To ask what people actually BUY on their weekly shop?

[BillHadersNewWife]

I struggle with getting enough to last for the week. There's DH and I but he works away Monday to Friday mostly and there are two DD's aged 15 and 11.

We eat what most people eat for meals...roasts, curries, home made burgers, salads, homemade pizza, baked potatoes, spag bol...that kind of thing.

I don't like buying a lot of crap snacks so tend to get fruit, eggs, cheese, plain crackers, instant noodles...also jam and peanut butter.

But what am I missing that my DD"s are always complaining their friends have WAY more nice food in their fridges?

I also struggle finding both girls things for packed lunches that they will actually eat.

Last week I gave up and got them those protein milkshakes on one day because I was so desparate for them to actually eat something during the day!

If I gave them something like Nutella sandwiches, crisps etc they'd eat that but nothing healthy!

I am going shopping tomorrow and want to reduce the time I visit the shops AGAIN during the week after my 'big shop'. Any ideas on what I am missing from my list?

Popcorn wise we’ve just got the ones you pop yourself as well in the microwave

*told to write a list

I'd ask them what they want for their lunch, and as long as it wasn't just a Nutella sandwich, I'd probably just buy it. Once at secondary school they have access to all kinds of food and will just buy what you consider to be junk, but at a higher price and in a larger pack size (walkers crisps from the shop on the way to school come in a 40-50g pack for 80p-ish compared to 25-30g multipack bag at £1.50 for 6). Set some ground rules for lunch, ie, must have 2 portions of fruit and veg, but otherwise trust them. When I was younger I was allowed to choose my own extras for my lunch, they were bought, and I had my own basket in the cupboard to put them in. Once they were gone they didnt get rebought until the next week, and we weren't allowed to steal from each others baskets

Mine eat the above by choice but we do also have crisps/cake/chocolate etc in the house which they also eat but as they are all normal weight (take after DH not me as I’m the size of a whale and have no self control around great food as never allowed it as a child!)
So I’m not worried about them having treats as I know they self regulate. They also know if they say they are hungry I tell them to
Have some water and fruit.

popcorn I get the sort you pop yourself and that's something they do eat sometimes but it's a pain to make/.

We buy microwave popcorn. It takes minutes in the microwave. It’s as easy as opening a bag!!!

If you don't have enough, then you need to meal plan and include d everything you will eat over the week breakfast, lunches, dinner, snacks.
We are a family of 3 (2adults, 1Ds15)This is a typical week for us

Breakfast - cereals, fruit / fruit juice

Lunches - salads during the week (cheese, ham, chicken, egg, tuna), fruit, cereal bar, yogurt/jelly, little pot of nuts. Weekend tend to be sandwich/soup/toast, crisps, cake.

Dinners - curry, spag bol, risotto, shepherds pie, fish and chips, grilled meat with oven roasted veg, fajitas, burgers, roast dinner. Icecream, rice pudding, fruit,

Snacks - fruit, biscuits, cereal bars, nuts, cheese, toast, crackers, raw veges.

Drinks - tea, coffee, hot chocolate, milk, squash,

the main meals are all pretty healthy, so we actually don't do too much in the way of snacks as we tend to stick to 3 meals a day. That means on the odd occasion we do them I'm pretty relaxed about it, the occassional biscuit / nutella sandwich is not going to do much harm.

I don't do individual meals for everyone, you either eat what I'm cooking or you go hungry. It stops any fussiness and waste of food.

Once you know what you are going to eat, then all you've got to decide is how much.

Alternatively, you could take a week or 2 and write down everything you actually eat as a family and that should give you a better idea of what and how much you need.

What about having ingredients in to bake some snacks? Scones can be savoury cheese/vegetable ones or sweet ones (also can use wholemeal flour to make them healthier). Make a large cake or batch of muffins, maybe banana pancakes?

It might not be the healthiest but much better than shop bought. You can add dried fruit to redeem it a bit and they feel like they're getting a treat.

Another thought for snacks - mini omelettes or slices of frittata. You can use leftover meat and veg to make one large one or a muffin tray of them. They'll keep for a few days and are nice hot or cold.

Watching this with interest as my 13 year old DS is exactly the same. I have had a minor success recently in giving him crackers (spread with a bit of butter) and cheese for lunch - he too refuses to eat sandwiches (with the exception of when we've had roast chicken at the weekend, and he will eat cold chicken ones). Other than that he's hard to buy snacks for - he tends to mainly fill up on cereal.

If they won't eat sandwiches, can you make salads? I'll put a salad in DS' lunchbox and a little tub with dressing in case he wants to add it.

You sound quite rigid. Not everything that a PP listed was processed crap eg pies aren't necessarily processed; cheese and dips aren't.

At your DD's ages, I'd be wary of encouraging meal replacements like shakes. They're at an age where they're susceptible to developing eating disorders. Plus shakes are definitely processed.

Ask them what their friends have in their fridge? Quite often having treats available doesn't mean they eat them all the time. Actually it teaches them to regulate. Rationing 'treats' is more likely to cause them to binge on rubbish once they're not at home. They need to learn what moderation looks like for them.

