I get a lot of email requests to post my family’s weekly menu. Truth is, I’m not much of a meal planner. My approach to healthy eating is to keep the junk out of the refrigerator and the pantry (I’m pretty vigilant about this) and keep us fairly loaded up with many healthy food options at all times. I learned this from my Mom whose side of the family has some pretty significant weight issues. She taught me that if it’s not in the house, you’re not gonna be eating it. It really works!
With the fridge and freezer full of healthy options, whipping up a nutritious meal is the only option and I can be flexible and open to whatever my family is hungry for at any given meal. I tend not to cook very gourmet most of the time as two of my kids are still at the age where they prefer simple foods.
This is not to say that I don’t plan out leftovers. I do this quite a bit and will have a post primarily dedicated to this coming out in the next few weeks.
I’ve also shied away from posting my personal food log as I don’t want people who read it to think this is how you have to eat if you’re eating traditionally. There are many ways to successfully implement a traditional diet as discovered and written about by Dr. Weston A. Price in his epic work Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
I actually did post 4 days of my menu when I was on the GAPS Diet. Those of you eating that way right now might find this helpful.
But what about meals for kids?
My Child’s Food Diary for One Week
My first grader had a school project assigned last week to log everything she ate for a solid week. This project will be turned in tomorrow, so I thought it might be helpful to post this food diary for others who are new to traditional eating and basically struggling to figure out how to feed their children.
I am a little tentative to post this for the same reason I’ve avoided posting my own food diary … I don’t want folks getting hung up on the details.
The basic premise is to feed your children whole, locally produced, unprocessed foods as much as possible with liberal amounts of nutrient dense animal fats which are loaded with the fat soluble activators A, D, and K2.
Remember that the Eskimos ate very differently from the South Sea Islanders as well as the other cultures identified in Dr. Price’s book, but the common denominator is that they ate what was available locally in unprocessed form and greatly revered the nutrient dense animal fats available to them. These fats were considered of particular importance to growing children.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Breakfast
Grassfed sausage, raw grassfed milk, homemade ginger ale
1/4 tsp butter oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin cod liver oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin skate liver oil
Lunch (at school)
Antibiotic free turkey slices, organic fruit roll, veggie stix, organic grapes
Dinner
Homemade chicken nuggets (cooked in expeller pressed coconut oil), organic green beans cooked in butter, raw grassfed milk
Friday, September 2, 2011
Breakfast
Sprouted toast with sunflower butter, raw grassfed milk
1/4 tsp butter oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin cod liver oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin skate liver oil
Lunch (at school)
Boiled egg, organic fruit roll, homemade macaroons, veggie stix
Dinner
Rice mac & cheese, grassfed beef with juices, organic cucumber and carrots, raw grassfed milk
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Breakfast
Sprouted toast with sunflower butter and raw honey, kombucha
1/4 tsp butter oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin cod liver oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin skate liver oil
Lunch
Homemade chicken soup (soup had rice and veggies in it), raw grassfed milk
Snack
Carob chips and organic lollipop at a movie
Dinner
Soaked waffles, bacon, peas cooked in butter, raw grassfed milk
Sunday, September 3, 2011
Breakfast
Soaked waffles, raw grassfed milk, kombucha
1/4 tsp butter oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin cod liver oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin skate liver oil
Snack
Organic peanut butter and raw honey on a spoon
Lunch
Grassfed burger, carrot stix, fresh orange juice
Dinner
Homemade chicken soup (with veggies and rice in it), raw grassfed milk
Monday, September 5, 2011
Breakfast
Soaked waffles, raw grassfed milk, kombucha
1/4 tsp butter oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin cod liver oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin skate liver oil
Lunch
Grilled cheese with bacon, broccoli cooked in butter
Snack
Milkshake (made with raw homemade vanilla ice cream)
Dinner
Pastured chicken with chicken broth, asparagus cooked in butter, raw grassfed milk
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Breakfast
Sprouted toast with sunflower butter, raw grassfed milk, kombucha
1/4 tsp butter oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin cod liver oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin skate liver oil
Lunch (at school)
Roast beef, sprouted pretzels, organic fruit roll, organic raspberry pop tart
Snacks
Organic lollipop, milkshake (made with raw ice cream)
Dinner
Grassfed burger, broccoli cooked in butter, cucumbers, raw grassfed milk
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Breakfast
Organic peanut butter and raw honey on sprouted toast, raw grassfed milk, kombucha
1/4 tsp butter oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin cod liver oil, 1/2 tsp high vitamin skate liver oil
Lunch (at school)
Boiled egg, organic fruit roll, sprouted pretzels, carob chips
Snack
Organic lollipop, sunflower butter toast
Dinner
Pastured chicken, broccoli cooked in butter, raw grassfed milk
I know one of the very first questions I will get about this food diary is where to get the high vitamin cod liver oil and butter oil. If you check out my Shopping Guide, vetted brands of quality fish liver oil companies are provided.
Was this food diary helpful to you? Did you get any ideas for your own kids’ meals and school lunches?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Reading this – although you haven’t indicated quantities at all – makes me think my 2.5yo eats like a Clydesdale!
Boys do eat A LOT more than girls. LOL
My thought exactly. My almost 9yo son eats constantly (or wants to) throughout the day, and I see him having behavior related to low blood sugar issues if I don’t keep him contantly fed. Also, If I don’t give him a decent amount of carbs, he’s RAVENOUS. But I’m not buying wheat noodles anymore. Any suggestions. He does like a sweet potato now and then, but I’m running out of ideas.
Thanks for sharing. Please know that most of us understand your feelings of not wanting to share specific info and appreciate all that you do for us in the name of spreading the news of whole, healthy, real, slow food!
Put butter on EVERYTHING! Make him a smoothie with a bunch of coconut milk or raw cream, a baked potato or sweet potato with lots of sour cream and butter, raw cheese on toast, make him some scrambled eggs with extra egg yolks and use cream instead of milk. There’s lots of ways to add good fat calories to a child’s diet.
Notice how every meal has a healthy, traditional fat in it for her son’s brain and immune system support. Awesome!
Sarah,
thanks for posting this. I appreciate it. My K & 1st grade boys are already doing the CLO and butter oil mix, but what does the skate oil add? Would you say it is as strong in flavor as the CLO? Also, sprouted pretzels – do you make or buy? Do they contain gluten? We are gluten free.
Thanks!
Kim
The skate oil is a different mix of nutrients from the cod liver oil. I use both just because I’m not sure which oil would suit my children best so we just mix them to be sure! 🙂
The pretzels are sprouted wheat (I buy at the healthfood store) and while sprouting does break down gluten and improve digestibility considerably, if someone is sensitive to gluten they might still have a problem. If your gut has healed sufficiently though you might find them to be ok.
I’m curious as to how you contradict what the school is teaching is “right,” in regards to the food pyramid or plate, or however they’re teaching it these days. I haven’t bought boxed cold breakfast cereal for over a year. We drink raw, pastured milk and make our own yogurt, soured cream, and dairy things. I send her off to school with a tummy full of organic, soaked rapadura-sweetened oatmeal and when she arrives they feed her a box of Lucky Chrarms with chocolate milk and sugar sweetened, fruit-punch flavored yogurt. Breakfast is provided for EVERY CHILD at our school, and they expect the kids to eat it. It’s infuriating. Their heart is in the right place, but that’s just not how or what we eat. I don’t know how to tell my daughter she shouldn’t or can’t eat it when every other kid is. Short of pulling her out of school I’m at a loss for what to do. Ideas?
My kids’ school is pleasantly alternative in this regard. No chemicals or pesticides used anywhere on the school property. The children all have a horticulture class where they learn to work the soil properly and plant/tend organic veggies. There are free range chickens and goats on the school grounds which the children care for. Yesterday, my son learned to catch fish with a net (the school is on a large freshwater lake)! He came home very proud and informed me that he knew how to detangle fish from a fishing net!
With folks who aren’t on the same page, I’ve found it best to just not discuss and just say that you have your own way of eating which you hope they will respect and leave it at that.
Write a letter to the school explaining that she doesn’t/can’t eat these things (you could say she’s “allergic” to food dyes or something, it’s not that far from true) and that you will provide breakfast to her. Send her with a snack she can eat while the other kids are eating their breakfasts, so that the school sees she has something to eat. Explain to them that you just aren’t comfortable with her eating that sort of junk food. If they’re going to be adamant about it you might have to get pretty firm…but seeing as this is an everyday thing, not a rare treat, I’d fight it.
As far as your daughter, just tell her that you don’t eat that way and why not. My 3-year-old understands it perfectly fine, and when she does AWANA at church she takes a snack with her and doesn’t complain about it. I forgot for a minute (I was really tired!) and asked her what she had for snack last night (they go Wed. nights) and she sounded puzzled and said, “An apple,” which is what I sent with her. Oh, yeah…. Kids are smart, she’ll get it, and might even remind the school after awhile!
Please don’t lie to the school about your children having ‘allergies’…It makes it much more difficult for people to believe families whose children DO have true allergies to certain foods. Being honest with the school is your best option.
I know you mean well with that reply Laura, but it’s not lying. ALL bodies are allergic to this crap. Our human systems were not made to intake these artificial & toxic unnatural products. One of my children gets rashes if she eats something with artificial or processed / unnatural ingredients. The other 3 don’t get rashes, but they are grumpy and sluggish the rest of the day, same for me & my husband. When we used to eat them regularly, we got sick at the drop of a hat. Since we’ve stopped, we hardly ever get sick at all. And when we do, it’s gone in about 2-3 days. That to me is enough to warrant saying we are allergic to foods that are not healthy. PLUS – those “allergies” can show up at any time, without warning, no matter how old you are. If your body is truly properly nourished, it will stand a much much better chance of not reacting negatively (rashes, etc.) to a natural God given food. But EVERY human body will react in some way, whether immediate or delayed, to unnatural food. So I don’t see anything wrong at all with telling them your child has allergies to that junk. Because THEY DO. Everyone does. Even if they don’t get a rash or need an emergency epi-pen treatment, the negative effects will eventually become apparent. The definition of the word allergy is this: “A damaging immune response by the body to a substance”. And there you have it.
Dawn,
I just had a conversation with my son last night about community snacks in his first grade school classroom. I asked him what ingredients he thought might be in the first week’s snacks (graham crackers twice, cookies, and Handi-Snacks cheese and crackers). He was onto me in a second and said, “You mean which ones have gluten in them?” since that’s an issue at our house and we try to stay “low gluten” for best health. We talked about that ingredient, sugar, and did any of them have butter in them or margarine and unhealthy fats? I asked if those were growing foods good for the brain or fun foods. He’s smart enough to know the answer. He seems cool with my compromise: he can choose one group snack each week to eat, and the rest of the time he has his own snack in his bag. When I talked to the teacher at open house, she was extremely understanding of my quest to eat healthy foods (some readers advised me to pull the “allergy card” too, but I totally agree with Laura that making up an allergy is not a good example for your child nor a healthy relationship with the teachers/school).
Good luck with the breakfast battle!
🙂 Katie
Looks awesome! Very simple too! I love simple! I keep things simple here too!
Dumb question… but how are you giving these oils to your children? 1/4 tsp high vitamin butter oil, 1/2 tsp fermented cod liver oil, 1/2 tsp fermented skate liver oil
Straight off the spoon chased with water.
I sometimes put the CLO on my kids as a massage oil before bedtime .
Sarah,
Most of us really do like to keep meals simple. (husbands and children prefer it) Cooking gourmet meals should be a special treat anyway and I know I don’t have the time to spend hours in the kitchen cooking “meals” because getting the “best” sources of food takes more time but very much worth it. Thanks for sharing! I love following your site everyday.
I feel the same way, Teresa. Simple is best and very quickly prepared in most cases. I do long for gourmet though more often and am relieved to see my older children getting into more complex flavors.
I do make Thai and Indian food every couple of weeks and my kids do all love this! 🙂
Most of my time each week is spent making broth and good quality soups. You just can’t buy these items. I make huge batches of soaked waffles or pancakes at one go too and then we have them for several days.
Thanks for posting. I can imagine the trepidation you might feel in sharing such “personal” information, but it does help those of us who wonder if we are somewhere on the right track.
I must ask though — where do you get organic poptarts?? Is this something you just buy from the healthfood store or do you make them?
I’m sure part of it is because of the nutritious beverages your kids drink, but I noticed–like here at our house–it’s not a gross amount of food or food choices, it’s still pretty simple. A meat, a veggie and/or a fruit at most meals. I need to be better about regularly administering the FCLO over here!
Most first graders prefer very simple foods and don’t like complex flavors yet so this is how the meals are served typically in my house. My oldest is getting into the gourmet side of things and I sometimes will cook a separate gourmet meal for my husband and I when we get tired of the simple kid friendly fare!
I buy organic poptarts from the store on occasion. It is clearly just organic junk food with little benefit and should be kept to a bare minimum. I try not to be too militant as I don’t want rebellion either.
Sarah,
you make a good point that was on my mind when you said “I try not to be too millitant as I don’t want rebellion either.” With young children, my 1-year old for example, it is easy to keep hi away from processed foods, junk foods, etc because he knows no better. But as children grow, want (and need if I may add) to explore their world and form their own conclusions about things I can see food being a challenge. If we are too restrictive with them and/or do not positively communicate the reasons we eat the way we do the whole concept will become offputting and can cause rebellion that none of us want. I believe there is a fine line we walk.
Hi Sarah,
I would like to start giving my 6 year old daughter vitamins and supplements. I would like to know what are the benefits of high vitamin butter oil and if I could just give her homemade ghee made from pastured butter. This of course may not be the same as the butter oil, but I thought I’d ask anyway.
Hi Neeli, the high vitamin butter oil from Green Pastures is raw. Pastured ghee would be fine but it wouldn’t be raw so it would not be as potent or quite as beneficial.
Be sure to give the ghee to her at the same time as the fermented cod liver oil. They work better together than separately.
Thank you for your response Sarah.
My Child’s Food Diary for One Week – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/cn4GBfc