Food For Kids

The Foodies

The Food for Kids Podcast is the quick, practical solution for anyone who wants to make feeding kids easier and less stressful. If you’re at your wits' end trying to juggle kids’ food alongside everything else in your busy life, this is your podcast for practical, fun, and easy-to-digest info on raising healthy, happy, confident eaters. With bitesize episodes of around 5-10 minutes twice a week, it’s perfect for the school run, your daily commute, or whenever you’re looking for practical tips and fresh ideas to make food for your kids just a little bit easier and more enjoyable. Expect a variety of topics, including family-friendly recipes, tips for picky eaters and special diets, ideas for eating more seasonal fruits and vegetables, money saving tips, school food inspiration and much more! Hosted by Joanne Roach, creator of The Foodies Books, which have sold more than 40,000 copies across U.K homes, schools and childcare settings. Joanne has been helping kids to grow, cook and eat vegetables and fruit for over 20 years and is passionate about making food affordable, practical, sustainable – and most of all – enjoyable for real working families and busy educators who don’t have the time, budget or energy to keep up with the latest trends. Each week, we’ll feature a short interviews talking about one topic or answering one question. And there will be one short solo episode with tips and ideas for practical family food. The interviews will be with dietitians, food industry experts as well as educators who are doing amazing things in schools and childcare settings. You’ll hear real-life examples of how families and schools are fostering positive relationships with food and making mealtime a fun and stress-free experience. We also keep you updated with food in the news, so you’ll always be in the know about the latest trends and findings related to kids’ nutrition. Most importantly you'll get a short bite of something uplifting and advice you can actually use. You’re probably already bombarded with information that makes you feel guilty, overwhelmed and helpless in the face of a food environment that seems to be working against you. The idea of this podcast is to focus on practical, positive, relatable and realistic ideas that you can absorb in short bursts and then put into practice in your own time. Subscribe to download the tiny bites of food inspiration, delete the ones which don’t apply to you, and see what nuggets you can add to your family or school table. Happy eating!

  1. Sep 7

    What children learn through cookery, with Chris Lord

    This episode explores why cookery and food teaching is not just teaching a basic life skill although that is also very important, but how it is a vehicle for teaching lots of other parts of the curriculum and lots of skills that you wouldn’t necessarily think of as being related to food. So whether you have a child in pre-school, in a school, if you’re homeschooling, or if you just want to help your child to learn some things at home, hopefully this will interest you. Back in July we had an episode with a food teacher called Chris Lord who has been teaching food and cookery for over twenty years in several different countries. I have another short interview with Chris today where he talks about how he has used food to deliver other parts of the curriculum in his schools, and then I run through some examples of other ways to use food in learning. Links in the episode: Food A Fact Of Life: https://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/ Let's Get Cooking: https://www.bda.uk.com/food-health/lets-get-cooking.html Chris's website about food and travels: https://www.lordysguide.com Food for Life curriculum summary: https://www.foodforlife.org.uk/media/flzbu5ph/links-across-the-curriculum.pdf Whole school ideas: https://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/whole-school/whole-school-approach/curriculum-qualifications-and-frameworks/ Report from the school food plan: https://www.schoolfoodplan.com/report/cooking-in-the-curriculum/ BBC ideas: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/learning_through_cooking Food a Fact of Life resources: https://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/professional-development/ppd-toolkit/primary/ Taste education resources: https://www.tasteeducation.com/primary/ Homeschool resources: https://www.homeschoolnaturally.com/blog/homeschool-cooking-curriculum-kids Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

  2. Sep 3

    Packed lunch ideas for kids at school - not just sandwiches!

