In this episode, Joanne runs through a list of fruits and vegetables which are in season in the UK in April, and offers tips for getting children to try each of them. There is also a short list of imported foods that are currently in season.

This will be useful if you want to increase your intake of seasonal fruits and vegetables, and want some ideas for helping to build your child's familiarity with them, whether they eat the end result or not!

Links in this episode:

List of foods in season in ​April - www.thefoodies.org/seasonal/​april-food-ideas/

Printables of spring seasonal foods: https://thefoodiesbooks.com/product/spring-seasonal-food-printables

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

These days you would have to live under a rock to have missed everyone trying to make you eat extra protein. There is protein added to everything. First it was just for athletes, then it was older people and menopausal women. Then it was sporty kids, and then inevitably it’s now just growing kids full stop.

Meat and fish can be difficult textures for many kids and they will often go through a phase of not wanting to eat them, which can lead to worries that they are not getting enough protein. But how much protein do they actually need and how likely is it that your child is getting enough?

When you’re in this phase you want reliable evidence based information so I asked Lucy Upton the Children’s Dietitian back to talk us through this topic.

Lucy Upton, The Children’s Dietitian, is a leading UK paediatric Dietitian and author with over 15 years of experience. She’s dedicated to helping babies, children, and their families find joy and health through food, nutrition, and mealtimes while dispelling the overwhelming misinformation surrounding children’s feeding. Everything Lucy does is rooted in empathy, blending real-life mum experience with evidence-based advice.

Links in this episode:

Lucy's website: https://www.thechildrensdietitian.co.uk/

Lucy's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childrensdietitian/

Lucy's recent post about protein for kids: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTQxei5DUto/

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Over the year you will have picked up that the main focus of The Foodies products and content is on building children’s exposure to food without any pressure to eat, and we have had several episodes focussing on how to do that in your own home and with your own kids.

But today we are exploring what happens when we take that work into a group setting. So Joanne was very happy to speak to Jason O’Rourke who is a primary headteacher and co-founder (along with food writer Bee Wilson) of a charity called TastEd that gets food education into schools with that same low pressure exploration approach.

TastEd uses the Sapere method which helps children to use all of their senses to build familiarity with a food – Sapere literally means “to know” so it’s just about getting to know a wide range of foods, in TastEd they focus primarily on fruits and vegetables. TastEd has two main rules, no one has to like the foods and no one has to try them. It is all about exploration, confidence and trust. This episode discusses why a group setting like a school can be really helpful for children to build their confidence with food.

Dr Jason O’Rourke is a nationally recognised expert in food education, school food policy, and children’s health and wellbeing. He advises universities, government bodies and NGOs, serving on the UK Government’s School Food Standards Advisory Board, as a Project Partner on The School Meals Service: Past, Present and Future, and as the UK representative on the European SAPERE Board. He is a member of the All‑Party Parliamentary Group on School Food, a Food for Life Ambassador, and co‑founder of TastEd. As headteacher of Washingborough Academy, Jason has led nationally acclaimed work placing food education at the heart of school life.

LInks in this episode:

The TasteEd website: www.tasteeducation.com

Parents' downloads: https://www.tasteeducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/TastEd-Parent-Booklet.pdf

Jason's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasorourke/

Jason's TastEd Co-founder - food writer Bee Wilson: https://www.beewilson.com/

Washingborough Academy's Food Education work: https://www.washac.org/our-school/our-food-education/

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

This episode is part of a monthly series where Joanne runs through some ideas to reduce food waste and save money by storing foods well and using them up effectively.

This episode is about brassicas alliums (leeks, onions and garlic) so there some ideas about how to store alliums to make them last longer, and stop them going off. This includes how to store them in the kitchen, how to freeze them and how to dry them.

And then there are a few good ideas on how to use up leftover leeks, onions and garlic - either surplus from a recipe or coming out of the garden.

The episode includes our monthly Q&A with Kate Hall from The Full Freezer on how to freeze alliums and different ways to use them.

Links in this episode:

Kate’s Can I Freeze It? Video on leeks: https://www.instagram.com/canifreezeit/reel/CTFh7bPIE1b/

Kate’s Can I Freeze It? Video on onions: https://www.instagram.com/canifreezeit/reel/CQiWbl2gSI6/ and https://www.instagram.com/p/DHS77P_Irbp/

Kate’s Can I Freeze It? Video on garlic: https://www.instagram.com/canifreezeit/reel/CEtP1koAKXe/

Kate's website: https://www.thefullfreezer.com

Video on prepping garlic paste for the freezer: https://youtu.be/EXXWRAhweAc?si=EhB2_YJVlsnN7XZf

Recipe suggestions on the shownotes page at https://www.thefoodies.org/ffk86

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Today's show is a real treat for anyone who finds that day-to-day bind of working out what to cook for tea tonight stressful, or for anyone who's finding shopping for food increasingly hard on a budget with everything that's going on in the world right now and the effect on prices.

