Finding Balance in Healthy Eating // Dessert Night

Something tells me this teddy-bear jar is going to feature heavily in my kid's childhood memories, haha!

Friday night around here is 'dessert night'.

It kinda speaks for itself, I guess, and needless to say, is a pretty popular night on my kids' weekly calendar!

A couple of years ago we instituted the tradition of 'Friday Night Dessert Night'.  We try to eat pretty healthfully around here - I try to avoid refined sugar and processed food in my family's daily diet. However, as the kids (currently 5, 7 and 9) were getting older and more aware of all the food out there that their peers enjoy, bringing home lolly bags from parties and all of that, they started clamouring for  treats and desserts! What to do, what to do!? While I make a lot of healthy food treats (just ask my kids' school friends, apparently I am very well known for my healthy brownies and muffins, lollllll) the kids soon became familiar with the more sugary and processed alternatives. Whose idea was it to let them out of the house?! ;)

While we certainly talk a lot about good food and healthy eating habits and all of that (see this post on our general family food approach and tips for creating healthy eaters) I felt like total restrictions and putting a blanket ban on all junk food wasn't ultimately going to help with building a lifelong healthy relationship with food. Extreme restrictions might be more likely to lead to the kids going overboard on junk food either as teens or just whenever given opportunity out of my sight! Plus, I just didn't want to be so uptight ALL the time, it's not fun being the food police!! Even though I do what I gotta do for my kid's health, sometimes it's just fun to have a treat without over thinking it and while I want them to be conscious eaters, I also don't want them to get paranoid, know what I mean? Ha! It's a fine balance, huh? It's been really wonderful to see them learning to self-regulate and often stop eating a slice of sugary cake half way through, announcing 'My tummy says that's enough'. I wish my own tummy had always been so self-aware!!!

So, I try to follow a general 80/20 rule for our family. 80% whole and nourishing foods, 20% just eat whatever you want, no stress or guilt. Because life and food are also just for enjoying and celebrating and being in community too, you know? I don't want to be too uptight. Sometimes I feel we swing too far one way or the other but that's life, huh?! When we do, I just try to steer the family back on course without beating myself (or them, lol) up.

Anyway, back to Dessert Night!!

It works well for us because the kids know not to ask for junk food at any other time, but they also know they have a treat outlet once a week! It's a healthy (ha!) boundary for our family. So I am not a total killjoy who always says 'no' haha (last week when I served up ice-cream I did declare - 'see, I can be fun!!'). But also so that the treats don't become too pervasive in daily life. Yes, we still do party food, treats with friends at social events, ice creams etc when we are out occasionally too. But 'dessert night' helps us keep in a healthy routine at home and with our daily eating.

The kids know they aren't totally 'missing out' but they also appreciate and generally want to eat healthfully too. I hope it's the kind of pragmatic balanced approach and habit they might choose to keep up throughout their lives. I love that they are getting to know their own bodies and often times won't even eat all of their dessert before recognising they are full!

As for what we have? Sometimes I make something more elaborate, a proper dessert or even ice cream with sprinkles (or a healthy version of a 'treat' too which they usually love just as much!), but more often than not, the kids just want to select two items from the fabled 'lolly jar' where all the random sweets and chocolates from party bags etc get dumped. I sometimes try to do it Friday afternoon  rather than after dinner, gives the sugar more time to burn off ;)

So, that's 'our family way'. Certainly not the only or 'right' way to handle healthy eating in the home, but just sharing it as a strategy that is working well for us! It gives us balance. Not total restriction but not a free-for-all either!!! It sure does save a lot of negotiations too, the kids know not to debate it, if they want a treat they know when they can have it!

These family 'policies' work differently for every family or even in different seasons but this seems to be the 'sweet spot' (pun intended!) for us in finding a balanced approach to our family's healthy eating.

Now, I better go check the 'lolly jar' stocks!!! ;)

giveaway! win a stainless steel bento lunchbox + trio of reusable bags!

Hey folks, just popping in to say I am currently a fantastic giveaway on my Facebook and Instagram!!!

The prize is a stainless steel bento lunchbox and a trio of reusable sandwich/snack bags from the simply fantastic Litter Free Living! 

You all know I LOVE reusable and plastic free options wherever possible so suffice to say I have fallen in love with all of Litter Free Living's lovely wares. Another amazing WAHM too :) 

Feel free to pop over and enter!! I am giving away a set of each at each location.

Enter the Facebook giveaway HERE.

Enter the Instagram giveaway HERE.

All the best, lovelies xx

'Art Palette' Rainbow Poke Cake!!

I wanted to share my recent discovery on how to take a boring old cake to 'next level'. Like 'how did I not know this was a thing' kind of next level!!!! 

It's called a 'Poke Cake'... Sounds weird, right?!? Read on and I will tell and show you more (if you haven't heard of it either, that is!)

My daughter recently had her 8th birthday party. We don't do parties that often around here so when we do, we kinda go all out!!! #canthelpmyself. She requested an Art Party, being a budding little creative, with an Art Palette cake to go with it. She is all about the big ideas, my girl, and I was thrilled with such a fun theme!

The Art Palette cake idea was pretty self explanatory. I wanted to do buttercream icing (cos - yum) with fondant 'paint splatters' (cos - fun!). As much as I love to make and bake, rather than bake the cake itself, I chose to cheat and buy a plain un-iced slab from the supermarket (gasp!). The reason was I wanted a really big cake for the palette and just couldn't be hassled baking four cakes to join together, stressing about size and uniformity etc. Spend your energy where you enjoy it is my motto - I'd rather have fun decorating the cake than baking it, hehee!

The night before I was going to decorate the cake I started worrying it would be a bit plain, boring and possibly dry under the icing. I started googling around at 11pm (as you do?!) for an easy way to moisten the cake - I was thinking like a syrup you could drizzle over it before icing it or something. Then I came across a zillion variations of Poke Cakes. So simple and fun I couldn't believe I hadn't heard of or tried it before!!! 

