Menu Planning Monday - It's Here !

Having had a few enthusiastic responses to my suggestion of sharing menu plans and recipes I am pleased to announce the arrival of a new weekly feature here a Geriatric Mummy's.

So, to start us off I guess I should share mine. This is an unusual week for us as The Daddy is on a course this week and staying away so it will only be Star and I eating. I should also explain that Star has his own meals more often than not, usually those that I have prepared previously and frozen. Just to complicate matters further I am in the midst of trying to eliminate, or at least dramatically reduce Star's dairy intake as I am suspecting an allergy. It's not serious but is, I believe, the cause of excess snotiness, blocked ears and eczema. So until I get around to taking him to the GP (I have little no faith in GPs, other than, sometimes, to give me a diagnosis) I will gradually cut out milk, cheese, yoghurt and fromage frais other than his one bottle of formula and see what effect it has. In short, this week may not pan out as I intend !

Anyway, back to the point. Each day Star has porridge with fruit puree and a soya yoghurt for breakfast, and I have a protein and fibre shake. Star's lunch is either Bangbang chicken goujons, fish fingers or fish bites with oatcakes and fruit and mine is largely left overs from the previous day in some form or another. So here is the dinner Menu Plan for Geriatric Towers...

Monday
Star - Spaghetti Bolognaise with wholemeal spaghetti, Bangbang Chicken goujons, bread, broccoli, parsnips, sweet potato, piece of fruit, carob raisins
Me - Spaghetti Bolognaise with wholemeal spaghetti

Tuesday
Star - Roast chicken, sweet potato, carrot, broccoli, parsnip, runner beans, fish bites, bread, piece of fruit, carob raisins
Me - Roast Chicken and vegetables


Wednesday
Star - Chicken risotto, (includes onions, mushrooms, peas and sweetcorn), fish fingers, carrot, broccoli, bread, piece of fruit, carob raisins
Me - Chicken risotto


Thursday
Star - Chicken risotto, home made mini burger, carrot, broccoli, bread, piece of fruit carob raisins
Me - Beef Curry


Friday
Star - Thai green chicken curry, brown basmati rice, wholemeal noodles, fish bites, carrot, broccoli, green beans, bread, piece of fruit, carob raisins

The Seniors - Thai green chicken curry, brown basmati rice, wholemeal noodles


Saturday
Star - Cottage pie, fish fingers, carrot, broccoli, parsnips, bread, piece of fruit, carob raisins
The Seniors- Cottage pie and vegetables

Sunday
Star - Slow roast lamb and beans, fish fingers, carrot, broccoli, parsnips, bread, piece of fruit, carob raisins

The Seniors - Slow roast lamb and beans


If you're thinking Star has two dinners you are right, the first I feed to him on a spoon, the second he finger feeds himself. He gets bored of being fed before he's full so I do this to ensure he has his fill and sleeps well. I'm pleased to say that it works.


Now, if I've done this right, (I should have done this earlier in the day as my brain is now seriously aching) there should be a MckLinky below for you to add your menu plans, or your favourite recipes if you prefer. Fingers crossed...

Menu Planning Monday - It's Here !

Tea and a chat

Having just read The Madhouse's last post, in part about tea I thought I would share this, my favourite tea quotation from William Gladstone...

If you are cold, tea will warm you; 

if you are too heated, it will cool you; 

if you are depressed, it will cheer you; 

if you are excited, it will calm you.

This is so very apt for me, describing my relationship with tea perfectly.  There have been many, many occasions throughout my life when I don't know what I would have done without it, my ever present friend.  I've just read that back and think I sound like a proper sado !

Now that we've done the tea, it's time for the chat.  I feel the need for a good catch up again.  I have been in Devon, without much internet access since last Monday and got back yesterday so feel totally out of touch with you all. So here is a whistle stop tour of what's been going on in my world...

Sewing - I now have a machine ! A Brother ES 2020 if that means anything to any of you.  I had an unexpected little windfall, and rather than fritter it away I thought I would get a machine.  I also have some fabric, and some thread so I'm all ready to start the online sewing course that I subscribed to earlier this month.

Duck Feeding -   I have managed it a whole three times since the new year...not good.  But in my defence we have had inclement weather and I have been in Devon for a week so I'm back on the case, which started with a little outing this afternoon. The Daddy even joined us and we went into the cafe for tea and cake before coming home :D  Easily pleased !

Drawing - miserable failure I'm afraid.  I have flicked through my book and unpacked the box of 'equipment'.  That's it.

