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
THANK YOU!! My 7 YO DS eats very little at school (and for breakfast, too). I do try to send a nutritious lunch with him and this gives me ideas for sure. I’m not so much worried about quantity as I am about quality.
wow, how simple it is to eat real food!! I do pack a hot lunch in a thermos for my elementary school kids, since their school day lasts from 9 to almost 4. They still come very hungry though and need snacks right away!
Another thing I noticed is that the more you offer the food (that is, my husband and I eat it without forcing the kids to), the likely they will try it eventually. Just this summer my youngest started eating liver sauted with onions and garlic, she actually asks for second! Not my oldest one though 🙂
Great post! I’m very curious about the skate liver oil! I’m going to have to look into it further.
My 7 year old eats a lot more than this and always has eaten a lot but every kid is different. She is in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight so not fat by any stretch but solid and muscular.
One hard boiled egg for lunch would be a problem. Last week I sent her with two and it wasn’t enough. Yesterday I sent her to school for 4.5 hours. She had 2 pieces of jerky, 6 slices of prosciutto, a medium sized cucumber sliced up, 2 big slices of cheddar cheese, and a few raw “ginger cookies”. I also sent a small bowl of home made mayo to dip her cucumber slices in but she ignored it. She was starving when I picked her up. The mayo would have made all the difference which is why I included it. We are on GAPS so no grains to bulk up the meal.
Yes, when I was on GAPS I noted the constant hunger too as the body is so used to the grains to bulk up the meal. It does eventually go away after a few weeks. Have you been on GAPS long?
We are in the same situation with our 7 years old boy. He eats like a teenager, and this is not an overstatment… Sometimes I wonder. We have been on GAPS for almost a year so I thought that this neverending hunger would eventually go away… He is just now starting to eat some sourdough, he eats a lot of grass fed butter, coconut oil, chicken stock based soup everyday, lots of cheese, eggs (2-3 a day), meats, vegetables, fresh fruits, some soaked nuts etc… I am being very careful as to buy grass-fed meats and butter and my eggs are free range/organic. Fruits and veggies are always organic. He is doing much much better healthwise, but sometimes I wonder what this constant and persistant hunger could be caused by. I am pregnant and I could easily say that he eats or could eat pretty much the same amount of food I eat!! Sometimes I feel frustrated as it seems like preparing food is ALL I do!!! Any thoughts??? Thanks for your wonderful blog, you are amazing and such an inspiration!!!
ah yes, and we do take butter oil and fermented cod liver oil everyday…
It’s interesting what you see when you write something down and look at it. My daughter is a bit of a carb queen and yet she has minimal carbs listed in the diary and they are all traditionally prepared (except for that darn pop tart) which I was so proud to note. I have a constant struggle with her to limit the carbs as she sees her classmates eating them constantly and I tell her she has to eat them in moderation to be healthy. She also is a fairly picky eater so simple meals seem to work best at this time. I expect that to change in the future as it has with my other children.
I’m curious about if any of your kiddos have a huge appetite? My son is 7 and could eat us out of house and home. We’re transitioning to traditional foods and I’m concerned that without all the grainy filler foods that he will constantly be begging for food (well… more than usual). Thanks for sharing this food diary. It gave me some good ideas.
My oldest eats a lot of food and always has. But, we don’t allow refined carbs in our house. No chips, cookies, crackers, frozen pizza, juice boxes, boxed breakfast cereal to be found in my pantry. When kids “eat a ton” its usually these types of foods they are eating. Eating empty foods like refined carbs causes overeating as the child never really gets filled up. The body gets fooled for a short period of time with the calories from refined foods but the child is then hungry again within a short time as the nutrition wasn’t there which is what keeps you full for a long time. So then the vicious cycle of constant eating is what happens.
My not quite 2 year old son eats 3 hot dogs at a time (the applegate farms grassfed beef) and won’t eat bread…i don’t know what we’re going to do when he’s a teenager. On the other side my 3 1/2 yo daughter is a carb queen and will eat maybe half a hot dog and he gets her left overs :o)
Awesome!
My kids eat pretty “gourmet” stuff sometimes. They like “pink fish” (salmon) served with homemade blackened seasoning or garlic butter. My son loves kombucha, plain yogurt, pickles (homemade; they both like that), etc. Actually he’ll eat anything — he’s 2. At first I hesitated to serve them some things but then I did and they ate them. Sometimes I serve them the elements of the meal separately if it would be hard to eat otherwise. Like when I made sandwiches they had a soaked pita bread, some slices of chicken and bacon, some slices of cheese, and some roasted onions and red peppers on their plates to eat instead of a “sandwich.”
Generally we do a lot more meat and cheese and eggs and fewer sweet snacks, especially right now. Most sweet snacks are raw ice cream or almond flour baked goods. Or fruit, they’re really enjoying apples and pears being in season!
However, it’s good to see what others eat. Sometimes because bloggers take such a strong stance on nourishing food, it’s easy to think that they would “never” allow their child things like an organic lollipop or pop-tart…but it’s good to know everyone allows treats sometimes!
This IS helpful. I’m just starting out on this journey and it’s nice to get ideas on what other little ones are eating. Dawnn, can you talk to the school? Let them know that your child needs to eat a certain way or that you don’t allow certain foods? I’m not sure how the school system is where you are, but I know where I am they would be okay with that. Can you give your child a small snack before she gets to school and send her to school with the breakfast you make? Is this a program where they are sent these ‘bad’ foods, or is it a PTA thing? If it’s a parent/school run program can you suggest other alternatives? You might not be the only parent who feels that their child would be better off without sugar for breakfast.
I’d love to see how your childs diary compares to some of the other kids! I am continually shocked at the way some people eat…and it make me sad for their kids! I have very young kids also and so our meals are pretty simple, but if we have company I like to go all out because I love to cook…and I’m pretty proud of my kids when I see them eating anything I cook! I live by that same rule…if you don’t have it, you can’t eat it! So I only buy good, whole foods and that’s what we eat!