cheepest,easiest, healthiest meal, ideas wanted for parents aged 16-18 HELP!

[lolliepops]

i have to deliver a session for young parents age 16-18 on healthy food for their children. their children range from 1 month to 3 years. I am doing things like the cost of a jar/tin vs home made purees and want to do a healthy meal vs a happy meal! i need some ideas(inc recipies) for the cheepest healist meal you make. nothing fancey and very simple. Also do any of you have any reccomendations for healthy snacks? or appealing dishes to toddles ie ants on a log(raisns on celery!) ect

I wouldn't recommend making food into designs to be honest because I think that makes mealtime playtime and not mealtime IYSWIM

If I was talking to young parents I think the most important thing is that they sit down with their children and eat at the same time with no distractions

No weaning till 26 weeks (WHO recommendations)

I like the sound of my own voice don't I ... sorry you've probably got that stuff covered

will think about cheap meals

Are you going to have the time to help them with basic nutrition and food preparation skills?

The reason I ask is, as a biology teacher I am constantly horrified at the basic lack of understanding of basic food that teenagers have. Many are so saturated in advertisng crap that they have no idea of what constitutes a ballanced diet.

I would think that you would have to do the old 'food triangle' thing (or something similar) to help them to understand the concept of carbohydrates/ fats and proteins and the relative amounts that you should have in a healthy diet......and I'm not saying this because they are young mums, this is also true of the brightest kids I teach in the sixth form!

I would stress the need to buy own brand not fancy label stuff to keep the cost down, the importance of a good breakfast....something that many of them will not have, and breakfast is a easy one to do quickly and healthiy IYSWIM Bulk cooking and freezing of dishes like pasta sauce/ shepherds pie etc is ideal for older toddlers and is as quick as a 'fast food' option, and a good way to get extra veg into kids. Ditto home made pork and apple burgers, chicken meat balls. make sure they realise that frozen veg is fine and adds to the 'five a day'. If they have a freezer, what can be faster than cooking some mixed frozen veg?

Healthy snacks in this house are fruit, chopped dried fruits, carrot sticks and hummus

Totaly agree with twiglett about eating as a family and ditch the food in patterns stuff . Food should be fun because it is social not playdough on a plate IYSWIM. A time to talk about the day, a vital habit to get into

ok weaning foods

you can't get cheaper than simple purees .. carrot .. sweet potato etc .. compare the price of a bag of apples to a jar of apple puree

toddlers ..
pitta bread carrot sticks cucumber sticks humous
baked beans on toast
scrambled egg on toast
chilli and rice ... vegetarian or meat (do you want recipes)
shepherds pie
tuna mayonnaise sandwiches with cucumber
fish pie

Use big pots of natural yoghurt (44p for 500g) at Tescos, rather than pricey yoghurt jars or kids yoghurts.

Rather than resort to pricey takeaways, beans on toast and peanut butter sandwiches are pretty cheap, relatively nutritious, easy to prepare.

Banana and avocados will be easy to puree.

what about chilli and tacos/ enchilladas

they the " dinener lady" cook book

porridge oats not ready brek

wholemeal bread not white

the less refined the better

my 7mo loves cod.
i make a small amount of mash as the base, add a cheese triangle then add one steamed cod portion (they are like small frozen brickettes) which blends lovely.

another is cauliflower florets in cheese sauce. make the sauce so you know whats in it. this also blends down very smooth.

making it beats jars any day, for cost and waste in my opinion.

oh and he also cant get enough porridge! no sugar, just porridge and his milk.

chopped up apple not crisps or raisins

use raisins as a treat

toddlers love dried apricots and other dried fruits too

martianbishop
alot of the parents have learning difficulties and left school at an early age do you have a copy of this triangle????

example of what 1 parnet feeds child at the moment over a typical day breakfast ceral, dinner sausage roll(while out) tea mcdonalds happy meal. sweets when ever.

another example baby 5mths formular and jars

so much cheaper to make your own

baked beans are pretty healthy (but watch the salt)

eggy bread for breakfast treats
Boiled egg and soldiers This seems utterly obvious beut would be boyond many I teach!)
An own brand wheatabix once old enough

For lunches, sandwiches with carrot/cucumber sticks, soups (but watch the salt), beans on toast, peanut butter and mashed banana on toast.