It's pretty simple. Poke holes in the cake, drizzle something liquid and yummy over it. Then ice. Mostly the recipes used sweetened condensed milk to sweeten and moisten the cake. I had a tin in the cupboard then has my own genius idea (ahem!) to take my art cake to the next level! So here we go.... the instructions, if you will...

An 'Art Palette' Rainbow Poke Cake!

Rather than plain condensed milk, I had the idea to dye it lots of colours for an arty/paint/rainbow effect - a fun surprise inside! Firstly, I divided the tin of condensed milk between sections in this silicone muffin tin thing, and then coloured them using food colouring (I used both gels and liquid so either can work!).

I laid out the slab cake (frozen beforehand to make it easier to cut - cheeky tip!) and had the task of trying to cut it in a palette shape. Not easy!!!! It's such a weird shape and I kind of winged it and freaked out a few times. Oh well. Sort of looks like a pacman but let's ignore that, lol! 

Then I simply used the thicker end of a chopstick to poke holes in the cake all over. You can also use the end of a wooden spoon or even a fork for lots of little holes. 

I had a syringe lying around (as you do, ha!) so decided to use it to squirt in the coloured condensed milk. Because I was using different colours I didn't want them to get mixed up. If you were just using a single colour or flavour, you could probably just drizzle or spoon it all over the cake. I  think the syringe did help it get right into the holes though! I just went line by line with different colours. This was the really fun bit!

And then the really super fun bit - icing! I made a plain vanilla butter cream icing (you know - icing sugar, butter, vanilla, milk). Then I rolled out bits of coloured fondant (some was already coloured, some I coloured with food gels) and used scissors to cut it out into painterly-blobby-sorta shapes!

Does it pass as an Art Palette??!

Done!!!

Of course, I was really excited to cut into it at the party the next day, especially as Lily had no idea about the colourful surprise inside the cake :) She loved it... #phew

Here is an after shot of the last sliver of cake after the party.

Rainbowwwwwwwwwww!!

So there you have it! An easy way to spice up a plain cake, adding moistness, flavour and even colour!

There were SOOOOO many awesome poke cake varieties out there, I am now excited to experiment and try them all! I am thinking chocolate sauce, plain condensed milk, coconut cream and even... mmmmm, salted caramel sauce??! YUM. Ok, I think cake is calling me....

22/30 - blissed out

Blissed out on (raspberry cacao) Bliss Balls while licking a spoon covered in coconut oil.

Blissed out on our quiet home day ritual. He lunches at the kitchen bench while I potter around the kitchen, preparing home staples (yoghurt, muesli, school snacks for the freezer, etc), doing dinner prep, and the never-ending cycle of cleaning and wiping benches over and over and over.

Blissed out on the chatter that peppers our day, hearing his charming thoughts and quirky ideas and silly stories - a three year old boy unfurling before my eyes. I am reminded that when it comes to time with your children, a whole lot of seemingly 'nothing' really adds up to 'something'.

Blissed out on the the blessings and privilege of being a stay at home mum, whiling away the days alongside this funny little bear. How sweet it is. This era will soon be ending, I want to soak up every drop while I can!

PS Yes, I am heading back to the office soon. The end of my 8 year stint as a SAHM. Will write a post about that soon....ish!

Documenting delight, every day in June.

Five Ways to Make Family Mealtimes More Meaningful

Family dinners.

Is it something you grew up with? I did. I guess it's one of those things where you assume it's just 'what everybody does', until my friends staying for dinner in my teen years started commenting on how different that was....or maybe they meant, how different/weird my family was?!?! Who knows, haha!

Family mealtimes weres something Mark and I wanted to continue when we had our own kiddos. Baby led weaning helped make that a natural transition even when the kids were tiny as they could feed themselves, and so easily joined the family table. And yes, dinner time slowly crept backwards from 7.30pm to the positively nursing-home time of 5.30pm. Ok, sometimes even closer to five!

Sidenote: eating this early definitely resets your body clock. When friends want to go out to dinner at 7 or 8pm, I am quietly appalled and pretty much gnawing my own arm off by the time that hour rolls around!!! #sad

ANYWAY!


Why family mealtimes matter...

There are all kinds of benefits to family mealtimes. Honestly, the benefits can be far richer and deeper and more long lasting than seem possible in those crazy moments of tired kids, stressed parents, rushed evenings and chaotic dinner scenes. It may seem like there is no way it's so valuable in those moments! Yet there is all kinds of research around the long lasting value of family meals. A regular time to connect as a family, a seemingly simple routine, helps form a sense of family identity that is so powerful!

A short list of benefits to family meal times according to the research (based on eating together as a family 4-5 times a week)...

• Increased overall sense of family identity and connection
• Children more likely to do well in school, have a better vocabulary, have greater overall wellbeing, less anxiety, and accept parental boundaries
• Children less likely to do drugs, be obese, develop eating disorders, and hide things from their parents
• Children more likely to eat well, with a more varied diet and and a healthy ongoing relationship with food.
• Children learn conversational skills, develop a greater sense of self and learn how to develop and share opinions.

There are many other benefits, but you get the gist! More simply, it's a time to turn off the media and electronics that pervade our lives, sit down and just talk, deconstruct the day, and plain ol' interact all together in one spot! Kids get so much unconscious comfort from seeing all of their 'tribe' together. Eating together is also great modelling for your children both on meal time manners, etiquette and also healthy eating. Kids who eat with their parents tend to eat more, eat better and end up with healthier eating habits for life ! I could go on and on, but my focus in this post is more on the connection it creates.

