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?

And we buy a lot of. Berries and nuts etc. So always so much choice whether it's healthy or fancy something sweet and sugary.

Them eating all the ice cream and crisps in one day is linking into exactly what loads of posters are saying about being rigid and how it affected them/their diet/their weight from childhood and into adulthood.

You need to rethink your attitude to food. You're proclaiming you're anti processed food whilst giving them nutella; peanut butter; protein shakes. The peanut butter is the only one that isn't overly processed but it still has added sugar.

Our snack cupboard has: rice cakes; bread sticks; malt loaf slices; crackers. We also always have berries (raspberries;strawberries;blueberries); avocado; cucumber and baby carrots.

I don't buy them Nutella on a regular basis. I've got it about once in 6 months!

They’ve got you over a barrel.

To be honest I’d probably buy much the same at the supermarket and then tell them to make their own lunches but you expect them to have some nutritional value and they need to eat it.

So if they choose Nutella sandwiches they will have to ration the jar if they need it to last and they must also add fruit and protein. It sounds as if they shakes aren’t such a bad thing though they sound disgusting so maybe compromise and allow for a couple per week?

Lunches sound tricky - not sure there is a solution! I do agree with them re sandwiches. My DC will eat bread type things... Like brioche rolls, a croissant, giant pretzel, cheese topped roll. I often buy them the day before on way home from work from bakery section at supermarket.
I buy a big box of assorted crackers selection and they will fill a small box with half a dozen they choose. But I do add babybel, pepperoni, or a small pot Humous. Fruit comes home so I just stick a token apple in to keep school happy. They eat lots of fruit at home. Greek yoghurt pots that come with granola are quite filling and popular. They always have something nice like a chocolate biscuit. I buy vaguely healthy crisps as well. Not sure they are any better but I feel better. Carton of smoothie for calories - maybe that's similar to a protein smoothie.

Yes agree with OralBee - sweet food was strictly limited when I was a child but when it was available I gorged upon in. As soon as I had access to my own money I developed a very unhealthy attitude towards food, which has taken me years to shake off.

We normally have lots of what you would call unhealthy snacks. Because they are not normally limited, the DC actually don't bother with them most of the time. I think letting DC have more snacks but enable them to have the ability to self-limit is a much better way to go!

Get them food prepping on a Sunday afternoon. One pops enough popcorn to bag into little sandwich bags so there's 10 for the week. The other boils up a pan of pasta, splits into two, adds oil pesto tomatoes to one and tuna cucumber and tomato to the other. Cling film. Make a tryabake of flapjack or brownies. Each morning they can fill a tub with pasta, grab a pack of popcorn and a slice of tryabake. Done.

The peanut butter is the only one that isn't overly processed but it still has added sugar.

You can get peanut butter that is just peanuts. Loads of brands, usually the organic ones but supermarkets sell it. No need to assume the one the op gets has sugar in.

In terms of snacks:
Popcorn (chuck in a pan with oil)
Breadsticks
Hummus & crudités
Bagels
Digestive biscuits
Fruit
Yogurt

In lunches I have relaxed a little and they sometimes take a pepperami, one of my sons is super skinny to the point I worry he doesn't eat enough so tempting things like that I'm letting up on. Other than that wraps, homemade muffins, pasta etc in a food flask, more crudités, sandwiches, sometimes cold home made chicken goujons with dips etc. Yogurt. Sandwich fillings normally ham and cheese, grated carrot etc.

My dd age 14 has a school lunch, but if I do make her a packed lunch it would generally consist of:

A sandwich (tuna, ham, cheese, cooked turkey breast, peanut butter or chicken)- try wraps, pasta salad, humous and breadsticks and vegetable sticks, a scotch egg oc
A piece of fruit, a yoghurt, maybe some crisps, nuts, dried fruit, piece of cheese, rice cakes, (obviously not all at once)

Snacks for after school- I buy rice cakes, cheese spread and crackers, yogurts, cereal bars, fruit, digestives, breadsticks and humous, etc.

Make more nutritious sweet stuff for them, or ideally get them to make it themselves! Flapjack is still full of sugar and fat but it's less processed and more nutritious than a biscuit (oats are great) and fills you up more. I've started making little banana oat pancakes, doesn't take long to cook a bunch and they keep in the fridge and they're a nice treat with some maple syrup, like a more nutritious scotch pancake.

Get a healthier alternative to Nutella, you can get chocolate spread that's not mostly palm oil and sugar like Nutella is. One that has more hazelnuts and less sugar, and a darker chocolate, tastes better, recalibrates your taste buds away from sickly sweet, and you need less of it.

Basically, don't restrict sweet things but help them make better choices so they can satisfy their sugar cravings with less junk.

As a previous poster said, crap food is better than no food. If too many ideals are adhered to we end up wondering what is actually left. So, if you asked them 'what would you like to eat, if you could eat anything?' Or 'what do your friends have that you like?' and go from there it may bring about a result. So if they say crisps find the most decent that you can get hold of. If they like protein shakes they can have one for each day. If they like baked foods buy or make them. Don't dismiss processed foods - it's just a word. Bread is processed, pasta is processed - it would be a miserable existence to give up everything processed. Could they have a pot of pasta salad? Or cous cous salad? (My son prefers pasta to sandwiches). Perhaps they may eat sandwiches if they have a better type of bread, e.g., thick seeded or panini. Or if you buy in an expensive meat that yes is expensive but does get eaten. Work with what they like and 'improve' it a little. Recently 2 of my sons got a little stuck in what they were eating and then I noticed that they enjoyed beef at home. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe I should suggest beef for lunch. Since then I have bought beef from the butchers and they are enjoying this with their lunch. As I have 4 teenagers they make their lunches themselves. I now tell them to try to make a main (sandwich or pasta), two fruit/salad/veg, 1 dairy and 1 treat. They tend to eat part of it mid morning. It works well as it gives them freedom and nutritional boundaries. And sometimes I just let them take what they fancy! If they or I have a cold or feel run down, I eat what I fancy!

I’m not really sure anyone can help you... people have given you ideas but you’ve said no to the vast majority. What is it you’re looking for? The holy grail of snacks that is both low sugar, unprocessed and filling but that a teenager will also think is a ‘treat’?

I am in Australia. Buying a stainless steel lunch box from Biome has made lunches so easy. I bought the one with 5 compartmets . You can just put a bit of this and a bit of that. Variaty is key. Flatbread and dip , left overs etc. Give it a try. They are $60 bit have been brilliant. They do online too.
www.biome.com.au/lunch-boxes/7990-lunchbots-quad-stainless-steel-4-sections-stainless-steel-lunch-box-794504401103.html

I saw a new tool.
It cuts potatoes into sheets like a pasta maker.
£40 but getting one for DD for My birthday....lol. . She loves too cook.

I assume you have small ice bricks to keep food cold - Aussie summer!!!
rice or pasta salads with sausages (which can be veggie or burgers cold)
hard boiled eggs
oatmeal biscuits (they can be black pepper ones & they come in sachets of 5)
butter bread separately & include sliced meat or cheese for them to make up with some miniature toms & carrot sticks
quiche slices or pizza with coleslaw tiny toms fancy lettuce
veggie sausage rolls
(make up miniature salads with olives etc
olives & Greek cheese & peppers & savoury whole meal biscuits or rice
fresh fruit salad ( with your lovely available tropical fruit)

trail pack of mixed nuts & dried fruit

Moo thanks for the link. We do have the stainless steel stacking lunch pail things...

I will try pancakes as someone suggested upthread...I reckon DD2 might eat them. I will also buy some more 'crap' food on the strength that both eat good breakfasts and main meals in general.

As a previous poster said, crap food is better than no food.

Unless the person consuming the crap is very ill and in dire need of calories in whatever form, I completely disagree.

The OP’s children eat breakfast and eat at home. They are not starving. Giving them crap food is going to be counter productive.

Sorry but microwave popcorn is really bad. Full of crap. If you're worried about processed food You really should take the extra few minutes and make it in a pan.

My DD won't eat sandwiches. I give her pesto pasta salad with mozzarella and tomatoes. A boiled egg or cold chicken drumstick and chopped cucumber carrots and fruit. Would that work? Def need a cooler bag with ice block though.

My 14-year-old dd takes lunch to school every day, usually something hot, she has a thermos food flask. Typical lunches would be leftover homemade soup, stews, pasta in a sauce. Sometimes she will take instant noodles. Summer would be couscous salad, pasta salad, rice salad. She doesn't like sandwiches much.
She likes to snack on carrot and hummus.
The flask cost about £20 but has been more than worth it!!!

User I don't even have a microwave and always make it in a pan.

Banana bread?

sorry havent read the whole thread.

i buy lots of crap (custard cream biscuits, cereal bars, caramel wafers, baby bels etc) but also cook decent food everyday. carrots and hummous/noodles and cereal are the snack of choice in this house.

Frube yogurts frozen will keep lunch nox cool.

leftover pasta for lunch?