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
I should also add that my kids’ school is quite alternative. They have a school wide organic garden/horticulture classes and the children tend free ranging chickens and goats. Yesterday my son learned to fish in the lake with a fishing net. They use no chemicals or pesticides anywhere on the school grounds.
@ Christy, the skate liver oil is also carried by Green Pasture Products. Some folks who don’t do well on the fermented cod liver oil do very well on the skate liver oil instead. We do both at my house. I have muscle tested to do well on the fermented cod liver oil but I muscle test stronger for the skate liver oil.
My daughter is very fortunate to have an awesome, very healthy conscious teacher!
I am going to apologize in advance here if I step on any toes. As someone who loves to read your blog, I have a question I just have to ask. Is the list above written exactly the way your daughter turned it in, or are all the extra details added for us here? I’m a former public school teacher, if I gave that assignment and the list above were turned in with all the repeated health food adjectives added (raw, organic, grassfed, antibiotic-free), especially by a young child, my gut reaction would be “Oh brother, this family sure has something to prove,” and an eye roll. This is coming from someone who believes strongly in all those adjectives.
I feel the same way even eating with friends and family, if they are into healthy eating they always seem to have to relay every minute detail of how exactly every aspect of the food is top-notch. I’m from the Midwest, I guess to me it just comes off as bragging somehow, like “Look how well I eat” or “I want to make sure you really appreciate what I’m giving you here.” On a food blog it makes perfect sense. On a 6-year-old’s homework? Yikes. Like you said though, your daughter’s school is very alternative. I really, truly do not mean to come off snarky about it. If it comes off that way to “a member of the choir” though, it will seem passively yet extremely preachy to most other folks.
My oldest child just started kindergarten this week– I love your list for ideas. I easily get into food ruts. She is supposed to bring a “healthy” snack to school each afternoon (school’s own word there), but I get the feeling that that means just about anything that doesn’t come out of a snack machine. Watch, I would try to make some WAPF-style potato chips and I would probably get a note from the teacher saying not to send any more junk food because now three kids said they want to bring their Fritos chips tomorrow. If a kid has a birthday or some special occasion, homemade treats for the class are forbidden, any class treat has to be store-bought. Even though we have a coop in town, that just rubs me raw. Good thing that doesn’t apply to her own personal snacks.
Thank you! I was thinking the same thing, and was wondering why no one had said anything. I did notice however that your comment wasn’t even acknowledged, and many just scrolled on past… You do have a great point about this being preachy… but I am also from the Midwest… I feed my girls very well, but I do not come off as preachy because I don’t like making other families feel like they are severely harming their children if they don’t feed them the same way that I choose to… I am the mother of My children, not of any others, It is not my place nor should it be anyone else’s place to judge a family if they decide to send their kids to school with a Lunchable … There is a different approach to getting a healthy point across rather then making people feel shameful in what they eat… So rather then bragging with your adjectives, I suggest, simply giving praise to those taking baby steps towards trying to start their family on a healthy lifestyle… Growing up in the Midwest through many generations of unhealthy Amish way of eating it was very hard to covert my family to a healthier lifestyle rather then cooking everything with lard and frying it… I still allow my children some carb foods because they have very old fashioned grammas whom believe that they should receive a home baked cookie of gramma’s making when they come over… and their shouldn’t be shame in snacks… I saw what… 4 posts about how horrible it was for an organic pop tart… c’mon… Most of these posts are about how your children are still hungry! all the time they are hungry! I tell mine to go out to the garden and eat your lunch … We also have many fruit trees … we CAN or Freeze most everything to get through the winter months, we eat meat that we hunt… deer, rabbit, fish, what have you… let your children eat breads, sugar is not a danger to your child… I am worried that your children aren’t getting enough calorie intake …My girls are outside from sun up to sun down and have amazing appetites, they need lots of protein and carbs! to help them through … My Middle daughter struggles with sweating … so if she gets too hot… guess what… I am told by a doctor to give her potato chips! They aren’t a normal snack … but it’s okay to let your child have it… they aren’t going to develop cancer and die when they are 20 because you fed them chips once in a while… I strongly think in teaching healthy eating habits, forbidding them to not participate in a sugar snack at school makes it kinda seem like a forbidden fruit… if your children are still hungry at school they are trading with friends to get lunches they want… and if they aren’t … they will be… the best thing to do is guide them about portions… not forbid them….
I am very proud to share the my autistic kid eats a menu very similar to that, except for the scrambled pastured egg fried in coconut oil or lard. He has improved a lot too.
Love it! Would love to see the reaction of the teacher. Would love to see what the other kids eat. We homeschool now, but I was always shocked what the kids ate in the cafeteria and what the kids brought in their lunch boxes……some of them had not even one nutritious item.
HI Sarah, I have a several questions. One, what brand and where do you buy the antibiotic free turkey? Also, do you make the fruit rolls? Now, onto the butter oil. Do you have to refrigerate this? I put my in the fridge and now it’s solid and I’m not sure how to take it.
I use Applegate turkey. I buy the organic fruit rolls from the store. I do refrigerate the butter oil. It gets solid but you just scrape some off and take it. It melts very quickly in your mouth.
Love the idea of rice mac and cheese! My son has never had real mac and cheese, but I might give this option a whirl! Thanks for the ideas!!
I have seen the butter oil with the cod liver oil recommendation on Weston Price site, but I don’t recall seeing the skate liver oil; what is that, where can I get info on it?
Loved reading what your child ate for a week. I too would be nervous to post what my kids eat. My mother in law already thinks I deprive them. 🙁 Maybe someday I’ll be bold enough to post their food diary. We are a pretty limited carbs family and people just think that’s insane. Glad to see I’m not the only one who isn’t following the food pyramid….or food “plate”.
Sarah,
Thanks so much for this post! It really helps!