You seem incredibly restrictive. What's wrong with babybell? It's cheese.

I get my DDs to shout snacks out they want. And ideas for meals and lunches.
We've never had "good or bad" foods, never restrictive. Then they learn.

Mine all eat bagels, crumpets or cereal as snacks. They have school lunches but these are often pretty unhealthy. One eats fruit all the time. Our meals are similar to yours but with probably more pasta. We have biscuits which they have a couple of each day and they’ll have more “treat” type stuff if they’ve done sports.

Today 11:55 Namechangerejsjs1239

@BillHadersNewWife you need to teach them how to eat in moderation though, the bad things included. If you never have any treats in they can’t learn that.*

A thousand times this. We never had treats in the house and it got to the stage where I’d sneak what we did have and eat it in secret or take money from coat pockets to buy sweets with my friends after school. As a result I was huge. Even to this day I struggle with my weight and it’s absolutely linked to a feast or famine approach to treats. Now with two kids in the house it’s even harder because I’m trying to allow them things in moderation while not wolfing three caramel wafer bars.

Once at secondary school they have access to all kinds of food and will just buy what you consider to be junk

Not here they don't. It's a tiny school in rural Australia...no canteen. They all bring their own lunches and once a week, a teacher goes to the bakery in the next town with a list of what they all want!

Going on an online supermarket and searching for “mini” is good for snack inspiration. How about pancakes, rice pudding pots, flapjacks? Don’t fall into the trap of crisps = bad, if you compare a 25g pack of ready salted to a so called healthy snack they are much better in terms of additives etc.

Kelsoo they find Babybel tasteless. They will eat stronger cheeses happily at home but not in a packed lunch.

Have you tried getting them some lovely bento style lunch boxes and fruit tubs? Might make wraps etc more appealing.

If you don’t like processed snacks. You’re going to have to start making your own. Popcorn which you think is a bit of a faff. Is so easy. Hot pan. But of oil. Pop the corn in. Bobs your uncle!

We do things like buy a whole chicken. Roast that. That makes us 2-3 more meals. We make our own fish fingers . Chicken nuggets. Super easy stuff. But fresh nice ingredients. My kids have crackers sometimes. With cheese. Or cream cheese. We do pancakes. Lots of pancakes. I make them sweet or savoury. For breakfast and dinners. I make them with mostly eggs. So it’s got a good part of protein in it. I also occasionally make them for their lunch. It does mean I’m up cooking at 7am. But I’ve gotten used to it now. I buy as much as I can frozen. Frozen veg is just veg. It’s just frozen. My mother used to say frozen veg was bad. But then it came out that because the freeze it much quicker. It retains the good stuff longer than before fresh could even get to your fridge. We aren’t allowed to do Nutella sandwiches in our school. Due to nuts allergies. So check that. I allow my kids to have a sweet thing though. A biscuit or some sort.

I do however cook a lot from scratch. Meal planning helps us massively.

We get alot of cerial bars ,cheese dips ,mini sausage rolls ,yogurts ,crackers ,mini sausages ,baby bell ,loads of fruits ,shushi and pasta packs .
My two are healthy weights and have healthy meals .

Kitty I suppose I am more rigid than some people....it could also be that here in Australia, if you buy pies and cakes from the supermarket they're all absolutely terrible...ingredient list as long as your arm and mostly numbers. Nothing at all like the UK for bakery things....I'd never buy pies from the supermarket here or cakes.

Herringbone I do make a lot of pancakes....particularly for the youngest DD. I wonder if she'd eat one cold? Aren't they gross cold? What do you give her to put on it?

Will they eat scones? Bread rolls without a filling? I struggle to see how a bread roll is more nutritious with a slice of processed meat in it! Brown soda bread?
Pasta with pesto? Crackers? Carrots? Yoghurt? Banana? Smoothies?

I hated sandwiches when I was a kid. I’m still not a fan of them. I survived and certainly didn’t have crisps and sugar instead!

Molten yes, tried that. Put cut up fruit salad in one compartment, another with crackers and another with cheese etc...no good. They're bloody awful honestly!

I completely agree that they need to learn how to moderate themselves. My sister and husband are always on a health kick of some kind and any kind of snacks or 'junk' is hugely limited so parties, Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc their boys go absolutely mad and everything is gone instantly to the point they make themselves feel sick. We have crisps, cake bars, pepperami, babybel etc in the cupboard or fridge most of the times and the rule after school is 2 snacks before dinner, one must be fruit but the other can be anything they want. Quite often then will pick toast or a crumpet but they will also pick a sweet or bag of crisps. We still have sweets & chocolate from Halloween in the cupboard because they are just normal food not something that might be taken away at any moment.

Patti No to scones. I have never given them a sandwich with processed meat. They had peanut butter or cheese in the past but now won't eat them...only Nutella and I can't give them that daily.

Flapjacks are super easy to make and you can add seeds or dried fruit to make them more nutritious. Also just making plain fairy cakes and not icing them means they have a sweet treat but it’s really not that unhealthy (or difficult / time consuming).