    In this episode Joanne runs through some ideas for school and nursery lunchboxes. One of the things that comes up all the time with packed lunches is that they can get boring. Some children of course don't mind having similar things most days but if your child is getting bored with the same old sandwich or you want to try and change things up a bit to add some variety, especially if your child's fed up with sandwiches in general, then what do you do? There are loads of great ideas online for lunches, but sometimes they can make you feel bad and they can be a bit unrealistic when the creators who are making those blogs and videos are literally doing that for their side hustle or main income and they have lots of time to spend on it and you're juggling a job or several kids and after school activities. On the other hand, sometimes we do know that we've got into a rut and it's nice to get some extra inspiration because we forget that some things exist when we buy the same things at the store every week and also some people can be really creative and give us some really good ideas to tempt our kids. So in this episode Joanne gives some ideas for different lunch elements, including some non-sandwich items without any side servings of mom guilt. Links in this episode: NHS guidance and ideas: https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/recipes/healthier-lunchboxes/ Episode with food safety guidance: https://thefoodies.org/safe-packed-lunches Episode with pick and mix ideas: https://thefoodies.org/summer-holiday-snacks Jenna’s reel on food safety making packed lunches: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CTh3CdXDl8E/ Jenna’s reel on how to freeze sandwiches: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjQt3sYjDTI/ Mini frittata: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-egg-muffins Savoury muffins: https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/tomato-and-bacon-muffins.html Fruit kebabs: https://groceries.morrisons.com/recipes/rainbow-fruit-kebabs/95375 Popcorn idea: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chocolate-drizzled-popcorn Chocolate fruit: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/choco-dipped-tangerines Energy balls: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/choc-orange-energy-boosters Pizza rolls / pinwheels: https://www.whatlisacooks.com/blog/pizza-rolls courgette fritters: https://www.thefoodies.org/cheesy-courgette-fritters/ Blog series showing lots of great ideas for lunchbox components and combos: https://www.whatlisacooks.com/no-sandwich-lunches-1 https://www.whatlisacooks.com/no-sandwich-lunches-2 https://www.whatlisacooks.com/no-sandwich-lunches-3 https://www.whatlisacooks.com/no-sandwich-lunches-4

  3. Aug 24

    How to keep packed lunches safe, with Jenna Brown

    Today’s fairly short episode is about packed lunches for the start of term next week, and specifically, about how to keep packed lunch foods safe until lunchtime. The main issue with lunchboxes is the storage of them between them being packed in the morning and them being eaten. If the hot weather in the last few weeks has made you think about how food will last in hot classrooms then this episode is for you. I interviewed Jenna Brown, an environmental health officer known as Food Safety Mum online, about how to keep lunchbox foods safe. Jenna is an experienced Environmental Health Officer with a first class degree in Environmental Health and over 14 years of experience in food safety and public health. She started the Food Safety Mum business when she became a mum herself. That understanding of how much you think differently when you have a little one to think about too meant that Jenna became passionate about promoting food safety in the home. She is on a mission to help parents to safely save time, money & food! Links from the episode: General food safety making packed lunches: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CTh3CdXDl8E/?igsh=Nnd2ZDZoeXNiazd1 Tips for keeping lunches cold: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CiLNDDdDiM1/?igsh=MTd3b3JrMmMyZzRzOA%3D%3D How to freeze sandwiches: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjQt3sYjDTI/?igsh=MXd2MnU0b3d2cjRuMg%3D%3D Tips for food flasks: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTz8vSWsQ8b/?igsh=czFkZ2QxaXZ3NGR1&img_index=4 Hot packed lunches and chicken nuggets trial: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAG8LmSsg9U/?igsh=cDh2d3B4cm1yajd2 Jenna's website: https://www.foodsafetymum.co.uk Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

About

The Food for Kids Podcast is the quick, practical solution for anyone who wants to make feeding kids easier and less stressful. If you’re at your wits' end trying to juggle kids’ food alongside everything else in your busy life, this is your podcast for practical, fun, and easy-to-digest info on raising healthy, happy, confident eaters. With bitesize episodes of around 5-10 minutes twice a week, it’s perfect for the school run, your daily commute, or whenever you’re looking for practical tips and fresh ideas to make food for your kids just a little bit easier and more enjoyable. Expect a variety of topics, including family-friendly recipes, tips for picky eaters and special diets, ideas for eating more seasonal fruits and vegetables, money saving tips, school food inspiration and much more! Hosted by Joanne Roach, creator of The Foodies Books, which have sold more than 40,000 copies across U.K homes, schools and childcare settings. Joanne has been helping kids to grow, cook and eat vegetables and fruit for over 20 years and is passionate about making food affordable, practical, sustainable – and most of all – enjoyable for real working families and busy educators who don’t have the time, budget or energy to keep up with the latest trends. Each week, we’ll feature a short interviews talking about one topic or answering one question. And there will be one short solo episode with tips and ideas for practical family food. The interviews will be with dietitians, food industry experts as well as educators who are doing amazing things in schools and childcare settings. You’ll hear real-life examples of how families and schools are fostering positive relationships with food and making mealtime a fun and stress-free experience. We also keep you updated with food in the news, so you’ll always be in the know about the latest trends and findings related to kids’ nutrition. Most importantly you'll get a short bite of something uplifting and advice you can actually use. You’re probably already bombarded with information that makes you feel guilty, overwhelmed and helpless in the face of a food environment that seems to be working against you. The idea of this podcast is to focus on practical, positive, relatable and realistic ideas that you can absorb in short bursts and then put into practice in your own time. Subscribe to download the tiny bites of food inspiration, delete the ones which don’t apply to you, and see what nuggets you can add to your family or school table. Happy eating!