Today’s post is another response to your requests; I am sharing my daughters’ weekly menu.

I don’t know if you are single or if you live with your family, but I know I get uptight about being the one responsible for deciding “what is there for lunch today”, and “what is there for dinner today”… Avoiding improvisation in the kitchen is one of the reasons why I like planning my little ones’ menu. But there are also other reasons: it helps me to optimise my time, it enables me to delegate the responsibility and task of cooking efficiently, and it makes shopping much easier and prevents me from filling the fridge with food that ends up going out of date and being thrown out, something I can’t stand.

It goes without saying that in order to have a balanced diet it is not enough to only have the intention of eating well. To make sure it happens, I write this guide which helps me to follow a healthy diet for my daughters. In addition, I can compensate the food types bearing in mind the day and the week. For example, you will see that the quantity and type of animal protein is logically distributed across the week. For me, the star animal proteins are fish and dairy products in the form of yogurt and kefir, followed by chicken, egg, acorn-fed ham and beef.

With this menu, I am ensuring that my daughters’ organisms have enough carbohydrates, quality proteins and good fats, bearing in mind that each of these micronutrients are distributed in the appropriate amount.

All the food types or dishes complement each other to ensure that the micronutrients and the vitamins, minerals and trace elements come from different sources and are present throughout the week.

I also want to tell you a bit about some of the foods I have chosen and why I use them. In the breakfasts, as you can see, oats, a very nutrient-rich cereal, appear several times in different recipes. One option could be as porridge, my star breakfast at home. I have already told you that it is a cereal that features a lot in my cooking. It is also very important to mention that the bread, rice, pasta, quinoa and noodles that I use are 100% wholemeal cereals. They are carbohydrates filled with nutrients and good fibre, providing more energy than those made of refined cereals.

You can also see that I include sesame, a very nutritional seed, rich in calcium. We eat it in the form of gomasio (ground sesame with sea salt) or tahini (sesame paste). As for the cooking types, I tend to steam, bake or grill, and I add raw virgin olive oil just before serving.

It is a menu that I have designed for my daughters, but that my partner and I also enjoy at all those family meals that we share. Breakfast is the only exception, as I have morning routines that my daughters have not yet adopted. My cold press juices and shakes have flavours and textures that they do not yet appreciate. I’m working on it.

As you can see, it is not a typical children’s menu, because I want my daughters to grow up developing a broad palate. We want them to enjoy tasting and discovering; to enjoy food and to share it with them. Just so you get an idea, my eldest daughter tried raw clams when she was not yet two, and she loves them.

It is a flexible menu, since I am not a strict mother or a ‘control freak’. Sometimes I adapt it to their requests or to circumstances that can upset a home routine, adding fried eggs and potatoes or a pizza if necessary.

V.

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