Calling all super healthy mums! What do you honestly feed your kids?

[Jamjars22]

So DS has had a feta, sweet potato and spinach quesadilla type thing for supper. BUT it was on a white shop bought tortilla. I know I don't feed him badly but I am interested to know where I am on the spectrum. I read so much about nutrition, sugar even from fruit is the devil etc etc. So all you mums who consider themselves to be super healthy cooks, how far do you go with it? No sugar ever? Nothing processed ever? (I'm talking things like ham rather than chicken nuggets). I aspire to be the perfect, seasonal cooking, all homemade mum and wonder how many are there of you out there?

Will anyone admit to being a super healthy mum? It's a bit like being religious and admitting to sinning. I think you just do the best you can, no one is perfect, aim high and you'll do ok.

I would say we are fairly high up on scale but not perfect. I have always had a healthy diet but dh and ds2 both have a genetic condition that makes it harder for them to take in the nutrients needed. Neither take medication as manage it with what foods they eat. So def healthier now

Ie I might make pancakes. But they would be made with ground almonds, and walnuts, with blended banana as well as egg/ wholemeal flour etc. just so every calorie is more nutritious. But I would happily let them have with say honey or ice cream occasionally so not against any other foods

Can I have your recipe for those pancakes? Sound great.

You should very imressive

Agree on the whole having a bit of honey or 'bad' thing alongside the good.

I try to home cook as much as possible especially for dinners so I know what has gone into them with regard to veg etc.

I also used to bake a lot so was always fine with dc eating what I had made even though it had sugar / white flour / cream etc but have been very busy lately so have not had as much time.

I worry more about snacks but really try not to stress about it once the 3 main meals are resonably healthy.

I do not class myself as a super healthy eater though. But we do eat well 99% of the time.

:-D

Jam - 1/2 cup wholemeal flour, 1/4 cup ground almonds, 1/4 cup ground walnuts. 1 egg, 1 small mashed banana, 1 cup milk ( any type).

I also cook everything from scratch and monitor salt and sugar, but not fat.

They have a lot of barley risottos, quinoa fritters and "whole foods"

I do bake snacks but use spelt flour, almond or fig butter and a lot of rolled and pinhead oats.

I make fruit compote to add to porridge in the morning and DD loves that.

No fruit juices or smoothies as I prefer they have whole fruit and I'm obsessed with them drinking enough water.

I don't tend to feed them ham, but then they have a lot of chorizo (I'm Mediterranean) and we all adore smoked fish in this house (mackerel pâté is a favourite) and both have quite high salt content.

it's a balancing act but if everyone us eating well 80% of the time I'm happy.

forgot to say, the biggest one for me is bread (again, Mediterranean genes).

We all love bread here but the salt content is pretty scary so we have an ancient sourdough starter and a Panasonic bread maker so we have nice bread with minimum effort.

Having said all that I'm making pretzels today

I cook nearly everything from scratch (used to be everything until I had my second child). We're vegetarian so no meat and they have fruit, nuts, chopper vegetable, home made popcorn (popcorn kernels in a pan with coconut oil)or rice crackers with nut butter for snacks. We only have healthy food at home unless it's home baking which usually have some fruit or vegetable in it. For dinner - we eat things like home made sushi with vegetables and omelette, home made pasta sauce and pasta with steamed vegetables, roast vegetables with kale chips and chickpeas, home-made pizza. We have a big vegetable garden and fruit trees so I think that helps as the children love grazing in the garden.

I'm more relaxed when we go out as I think it's important for children to have junk food occasionally so it's not such a forbidden fruit but even then I prefer them to have ice creams without artificial colours or flavouring and will give the juice or hot chocolate as a special treat and we never have fizzy drinks. I'm probably healthier than most of my friends but I have one friend whose child has never had sugar at age three who never eats junk food.

Please may I have the quinoa fritter recipe please
That sounds lovely as does the barley risotto. Do you use the barley in the same way?

I'm about 80% monitor sugar and salt, not so much fat.

Absolutely no juice unless we are holiday or a birthday.

Still use white flour though.

Hi, I have a 20 month old girl. Who refuses almost anything shop bought!! I enjoy cooking and do cook pretty much everything we eat. I am careful over the salt and sugar content of her food (and ours now!) but I do bake for her, I make very small banana muffins or apple tray bake bites as occasional treats. When she used to have snacks I would offer fruit or home made fruit jerky type thing. I make our bread as I prefer it to shop bought and it's substantially cheaper, same with pizza bases - but I buy tinned toms to put on as the sauce.

But if we go out I don't worry or stress about what she eats, she can have a bite of our food and a sugary treat, not much but every now and then isn't going to harm her. She loves her food! We went on holiday last year and to make my life easy I bought a toddler meal for dinner when we arrived and she wouldn't touch it! Some days lunch can be a cheese sandwich or beans on toast. I used to panic about the salt but figured I can control the content in 90% of her food so I'm not gonna stress about the others 10%!

I have done a bit of sugar free baking recently for snacks. Sweet potato scones - jacket bake potatoes and scoop out insides, mix with flour, mixed spice and apple juice and bake. Flapjacks - oats and satsumas mixed with blended prunes or dates and baked. Cakes with grated fruit or veg, dried fruits and vanilla. Honestly better than you would think.