The show is lucky enough to have an interview with Jo from This Mum Cooks who is a super helpful food creator who shares practical ideas with her hundreds of thousands of followers online. She was kind enough to come and share some of her biggest mindset and planning tips for how to make meal planning less stressful as well as save on money and food waste. We talk about taking the overwhelm out of thinking what to cook, using reduced items strategically to reduce planning time and stop stress in the supermarket, and resetting your expectations about what you are "supposed to" provide to be more realistic and friendly to your time, energy and budget and better for your own family.

Jo is a single mum of three teenagers, living in the northwest of England. Over the last four years her food work has completely changed her career, she now has 3 blossoming social media platforms and is known simply online as ‘Thismumcooks'. Jo shares money and food saving tips to try and help people eat as healthy as possible within the means available to them. She creates weekly meal plans, shares tips on how you can make your food stretch further and ensure that no food goes to waste. Simply, Jo hates money and food waste.

Links in this episode:

Jo's Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thismumcooks

Jo's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thismumcooks

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

We've had a few episodes now on this podcast that are all about helping children with their relationship with food, including episodes on how we can talk to children about food, how we can fend off harmful food talk around children from other people and how we can work towards food freedom in our own relationship with food so that we don't pass on our issues with food to our children.

And it's that final piece that we are coming back to in today's episode, our own relationship with food. But today we're coming at this from a different perspective and Joanne is talking to child and family nutritionist, Julia Wolman about how our experiences of living in a world of diet culture before we have children actually primes us as new parents to find feeding our children difficult and stressful.

Julia is a Registered Nutritionist with a special interest in family and child nutrition stemming from 20 years’ experience. Julia’s career began working for the NHS and local authorities in diverse communities, running healthy eating projects and training for parents, schools and nurseries. During maternity leave with her second son (now 15) Julia set up her family nutrition consultancy, and has been enjoying this work ever since. Julia has also worked as an NHS health coach as well as undertaken various charity roles alongside her parent work. Julia is particularly passionate about supporting parents to improve their own eating behaviours so that they can not only feel healthier and more energised, but also be the best role models for their kids.

Links in this episode:

Julia's website: https://www.juliawolman.co.uk

Julia's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefamilyfoodcoach

Julia's post on this topic: https://www.instagram.com/p/DR26q-NjDLj/

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

This episode is for anyone out there whose child really isn’t keen on fish and is looking for ways to encourage them to explore and maybe accept more fish in their diet. I have called the episode how to get my child to eat fish, because that is a question that gets searched a lot online, but I need to start the episode by putting in two caveats.

Firstly, we don’t get our kids to eat anything. Pressure to eat, sneaking foods in without permission and trickery or bribery all are proven to have the opposite effect long term. What we can do is provide opportunities for our kids to safely explore or come into contact with foods they are not sure about so they can build their familiarity. So most of these ideas are going to be about ways to put fish in front of your child in non pressured ways to build up their confidence, but we have to remember that it’s ok if they don’t eat the fish, the end goal is not the bite of fish, but instead the feeling of safety and curiosity when fish is on the table.

The second caveat is that no one has to eat fish. Vegetarians and vegans can have incredibly healthy well balanced diets with no fish in them, I will link in the shownotes to a couple of episodes about plant based eating and about supplements for children which goes into that in more detail. But your child can get all the nutrients they need from other foods if you’re thoughtful about it. So if your child never decides they like fish, or they have a genuine and lasting aversion, or your family doesn’t eat much of it, you don’t have to force this issue and you can make up for it in other ways. Nothing should ever be forced or pressured.

But this episode assumes that you’re a household that eats fish and that you want to find some child friendly ways to give your child chances to try fish so they can join in with more fishy family meals. So on that basis here are some ideas, I will link to some recipes in the shownotes too of some of these examples but they are more to help you think about starting points so you can meet your child whereever they are at right now.

Links in this episode:

Food chaining episode: https://thefoodies.org/ffk75

Plant based diets: https://thefoodies.org/ffk64

Supplements for kids: https://thefoodies.org/ffk77

Links for recipes are in the shownotes at https://thefoodies.org/ffk83

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

In this episode of the Food for Kids podcast, Joanne shares simple, family-friendly meal ideas using seasonal produce available in March. The focus is on easy-to-make recipes that require minimal prep time, making them perfect for busy families. Joanne discusses three main meals, a dessert, and a quick snack, all utilizing fresh ingredients that are in season. She gives suggestions on adapting recipes to suit children's tastes and some swap ideas too.

Links to all the recipe ideas are in the shownotes at https://thefoodies.org/ffk82

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat