Today is a slightly different episode because I am asking for your help, you the listener to this podcast.

I want to share my ideas for the show with you and ask for your help to make sure I am giving you the show that you will find useful.

I wanted to ask you if there are any topics you wish I had covered or are hoping that I will? If there is a food question you want to have answered I can then go out and find an expert who can answer it in an evidence based but realistic and kind way that will be more helpful than endless googling for answers.

Shownotes at https://thefoodies.org/ffk92

Google form for feedback at: https://forms.gle/8LhhJzPui2NgxtkB9

DM me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foodforkidspodcast/

DM me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joanne.roach.author/

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 April. 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/ffk91

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

This episode is going out on Easter Monday, so this is just a quick episode to wish you a lovely bank holiday and to give you a quick reminder that you don't need to be stressed or feel bad or any kind of way if your child is eating more chocolate than usual over the next few days.

Links in this episode:

Episode about protecting kids from other people's food talk: https://www.thefoodies.org/ffk58/

Episode about how to talk to children about food: https://www.thefoodies.org/ffk71

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

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/

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

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

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

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