Baby Making - An even more miserable failure.  I'm already taking the drugs for another go next month, and will be going for scanning the week after next.  I don't know whether it will work out though as The Daddy has to be away on a  course at the time he may be needed so all in all not good.  I'm REALLY cheesed off as I was convinced we were going to be successful this time.  Unrealistic ?  probably, but that's how I felt.  So cheesed off with it am I that at the moment I am a whisker away from abandoning the whole thing :(  I'm sure I'll get over it...

Last but not least Star has developed a nasty eczema type rash all over his trunk, and less so on his arms and legs.  Nothing on his hands, feet, bum or face.  It doesn't appear to bother him but it bothers me.  It started a couple of months ago with a few small patched and has gradually increased but seems to have gone mad over the last week or so.  I need to get to the bottom of what is causing it but am slightly confused at the moment.  A couple of months ago we started making his porridge with cows milk, and at the time I thought his poo turned slightly green, but my mother said to give it time for his system to get used to it so I persisted with it.  The poo situation improved, and as he has had cows milk formula, yoghurts, fromage frais and cheese for months I assumed it wasn't to blame.  But as it's the only 'untreated' cows milk he's had I am now wondering if it is causing the eczema.  I have started making his porridge with goats milk today to see if that makes a difference, but I'm not convinced it will.  I'm really worried he's developed a dairy allergy, as he has also been quite 'snotty' since he was a baby, and dairy can do this.  We'll see.

For anyone that has tagged me in a meme since the new year, and I know there are a few of you, I do apologise for my tardiness in responding.  I do intend to participate...sometime...

  

 

Tea and a chat

Do we need supplements in a modern diet ?

At last, I have engaged brain, put pen to paper  fingers to keyboard and decided to do a post on a subject I am passionate evangelical about.  Good nutrition.  I must warn you that this will be the first of many.  I could drone on about this for YEARS.  So in an attempt to not overload you and bore you stupid I will adopt the drip feed  approach.  Bite sized chunks and all that.


Today I am going to post about giving children multivitamins.  Horror of horrors, yes it's true.  In fact, Star has had them since he was, hmmm, let me think, five days old.  There are a few common arguments people put forward for not taking/giving their kids multivits...

1. We get all the nutrients we need in our food/milk

 Not true.  The nutrient levels in food today is a fraction of what it was 30+ years ago.  Intensive farming has left the soil depleted.  Fertilizers supplement the major deficiencies but not all the macro nutrients.  If you need proof, send off a hair sample for analysis and I guarantee, however well you eat, you will have deficiencies. When you add in the fact that most people a) don't eat the perfect diet and b) have a lifelstyle/diet that exposes them to anti-nutrients ie pollution, stress, refined carbohydrates, alcohol, there is simply no hope of getting everything you need from food.  


     2.  Recommended Daily Amounts (RDAs) of nutrients are printed on packets of food/baby formula....


...so we know we're getting enough, right ?  Again, not true.  You need to ask yourself how the levels of RDA have been arrived at ?  The RDA is set at a level to prevent diseases of malnutrition.  We're talking scurvy and rickets here.  It is not set at a level to ensure we are the fittest, strongest, healthiest we can be.  Not by a very long way.


Of course the other thing as far as babies goes, is that if they are exclusively breast fed (which of course I wholeheartedly agree with), breast milk is only as nutritious as the mothers nutritional status.  And what's more , that leaves even fewer nutrients for the mother.


So, having established why I believe in supplementation I will give you one example of a study that has been done to demonstrate further.

A new study from the Karolinska Institute (the highest ranked university in clinical medicine and pharmacy in Europe) has shown that supplementing with multivitamins has no effect on the incidence of asthma, eczema, hayfever or atopic sensitisation.  However,  when they looked at data from children who started supplementing before the age of four, they found a 39% decrease in the risk of sensitisation to food. 

  

In the researchers own words “our results show no association between current use of multivitamins and risk of allergic disease but suggest that supplementation with multivitamins during the first years of life may reduce the risk of allergic disease at school age”.

This is just one little fact to consider.  There are so many others, and I will post further at another time, but doesn't it make you think ?

One last point.  If you work for a pharmaceutical company, or are a believer in their doctrine that all you need is drugs, please pass by and don't feel the need to comment.  I am not blogging about this to have heated debates on the subject but to put some info out there for open minded people to consider.  I've studied the subject, and seen the effects on my own family and am not about to have my mind changed. So There !

Do we need supplements in a modern diet ?