With the first May bank holiday upon us and the nights getting longer, we’ve started to spend more time outside. Our thoughts have moved to thinking about summer BBQs with family and friends. There’s nothing better than spending the British summer outside, and we all want to feed our families healthy, well-balanced nutritious meals.
For young ones, in recent years the British Nutrition Foundation have expanded their advice from the ‘5 a-day’ fruits and vegetables that we’ve all heard for many years. For toddlers and pre-schoolers (aged 1-4), they now recommend a balanced diet of ‘5532 a-day’. This is so they can clearly express the importance that a balance of all the different food groups have on the health and well-being of us all. Starting from a young age, each day children should be offered meals and snacks that strike a balance of all the different food groups. This helps them develop healthy eating habits that they can carry on into adulthood.
Starchy foods – about 5 portions a day
Fruit and vegetables – 5 or more portions a day
Dairy foods – about 3 portions a day
Protein foods – about 2 portions a day (3 portions for vegetarian or vegan children)
You can read more about the most recent British Nutrition Foundation Advice here: https://archive.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/toddlers/new5532.html
We keep this advice in mind when planning our Kinship Carers Cooking Club menus each week. We try to strike a balance of cost-effective ways of incorporating as many food groups as possible (so that children are exposed to many different foods) and they're also developing the skills of food preparation/cooking and feeling the benefits of pride in oneself for making a meal from scratch. Follow us on facebook and Instagram (links at bottom of page) to see the photos shared by our kinship families of the meals we prepare together in Kinship Carers Cooking Club every Saturday night. We’ve got a growing group of kinship families that join us regularly, and we welcome any new kinship families to join us by registering here: https://www.kinshipcarershub.org/contact
And in light of the Bank Holiday weekend we’re about to begin, we’ve decided to share with you all a fan favourite recipe from one of our previous Kinship Carer Cooking Club sessions: Thai Flavoured Turkey Burgers with Mango Slaw and Sweet Potato Chips (serves 4). If you try the recipe, feel free to share photos with us, and/or let us know what you think! (recipe is in 2 parts)
For more recipes and meal inspiration/ideas you can click links on our menu calendar found on our website here:https://www.kinshipcarershub.org/news-and-events
And for those that would like to help support our cooking club, you can sponsor groceries for 1 kinship family ‘meal for 4’ for one of our Kinship Carers Cooking Club sessions for just £5. Sponsorship donations are accepted here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/kinshiphub?utm_term=yYzndbEve
Enjoy the Bank Holiday Weekend!
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