All the nursery standards for tea
pasta and sauce
shepards pie
fish pie
stir fry (watch the soya as its salty)
chili
meatballs
home made burgers
home made chicken dippers (there are recipies on MN)
all of these can be made and frozen in bulk.....making thisngs easier for them.

Be prepared for them not to know how to boil an egg or peel a spud tho! I kid you not. Most of the kids I teach don't realise that there is real kidney in a steak and kidney pie!

cut dinner plate in half .. one half should be filled with vegetables

cut remaining half into 2 .. one quarter of the plate should be protein (meat / fish / cheese / pulses)

the other quarter should be carbs (potato / rice )

HTH

this might also be useful

the average 2 year old will only eat 11 tablespoons of food in a day .. and probably only 1 proper meal in any 48 hour period .. this is averaged over a week to 10 days

this is ALL food consumed during the day .. including sweets / crisps / snacks

Compare cost of a museli bar per kilo with a kilo of apples, or frozen chips with the same amount of potato to make into mash.

oops - yes, good point Enid about the salt.

My 18 month old loves cheese cubes, cucumber sticks, breadsticks/toast fingers, macaroni with cheese and chopped tomato. Give milk or water to drink no need to buy "baby juice". Cheap meals would be noodles and stir fried veg, omelettes, shepherds pie, pasta and sauce.

What twiglett said re the plate is an excellent way to do it with them, nice and visable and memorable....could you make up a plate to show them? Visual prompts are always best with all kids in my experience

the triable is here

food triangle

Make sure that they know where to find proteins etc.....this sounds patronising, thrust me it isn't, I'm just basing this on the last time I taught this! Kids think that have a good diet 'cos their mum gets them sunny D

The jamies school dinners cookbook would be good for this, does anyone have a copy? I don't

there are some really good ideas comming up i am off to work now, and dont have internet aceess there. please feel free to keep adding to this the more the better as it is possibley gona be 8 sessions long.

And yes most of them dont know how to boil an egg most will not know what humos is so just to keep that in mind. acsually i might to a taste session one week of things they havnt had before but are healthy!
feel free to keep this up in the actives while i am at work (pretty please

there are some really good ideas comming up i am off to work now, and dont have internet aceess there. please feel free to keep adding to this the more the better as it is possibley gona be 8 sessions long.

And yes most of them dont know how to boil an egg most will not know what humos is so just to keep that in mind. acsually i might to a taste session one week of things they havnt had before but are healthy!
feel free to keep this up in the actives while i am at work (pretty please

there are some really good ideas comming up i am off to work now, and dont have internet aceess there. please feel free to keep adding to this the more the better as it is possibley gona be 8 sessions long.

And yes most of them dont know how to boil an egg most will not know what humos is so just to keep that in mind. acsually i might to a taste session one week of things they havnt had before but are healthy!
feel free to keep this up in the actives while i am at work (pretty please

I dont think white bread is a problem tbh

also remember full fat milk for under 2's

salt and excess fat in foods are the really bad ones

If they can replace a happy meal with a homecooked meal with veg then they will be doing really really well

whilst i agree with all the suggestions....
the thing to be overcome, is something i have a huge problem with, so can identify with completely. and that is a willingness to spend time in the kitchen on a regular basis, cooking cleaning etc, with zero to very little apppreciation for it.
and that is why quick packaged food has become more popular imo. and that is what i think you need to get accross. if they are parents, then they HAVE to spend time in the kitchen doing slogwork. basic food hygiene, constant kitchen cleaning etc. all of it. cooking a really complicated cuisine meal is easy. cooking bog standard healthy meals on a regular basis on a budget in hard hard hard.

Boil, steam, bake or grill Don't fry (too often)

A sundy roast chicken is on eof the best ways of getting veg into a child....with lots of left over meat for sandwiches and pies......but that is possibly too difficult for them at a first go.

Home made shepards pie is a good start.

sorry, but i think that a happy meal, for less than two pounds is far far better than crisps, sweets, and even chocolate. at least they are getting carbs, protein, and some fat.
its all relative really.