Now let's be honest, in the 'early years', family dinner time is not always a tranquil and leisurely affair. Guaranteed at least one person is crying sometime throughout dinner, amiright?? Food is dropped (or thrown). Children run wailing to their beds. Passionate discussions about 'food preferences' (ahem!) are had. And so on... If you live life with little kids, you know the drill!!! All I can say is.... press on. Persevere. Even when it's chaotic, the mere routine of family meals provides a sense of stability and family connection to your children. And it's a chance for them to learn and grow! And in the midst of the chaos, there will be slices of heaven where you will stop and look around the table at your clan and think... 'Wow. My family! How blessed we are!'.

It's just good to be together and to take stock of that. Slowly and surely, the snippets of real conversation, laughter and happy chatter emerge and extend. And you know what?? Even the tantrums, the tears and the challenging behaviours are authentic parts of the fabric of family life too. As weird as it sounds, it's okay that the dinner table is sometimes going to be the training ground for working through some of those tough things. Persevere. It gets better. It takes practise, and that's ok. Slowly you have to get up from the table to fetch things less than 12,533 times!!

Some of your greatest memories will be of moments that organically emerge while gathered around that crumb-strewn family table. They are your people. Mess and all. It's worth it.

A disclaimer (of course).

I totally get that family dinner times are not realistic for everyone. We are blessed that we can make it work for us... my hubby moved jobs a few years ago, largely in order to make sure he could be home in time for dinner with the kids - it was a pretty big family priority for us! But I know that it's simply not realistic or doable for everyone, especially when some parents are not getting home till way past dinner or even bedtime or studying or working at night, etc. But if family meal times sound like a deal you want to get in on, think outside the box to make it work for your tribe. Maybe a family breakfast is more realistic? It may be short and sweet but it would be a great way to start the day together! Maybe weekdays are just too hectic but over the weekend you are able to all gather around a table for every meal? Start with what you can and hopefully it can grow. I've even heard of families where the kids need to eat dinner earlier, but sit at the dinner table again when the working parent gets home, with a drink of milk or some little nibbles, so everyone can chat together while the parents have their dinner. Think outside the box and hopefully you can come up with a workable arrangement :)

If you are committed to making family meal times work for you, I wanted to share a few ideas on how to make that precious time even more meaningful for your family, if and when you feel you are keen to 'build on' to the basics!! I love the idea of maximising this daily ritual. These ideas are all things we do or have done. Not all at the same time, usually!!! ;) Some things might just work for a season. We may do one or two things a night for a few weeks or months, then try something new. Often factoring the age of the kids and how tired we all are too of course. These are things that worked for us. Run with them, and cut them to size for your tribe!

And if nothing else, just eat together. You may all be slurping soup in silence, there may be complaints and squabbles but trust me... the ritual itself has value. Little moments of sweetness will pop up, treasured moments and conversations and family memories will emerge. Even if the only basic requirement is that your whole clan gathers around the table to consume food and beverage, even if it's takeaway or leftovers, it's still worth it. And the more you persevere, the better it will get as everyone comes to accept this 'compulsory family fun' haha!

Five Ways to Make Family Dinners More Meaningful


1. 'Highs and Lows'

This 'game' has lots of different names but I'm sure you know the drill. Everyone around the table takes a turn to share the high and low points of their day. It's a wonderful way to get an insight into everyone's world without having to just ask 'Sooooooooo, how was your day??' (to which the universal response is usually a bland 'Good', right!?). Gotta say, the kids responses to this are usually so fascinating and often comical. It's a great chance to talk through the low points especially and really get a sense of your kid's day. And also so valuable for the kids to see that their parents are people too (gasp!) with their own highs and lows in life - they get a sneak peek into our adult world and can learn from our perspectives and how we handle things.


2. Question Time!

A few months ago, my husband Mark rediscovered an old question game called The Ungame from his childhood, which has card packs of moral and spiritual questions. It's been an fantastic way to bring up topics of conversations we might not usually think of and really gives us some insights to the fascinating worlds going on in our kids heads!

A quick google brings up all kind of question lists for children that you could use to provoke similar questions around the table... these simple questions often provoke deeper conversations and help everyone gain insight into other family members.

(More family dinner questions here and here).

3. The Appreciation Plate

Our Appreciation Plate is brought out on special occasions (birthdays and other celebrations) but I also bring it out every month or two for a few nights when I remember as well - or often the kids request it! You can read more about it here but the basic idea of the Appreciation Plate is that one lucky duck is chosen to eat dinner off the Appreciation Plate that night. While we eat, everyone else around the table takes a turn to say something they appreciate about the person who has the plate.

This has been a beautiful, simple way to build up sibling bonds, with the kids finding ways to tell each other (and us parents!) things they love and appreciate about everyone else in the clan. Really sweet and often powerful to see the things they notice. Building a vocabulary of love, support, kindness and appreciation amongst my children as siblings is super important to me... I want them to know how to tell each other how much they care for each other! For words of kindness to roll off the tongue, it can take practise - it's a skill to be learnt and a mindset to adopt. This is a simple way to start doing this early. Hopefully it continues long after we are gone :)

Also, I got this special plate made because I am a sentimental soul after any excuse for a potential family heirloom, haha! But any old op-shop plate that looks a bit different to the rest of your plates will do the job - hunt down one that is a different colour or pattern or whatever!






4. Get Grateful!

Nothing complicated or groundbreaking... but not something that just has to be saved for American Thanksgiving Dinners either! Go around the table and everyone shares something they are thankful for.

Always good to count (and share!) your blessings.


5. Value Sharing

We are a Christian family, so several of our family table rituals centre around our faith. Firstly, we pray at the start of every meal. The kids usually take turns praying if they want to (they usually want to!). We hold hands around the table, and listen as one of our clan shares a simple message of thanks to God. Then we dig in, often doing Highs and Lows, Ungame Questions or the Appreciation Plate while we eat our meal.

