Meal Planning on a Budget and Avoiding Childhood Obesity

I overheard two little kids in a certain fast food shop having a really intense discussion about their meals and about how much they wished they could eat that for dinner every day!

As parents, we do know better, don’t we? Fast food, if used at all, should only be for a rare occasion. This is for a number of reasons:

• The rate of childhood obesity is going through the roof!
• Too much fast food limits our creativity in the kitchen
• Cooking skills are not learnt early in life when families depend too much on fast food
• Money wise, it costs too much so is not sustainable
• It arouses the taste buds to accept salty and fatty foods, rather than fresh, delicious fruits and vegetables

I’m sure if we dig deeper, we can think of a few more dozen reasons to avoid fast food! Also, don’t forget that you can make your own takeaway style meals and put just what you want in them.

This week our meal planning saw us deciding what we will have for meals at home (and a few lunches), and also doing the shopping for just those ingredients we didn’t have in. By the way, some of the best meals are made when you think your cupboards are bare! Just putting together a few ingredients (even if you don’t know your way around the kitchen too well).

We find that we can cut down on the fat content and calorie content of the meals we prepare by doing the following:

1. Using lean meat
2. using low-fat milk
3. Bulking up the meal with lots of vegetables that have fibre
4. Using less oil, butter, and other fats
5. Baking/roasting foods rather than frying

These are some of the meals we had with our shopping mostly done at Aldi and making good use of the cheaper food products.

• Fish pie
• lasagne
• chicken fried rice
• chicken pasta salad
• chickpea curry with rice and salad
• red peas soup
• cheese and tomato pizza with spicy chicken

Usually, we make sure to package any leftover foods which can be used for meals at a later date. I am pleased to say that the chickpea curry was made some time ago. Once it was properly chilled, we labelled and froze it, cutting down on food waste and also helping the environment eventually.

We find meal planning really easy and so cost effective. As long as the meals are healthy, and also enjoyable, we will continue to do it, and reap the benefits.

We are also enjoying linking with Katy and Naomi each week and learning so much more. Do check out their blogs too.

Here’s how we make a batch of fish pies at home. Is this the way you do it? Do give us a thumbs up, please. Follows would also be nice.