pan per pancake.

These are the kind of snacks / sweet treats I'd like to start making for dd, could you recommend any recipes please?

@Ivyy I follow this instagram account which gives good snack ideas and recipes - mostly acceptable to my teens

www.instagram.com/littleloucooks?igsh=dmw3bHlsMzZ3Y2dj

Time, money, energy AND inclination.

I loathe cooking. I do cook from scratch a fair amount and am perfectly capable but it's very much a duty, not a pleasure.

So I try and look at things more broadly rather than beating myself up about the amount of UPF in the house - we eat decently well, are a healthy weight and rarely ill etc etc.

Also agree with the poster commenting about possible future eating issues where people take the whole UPF thing to extremes (although to be fair, many posts on here are sensible). I'm sure 90% of the whole UPF drive is falling onto the shoulders of women. And yes, it is much easier to control the diets of say a 6 and 4 yo compared to when they get to 16 and 14!

I was brought up on food cooked from scratch so know in theory how to do it but really struggle to actually cut down because:
DH doesn't like home made stuff as he finds it too bland and isn't interested in whether it's healthy or not so would much rather have something processed. Left to himself he would have supermarket chicken kievs and super noodles.
2 fussy primary age kids
I have an intolerance that means I can't eat some stuff that's easy to home cook.
Juggling work and family life and all the extra time - not just the actual cooking but washing everything up and planning what I need to buy. It's such a relief when we have oven stuff and there's only a tray to wash.
I find cooking quite stressful as I worry it's going to go wrong and then I'll have a grumpy hungry family - preprepared stuff is much more predictable.

Agree about the extra cost and the extra pressure on women mentioned by some people. Completely fine if you enjoy cooking and find it relaxing but it's so easy to be another thing on a very long list of stuff to feel guilty about.

We probably have more UPF’s after Dd came along (fussy eater who likes sugar way too much) but she does like things like olives, nuts, cheese, popcorn, fruit plain yoghurt (though she’s discovered fruit pots etc) scrambled eggs (she’s not overly keen tbh). But because she’s always hated bread and cereal we have to do alternatives so always stuck to breakfasts like fruit, cheese plain yoghurt.

Main meals can be stuff like cottage pie, bolognaise, chicken skewers with rice etc. We definitely ate better before DD, partly because I don’t want to cook two meals so we have a very narrow number of acceptable dinners we can have.

But tbh it’s difficult, Dh is not as bothered as me and I can’t trust them at the supermarket together. He doesn’t see the harm and he thinks not letting her have anything could lead to food issues (which I broadly agree with but he goes too far with the junk). I just had to send them out with firm instructions not to buy anything from the freezer section that isn’t a vegetable.

Thank you

Can you share your apple bread recipe please?☺️

@concernedchild
Apple bread: 8oz coarse wholemeal flour and 3tsp baking powder rubbed into 2oz butter to breadcrumb-like texture, then mix in a generous handful of finely chopped apple and 2oz demerara sugar. I leave the peel on and use cooking apples but it depends how sweet you like things. Then enough milk to bind it all together in a sticky lump. Grease a baking sheet, and pat the dough into a round, about an inch thick. Sprinkle the top with a little more brown sugar, and bake in an oven at 180 for about 20 mins. I split that into 7 portions.

It freezes well, so I bake a batch, and freeze in slices. Then put in a warm oven for 10 minutes in the morning while you are getting dressed.

I've made a rhubarb version too. Needs slightly more sugar.

I made some extremely beautiful (to eat,not to look at lol) savoury scones last night eaten with roast chicken mini fillets and steamed veg. Just a cup of flour, a cup of milk and a cup of grated cheese, pinch of salt. Mix up and dollop onto greaseproof paper lined tray with a table spoon, and bake for 15 mins. They were lovely and quick. Less than 30min total for prep and cooking the whole meal. They would do for a snack with fruit or as a side dish, or a breakfast warmed with butter if you made a big batch. Next time I'm adding some nutritional yeast and some milled flaxseed I reckon.

That sounds absolutely gorgeous. Thank you!!

@StrawberryThief1930 which mayo would you recommend please

I wish I had never gone down the kids yoghurt route just full of sugar and shite. I need to just stop buying them but I can't get them to eat Greek yoghurt . Any suggestions on how to persuade them to / add honey to it ??

@mrssunshinexxx - yes let them add honey, berries (fresh or frozen warmed up like compote), granola, nut butter, even grated decent chocolate etc.
You at least know what is in it and can reduce honey amount later on once adjusted.

My son's a fussy eater and I give him full fat Greek yogurt and just stir a bit of smoothie in to it. He loves it.

im not an expert on mayo, nor have i tried it yet.

but i thought this sainsburys organic mayo didnt look too horrific? and fairly good price. obviously making it yourself is best but i dont know how or have time.