In the last year or so, we have introduced a very short family devotional towards the end of the meal...(like, 5-8 minutes kind of short!). We might sing some Christians songs or more often we read and discuss a Bible story - my husband,Mark reads aloud while leaving gaps in the story for the kids to fill in (loudly!). We find it works well to do this while everyone is 'contained' at the table (rather than waiting till bed time as we used to do... we now keep bedtime just for regular storytime) and then lingering eaters can finish off their food while we all chat. Mark has been wonderfully consistent in keeping this going, and it's been a great addition to our family table. The kids are learning so much and they love it!

Now, if the Christian / religious thing isn't your game, no worries! You might instead like to incorporate your own family values in other ways. You could begin the meal with a simple blessing or even a family motto or special quote (Go Team! haha). You could take turns sharing one thing you are thankful for before eating each night. You could finish up the meal by reading fables or stories with a moral centre that you could then discuss as a family. Always thought provoking! Or read poems! Plenty of options to make it work for your crew and your beliefs.

The Wrap Up...

According to Tolstoy, happy families are all alike... but as much as I love Tolstoy, I happen to think happy families can be quite a bit different! So, at the end of the day, I think it's great to prioritise family meal times, but make them work for YOU - with your own wonderful mix of life circumstances, different ages and family dynamics, different routines and schedules.

We personally might do all or one or none of these elements I've written about each night. Usually at least a couple of them but you know what life is like... sometimes getting everyone fed is success enough! Also, we usually focus on family meals on the week nights, whereas on the weekends we often let the kids eat earlier while we parents eat later as a sort of 'date night in'. I think it's important to recognise that routines can come and go and that is ok - things work well for different seasons and as those seasons of family life change, so too can our rhythms. The kids are at an age now (3, 5, 7) where we have really hit our family meal stride (everyone can sit and chat and participate) and hopefully this will continue - though I know as the kids get older, social/extracurricular lives may be ramping up and it will be harder to get everyone home for dinner together!

Rest assured, we have our fair share of dinner time tears, disruptions and every shade of the emotional rainbow. Trust me!!! ;) But we press on. I've shared some things we do that make our family meal times more meaningful for us. Maybe they will spark an interest in you, to try at your own family table... or simply savour that family meal time just as it is, in whatever way is working for you!

xx Kate

A Super Charged Hot Lemon Drink to Cure the Winter Blues!

When the winter chills start setting in and the sniffles not long after, the first thing I do is start simmering up a saucepan of this nourishing goodness!

This super charged hot lemon drink is an immune-boosting dynamo, helping prevent or at least recover faster from colds, coughs and congestion... plus, it's full of goodness, and I think it tastes pretty delicious too! Consider it an immune boost that will help your body fight off the sniffles as best and quick as it can.

It's a bit of a 'throw it all in' type recipe (all of mine are, haha!) but as I am always being asked by friends for the recipe, I thought I should take the time to blog up a general guide to the ingredients, at least!! Feel free to add more or less depending on your taste buds (oh, and don't be freaked out by the garlic, you really can't taste it!)...

Super Charged Hot Lemon Drink Recipe

Ingredients - 

• Lemons - 3 or 4
• Tumeric - a couple cm's of fresh if possible, or 2 tsp ground
• Cayenne Pepper - about a third of a tsp (depending how much kick you want!)
• Ginger - 2cms of fresh ginger, or 3 tsp of the jarred stuff
• Garlic - 5 or 6 cloves
• A quarter cup or so of Apple Cider Vinegar
• Water - Approx 600-700ml or just enough for the lemons to be able to float and simmer.
• Honey (add later when drinking)

Instructions - 

• Quarter the lemons and throw them in a small saucepan, yep, rind and all! So much goodness in the zest, you don't want to miss a bit! It all blends up in the end, truly.
• Add in the garlic bulbs, the knobs or teaspoons of ginger and tumeric, and the ACV.
• Add water
• Simmer on a low heat for about 15-20 minutes or until the lemon skins are very soft
• Blend the whole lot up very well with a stick mixer (or pour into a blender, or do the whole thing in a Thermomix if you have one!) and it's done!!

This recipe makes a concentrate, to which you can then add extra hot water and honey to taste whenever you want to make up a cosy mugful. Keep it in a jar in the fridge, and just pour about an inch into your mug, topping up with hot water and however much honey to taste - maybe two or three teaspoons as obviously the mix is pretty tart! And honey is good for sore throats too :)

Tip - I like to make 'frozen lemon discs' by pouring an inch of the concentrate into the bases of muffin tins, freeze then later pop out the frozen disks and put them into a bag in the freezer. Then they are portion sized and ready to quickly pull out and use whenever the sniffles dare strike! 

So why is this little concoction so good for you? The lemons are packed with vitamin C, and the cayenne pepper is fantastic for soothing sore throats and breaking up congestion and coughs. Tumeric is an amazing anti-inflammatory, anti bacterial, and anti-viral. And we all know ginger and garlic are full of vitamins and goodness! The honey also soothes sore throats and if you can get it unprocessed, also full of nutrients for ailing bodies. Oh, you could also add a little coconut oil to your hot drink too for another immune boost... why not, haha! 

A disclaimer that (as you probably can guess from the ingredients) this is a very strong and tart mixture. Feel free to use less of the concentrate, with more water and honey, till it is palatable for you! I find the more I drink it, the stronger I can handle it, haha! ;)

The kids love this drink and ask for it as soon as the mildest sniffle begins... preferably served in a travel mug with plenty of honey, while they are snuggled up on the couch under a blanket. They totally like to milk the slightest sickness, haha! ;) My tip for serving this to kids is to start it off very weak and sweet till they can handle the sourness as well, then over time you can add in more and more of the concentrate too!

Happy soothing sipping, my friends! 

{give away and review} why we *love* reusable sandwich and snack bags

One of my childhood memories is of my amazing, resourceful mother washing out and pegging up plastic bread bags over the kitchen window sill, to reuse for wrapping sandwiches, cut fruit and so forth. Yes, she was into reusing and repurposing way before it was on trend! ;)

While I may not (yet!) take my environmental and thrifty savvy to quite that level, clearly it influenced me because it has always chaffed me to use lots of plastic bags. Even when my dear kids and their never ending (NEVER.ENDING!!) snack requirements appeared on the scene, I always cringed about using 'disposable' ziplock type bags. It just seemed so wasteful! Just a single use then toss. It didn't seem right. Containers were the easy alternative of course, but they were usually so bulky, they didn't always suit. A couple of years ago I started seeing reusable snack bags coming onto the market and my little heart knew it had met its match! Ahhh, the answer to my predicament! I bought a couple to try out - a sandwich and a snack sized bag, and it was indeed looooove :)

Here's a little list of why our family now loves using reusable bags...

• Good for the environment, less waste and landfill. 
• Over time, you save $$$!
• They are easy to empty/dust out, and if they get mucky, most are dishwasher/washing machine friendly too.
• Unlike bulky containers, they don't take up as much space in your bag - and once they are empty, they take almost no space!
• They are a great way to wrap individual foods within lunchboxes too, so you can avoid using cling wrap.
• A better alternative to your food touching chemical-leeching cling wrap and plastic bags.
• Oh yeah - they look so cute too :)

A few of the colourful, fresh and modern designs of the Lunchskins range. Aren't they gorgeous!? And so well made too.

These days I usually have a couple of reusable snack bags floating around in my hand bag and nappy/diaper bag, filled with emergency crackers, sultanas, etc. Every time someone else spots us using them, they comment on what a great idea they are - and yes, they really are! Good for the kids - and for adults too of course. Yes, Mama needs her own little snack bag at times...keeps me from getting 'hAngry' ;) Hubby takes some of his work snacks in them too!

A staple 'emergency handbag snack kit' - sultanas, coconut chips and sunflower seeds. 

Perfect for little hands...

A couple of common questions friends ask about reusable lunchbags are...

1) How well does it 'seal' in the food? Does a sandwich stay fresh? Unlike some other brands, Lunchskins has a really strong velcro strip that goes all the way across the opening. If you make a sandwich in the morning, it will keep nice and fresh for the day, but I wouldn't say longer than that. It's not an airtight seal like a ziplock, but it does close up very well. 

2) Does it leak? Again, it's not completely 100% sealed in like a ziplock bag, but the canvas is sturdy and thick. For something fairly juicy like an orange, rockmelon etc it will contain it all just fine. I filled mine with water as an experiment, and it dripped a bit from the corners where the stitching is and would also from the flap at the top. Of course, I don't think anyone is expecting to use them to hold pure water, haha... 

The perfect little sandwich bag. Please note this bread is a small loaf (Burgen bread). Regular size bread fits perfectly too.

This is Eli's serious orange face, haha :)

I started off my 'reusable bag journey' (ha!) with a different brand, which I liked but was open to trying another type. Earlier this year, a friend and I came across these adorable and really well made bags by Lunchskins in one of our favourite online kids stores, Finlee and Me. We bought a couple each to try, and have both been SO happy with their quality, their cuteness,and the very strong velcro which goes along the whole opening flap (the other brand I used only had a small tab of velcro, so it didn't seal up so well). The Lunchskins brand of reusable bags are also BPA and phthalate free and dishwasher safe. They are also hand sewn using certified food-safe fabric. 


The Good Stuff....

Are you getting on board the reusable bag train? Keen to try them out? Or already a fan and want to increase your stash? Well, this could be your lucky day! I am so pleased to partner with Finlee and Me, who have generously offered to give away a sandwich/snack bag set to THREE lucky winners!!

Finlee and Me are a fantastic Australian online kids shop, specialising in lovely and unique goodies for kids and babies - and some things for Mums too! When they offered to send me an item for review, I was keen to add to my reusable bag stash, as with five family members the few I have are always in use! Plus, I couldn't wait to shout my love for these enviro-friendly goodies to the rooftops. You know me, I love to share with you guys about what I'm loving! Of course, I also wanted to share the love around with a giveaway :)


So, there are three chances to win! Just comment below to have one of three chances to win your very own Lunchskins snack and sandwich bag set (valued at $24.95 plus postage). In the mean time, check out the gorgeous full range here.... and be sure to browse around all of Finlee and Me's lovely other goodies too. So many nice things!

PS Use the Rafflecopter app, then enter your competition entry comment (What would you store in your Lunchskins reusable bag?) into the blog comment box at the bottom of the page xx

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions:
Giveaway is for 3 Lunchskins sets (one sandwich bag, one snack bag). One set each for three winners, and including delivery within Australia
Australian Entries only. 
Must leave a name and email address if using an "anonymous" profile that is not linked to a way to contact you if you've won.
Winner will be deemed most creative/interesting response as chosen by me. This is a game of skill, not chance.
Entries close Sunday night, 19th April, 11.59pm 2015. 
Judges decision is final. Winner must respond within 48 hours or prize will be awarded to the runner up. Good luck!!!

**These items were provided for review by Finlee and Me. All opinions are 100% my own... as mentioned, I bought a set of these myself earlier in the year, we are big fans already!**

our family food policy // growing happy, healthy eaters... for life!

I don't know about you but to be honest, I didn't care or think too much about healthy eating until my sweet kiddos came along. Something about being solely responsible for the nourishment of little humans does that to a person, huh?! I have to say they have transformed my whole outlook!

So, I have been wanting to write about kids and food for quite a while. After all, what our kids eat takes up quite a lot of our time and energy.... I feel like I am hardly out of the kitchen these days, constantly sending food down the conveyor belt to my ravenous horde!

My idea for this post is to put together the principles, ideas, tips and policies that form our 'family food guide' - basically, the how's and why's behind our work to create healthy happy eaters in our family. So, it's probably going to be a preeeeetty long post ;) With three kids aged 6, 4 and almost 2, we have done quite a bit of feeding already... with many more years to come. I am thankful to say that thus far our goals are pretty much on track, with three healthy, happy, adventurous eaters. So, I'd love to share what's working for us, and how we got here - and what we are still working towards as it is always a work in progress. Love you to share your tips too :)

Now this is not some kind of bragging post about how our kids are the best eaters in the world and can we please have a medal!! ;) Ha! Not at all. They are just real kids and we are real parents. It's just a place to collate the information and guiding principles I have gathered along the way from food experts and of course - other mums who have been there before! I'm such a bower bird, picking up info from everywhere, I just can't help it! My friends do call me the Research Queen, haha. This topic is important to me so I wanted to compile it all into one place. I eagerly I soak up tips and tricks from others, so would love to 'share the love' here about what I've learned along the way. Needless to say (but I will say it anyway), this is just about what has worked for us, and why we do what we do. Pick and choose what you like and leave the rest. So here we go!

Smashing down some spinach from our veggie patch. 

When I thought about the relationship I wanted my kids to have with food, I always knew my aim was to create happy, healthy, adventurous eaters. For myself, I grew up an extremely picky eater. Food was also a battle ground and I knew I didn't want that for my kids. I wanted to enjoy eating with my kids, I wanted them to have a healthy relationship with food through their lives. At the same time, it was important for me to raise kids who weren't fussy, who would try new foods and also be polite around eating non-preferred foods, both in the home and most especially when they were guests. Being respectful and appreciative are really important values in our family, as is eating a good, nourishing, varied diet... but without being too obsessive about it either. Eek! How to get to this place?


Well, here are a few of our 'family food policies' that guide us to our 'happy medium'.

(Please note - they are always a work in progress and there are always exceptions! Apply your own logic and circumstances, of course)



EAT WHAT THE FAMILY EATS
From the very beginning, our kids always eat what the family eats. All three of our kids started solids at six months through the Baby Led Weaning approach and I can't rave enough about how well this worked for us, making food introduction stress-free, easy, fun and of course gloriously messy. They all enjoyed food from Day 1, more or less (some took more time to start really eating than others, which is fine) and the approach made it a natural introduction to REAL food in a manner that allowed them to take on what they were ready to consume. We started as we meant to go on. We also gave them healthy food options, and trusted them to eat what they needed and low and behold... they did :) (More on this to come).


NO 'KID' FOOD 
We have never (at least so rarely that I can't remember it!) bought or prepared 'special kids food'. Mostly because anything branded for kids just seems like an expensive marketing ploy, generally more processed and just a rip off to my frugal mind ;) The kids eat what the family eats, that's all they know and they are happy to do so. I don't want to have to wean them off kiddie food onto adult food - so they just happily eat the real stuff now!


A GUIDING MANTRA:

I CONTROL WHEN, WHERE AND WHAT THEY EAT, THEY CONTROL HOW MUCH

This little saying comes from Ellen Satler's 'Division of Responsibility in Eating.  This has been the primary principle in our food approach. *I* choose a healthy and varied diet, *I* choose appropriate meal times and places, and *they* choose how much they eat. Toddlers in particular go through all sorts of growth spurts, one day eating little more than two sultanas and the next day wolfing down three bowls of curry. It all evens out! If they choose not to eat much one meal, they tend to be much more amenable to the next meal time, I find ;) This little mantra takes away sooooo much stress about food, because at the end of the day, you can't force them to eat. As my clever friend Wendy put it, 'I spend a lot of time thinking about what they will eat, and very little time thinking about how much'. 

Our general policy for meal times... (and this is a core issue in daily life, isn't it) is that the kids are not required to eat everything they are served. I serve small/appropriate portions and then trust them to eat as much as they need. However, I'm not running a diner. They must eat enough to tide them over till the next meal time. And the catch is that if they can't finish what they are have, that is fine, but they cannot have anything else either. So there is no leaving all the beans and then asking for fruit or more meat. I do gently encourage them to eat what they are served, but I don't push it. They can eat what they are served or not. But nothing extra if they don't want to finish what's in front of them. That is just the way it goes around here! We do generally require that they have at least one bite of everything served. But no stress, fuss, cajoling or pleading. This is also because I want our family meal times to be a pleasant time of togetherness and conversation. Yes, because we have small kids meal times can often be chaotic anyway, haha, but I did not want them to be a meeting place for endless negotiations and battles. Though the kids sometimes try to draw me into these ;) I just try to let them clearly know the boundary and the choice is theirs. 

This was a day when Miles suddenly decided he didn't want to eat his avocado rice cake. He was hollering for crackers, banana, and anything else he could spy in the pantry. I just calmly informed him several times that avocado rice cakes was what was for lunch (he had eaten several other things already too) and went about my business in the kitchen. After ten minutes, he suddenly picked up the rice cake, shot me this HUGE grin and happily munched down the entire rice cake!!! Cheeky boy - putting me to the test?!? :)

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LEARNING TO LISTEN TO THEIR BODIES

We talk a lot about 'listening to our tummies'. I encourage them to listen to their bodies, to be aware of that 'full' feeling or how they feel after eating certain foods. I don't want them feeling compelled to eat everything in front of them (finish their plate), even to the point of feeling sick. I hate waste, but have come to realise even for myself that cramming down food you don't need is just as wasteful as throwing it out (of course we don't throw it out anyway, it's saved for later or fed to the chooks!). Finishing your plate no matter how you feel is not really a healthy eating approach. So, they will often pipe up that their tummy says they have had enough. And yes, this even happens when eating a 'treat' like very rare lollies or ice cream. As you can guess, I am just thrilled when that happens, to see that even when eating a 'treat' food, they will listen to their tummies and stop when they have had sufficient. Three cheers for self-control - this is the kind of understanding I hope they will carry with them through adulthood. No prizes for gluttony in this life! Yes, sometimes their tummies do have some rather questionable messages, haha ;) (eg 'my tummy says it needs ice cream for dinner'!!) but I love that they are learning to tune into how their body reacts to food (including food that just doesn't feel good). Mindless compulsive eating is not something I'm aiming for.

MINIMAL SUGAR

We don't serve dessert on any regular basis. Partly because I don't want kids sugar loading before bed (or, actually, any time), partly because I don't want them to build a lifelong habit of needing 'sweet' to follow 'savoury', and partly because I want them to eat their meal for it's own sake. I don't like to bribe them to eat dinner (forcing food down) just to get something seen as 'better', especially as I think it tends to elevate sweet food too much. In the last few months we have instituted 'Friday Night Treat Night' which wards off requests for treats at other times - they now know they can look forward to it one night a week :) A happy medium that works for us right now. It is really important to me to keep sugar at a minimum in their diet, knowing its effect on the body and the cravings it sets up for life. I am not one to cut out entire food groups, so I don't plan to ever fully 'quit sugar' or anything (life's too short not to eat cake, haha) but keeping it minimal seems right for now.

CHILL :) 

My approach towards food, from the first morsel they ate in BLW has been to take a relaxed, no pressure, no stress, no emotion or 'hovering monitoring every bite' type approach. There is no power in food! Kids read and absorb your anxiety so I keep well away from that. I guess I never felt much anxiety anyway in terms of how much they were eating or if they would eat. I just give them foods I'm happy for them to eat and let them take care of the rest.

DON'T PROJECT YOUR FOOD FEELINGS! 

How often does this phrase come out of your mouth 'Oh, you won't like that!' ? It's all too easy to say! But hold up. How do we know what they will and won't like? Ok, maybe they didn't like it last time but maybe they will this time! I try really really hard to not project any of my own food biases, preferences and ideas on to the kids. Let them decide what they like. They might just surprise you! Let them decide what is too strong, too spicy, too gross. When the kids want to sample the raw garlic I am chopping, I just warn them 'It's a really strong flavour' and give them a tiny slice. Then they turn around and say they love it! You just never know. Kids can be weird, haha.  I am admittedly still a fussy eater in many areas unfortunately, thought I have gotten a lot better, I promise!! (I can't handle raw tomato, cucumber, avocado etc). I just LOVE however that the kids cheerfully eat all these things and they also have no idea that I don't like them as I try not to mention my own issues. When Eli requests peanut butter, vegemite, sultanas AND lettuce on one sandwich, I bite my tongue except to cheerfully say 'Sure' and let him at it. I love for them to try as many weird and wacky food combos as possible, it all helps with varying their palate. So, let them try whatever they want to try, and let them decide what they think. Any show of food confidence and adventurousness (is that a word?!) is a good thing in my book. 

YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIKE IT, BUT IT WOULD BE GOOD IF YOU COULD TRY IT

Another phrase I love which I read in a kids' cooking magazine article (which I could remember more specifics!) was 'You don't have to like it but it would be good if you could try it'. I think kids naturally become wary of new foods, especially around age two where even old favourites suddenly get cast aside (I think the taste buds and appetite does change around this age, it's been amazing to see the transition in all my kids). They are wary and think 'but I might not like it'... so just matter of factly letting them know you don't have to 'like' everything you try takes a lot of the fear away. Just one small taste! One day I invented a silly song to celebrate when the kids tried something new. We sing to the tune of 'Johnny works with one hammer' (no idea why this random tune is in my head!) 'Lily tried a new thing, a new thing, a new thing. Lily tried a new thing and she........' then let the child chime in with 'LIKED IT' or 'DIDN'T LIKE IT' or 'SORT OF LIKED IT' haha. This lets them be allowed to form an opinion but focuses the celebration on trying something new.They now sing this for themselves or each other and even Miles can sing the chorus :)

NO PUNISHMENTS OR REWARDS, ONLY NATURAL CONSEQUENCES
We don't reward or punish for eating and I also try to avoid threatening over food. So there is no 'finish your meal or you don't get dessert' type thing. I want them to eat because it's good food there to be eaten. Not only do I feel like rewarding for eating is getting stuck in a cycle I sure don't want to be in, I also don't like the message it sends to the kids, of forcing down one 'bad' type of food in order to get a 'good' one. It also feels like it elevates 'treats' too much?? There are logical consequences, as mentioned, of having to eat what is before them before they have something else, but I don't 'lead' or cajole with that as an incentive or punishment, it's just a matter of fact.

KEEP OFFERING!

Don't let it be set in your mind that they don't like something, 'cos taste buds change! They say it can take 17 tries for taste buds to come around to a new food. I have seen myself a certain veggie be placed on a plate day after day and then all of a sudden become a favourite. It can happen ;) Don't stress about it, just keep offering.

EVERYDAY/SOMETIMES/PARTY FOOD

We talk about food as 'every day' foods, 'sometimes' foods and 'party' food. Not good/bad food. For a while I tried to take the approach of all food being neutral, only focusing on the nourishment purposes and not the differing pleasure in eating - the idea being to take the emotional power out of food....but I got over that as it just felt inauthentic. While I don't want to build up junk food, let's be honest, it's more fun to go out for ice cream than a cucumber!! ;) There is joy and community and pleasure in eating and I felt fake pretending like food was nothing more than fuel. We can also take pleasure in the bounty of food God provides us, right!?

KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE 

My overall goal is a good start to a healthy relationship to food for their lives. To be able to understand their bodies, how food is like medicine that either nourishes or harms, to enjoy eating good food but not to be consumed by it (I am not one to stress about every morsel - I follow the 80/20 rule - eat well 80% of the time and don't worry about the other 20%). To listen to their bodies in relation to what they eat - what feels good, what doesn't, when their tummy is truly hungry and when it has had enough. Kids won't stave themselves, so don't stress too much about them eating more or less at different times. If they get hungry enough, they will eat! So we just try to make sure what they do eat is as nutritional as possible (most bang for your buck!). Admittedly my kids have always been pretty big eaters so I have never had the 'sparrow eater' challenge but I think the rule still applies, and they certainly have had meal times where they have chosen to eat very little or even nothing. And that's ok.

In Summary.... (you still with me??)

My kids are encouraged to try everything on their plate, but they don't have to finish the plate. Appetites waver, this is just part of life. I don't stress if some meal times (or even days) they don't eat much at all, and other times they are ravenous. It all balances out. Again, just keep presenting healthy options and don't micro manage the intake. It makes life a whole lot less stressful for everyone ;) 

Now, do my kids sometimes complain about certain foods? Have foods they don't really like? Yes. And yes! They are human after all ;) Do I sometimes cajole them to eat just a bit more? Errr... yes, that happens sometimes too! If they are just being distracted (eg children!) at meal time, I might ask them to take five more bites before they leave the table. Cos I am also human, haha!! Sometimes (gasp) I have even said to hurry and finish so they can have a treat. Real life, folks. They aren't robots and neither am I! However generally, the principles laid out above are what we follow in our family and are working for us so far. We don't stress about food in our family, I just try to be intentional about giving them nourishing foods and let it unfold from there. I should add that we also talk a lot about gratefulness, good manners, trying your best to eat what's before you especially when you are a guest, to show appreciation for Mummy's cooking (complaining about the meal is not okay), and so on. We talk about how every meal does not have to be a 'favourite', we can still eat food we don't prefer, with thankfulness. It's important to me that my kids gratefully receive the food before them and recognise where it comes from. It's ok to not love everything you eat, but it is not okay to be ungrateful for it. This is a work in progress, of course ;) But my trio meanwhile happily eat everything from curry to relish to olives to kale chips.

Lily having fun with black bean wraps!

At the end of the day, some kids will just naturally have wider palates than others. One child of mine can happily swig a shot of Apple Cider Vinegar and barely flinch (sour!!!!) which I can barely tolerate! Not so for another child. But I truly believe that children can appreciate a much wider range of foods than just sultanas and chicken nuggets. These early years are so crucial in setting them up with a diverse palate, a healthy appetite and an appreciation for good nutritious food which will hopefully go with them for life.

And so... this was my hodge-podge of collated thoughts and experiences... I hope some of it may be useful or helpful, or inspiring - feel free to cherry pick as you please :) Also - add any of YOUR tips and thoughts below!



xx

45/52 - the fruits of our home and garden

Lily

The eager anticipation of biting into her first strawberry. Her little plant from last year is fruiting again, and every morning first thing she races out to check the ripening process. Now one seems to be ready every day, but nothing beats that first glorious bite!

Eli

I couldn't decide whether this should be Eli or Miles' portrait but decided to file it under Eli in the end. It's very quickly snapped but a rather precious moment. Just before loading everyone into the car on Sunday morning for church, I overheard singing and discover the kids in the newly mounted hammock (a popular spot these days!). Lily and Eli are rocking Miles, and singing his song 'You are my sunshine' as they gently sway the hammock. Miles is peacefully swinging, content in his role of beloved baby of the family. Lily and Eli are so devoted to this kid! Goodness, I hope he isn't spoilt rotten by all this adoration ;)

Dear Eli, what a beautiful brother you are. Just look at your little sibling, gazing up at you in total adoration. What a lifetime of brotherly adventure awaits you both!

Miles

A grubby little face that only a mother could love ;) 

Mmmm, he is a beautiful mess indeed!

One coat of pasta sauce, one coat of chocolate mousse from the beater - yes, he sure loved every morsel!

Mark

His Saturday morning ritual, whipping up a batch of pancakes for the family.

Delicious and cherished x

Project 52: A portrait of my family, once a week, every week, in 2014.

More highlights from the week that was....

Anticipation....

'This is the most delicious strawberry in the world, Mummy!'

Our little kitchen garden is growing... dare I even say - flourishing?!! I gaze in wonder, lol! I must give most of the credit to the chickens who have significantly contributed - first the manure to mix with the soil to make it so fertile, and then they ever so kindly parole the perimeter, keeping our veggies free of bugs or snails. Thanks, chookies! Of course, they can get a little tooooo keen to get involved in the veggie patch, hence we had to construct this little fence deterrent :) But they certainly earn their scraps! The kids are just loving the veggie patch and I am too. Simple pleasures of home life.
(Here grows lettuce, spinach and rocket from my Mum's seeds)

Corn

This is a random huge plant. We have no idea what it is, I don't remember planting it.
Theories abound - celery, potatoes, etc. Latest theory is some unusual celery, but I don't know?!
Votes?? Regardless, it sure is healthy but I kinda wanna pull it up!

These are the flowers of mystery plant... and the leaves are serrated.

Oregano nestled amongst the herb garden - parsley, coriander, chives etc

Eli's tiny tomatoes starting to grow! He is very eager to eat them ;)

This week I got a (second hand) Thermomix which is kind of like the dawning of a new era for our family food life! I am both excited and overwhelmed at the possibilities. This was a super quick (like, literally 1 minute) snack I whipped up - CADA (coconut, almond, date and apple). Fresh, delicious, nourishing little snack/brekkie. I'm loving the Tmx and feel so grateful and blessed to have this handy little kitchen tool! As we continually move more towards more wholefoods/less processed foods in our diet, the Tmx is a definite helping hand :)

Deliciously messy, joyful little boy. You exhaust and delight me daily :)