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25.01.2022 Back when I was at primary school we had almond trees in the schoolyard and were able to eat as many as we liked - can you imagine?? Today I was fortunate to attend a really interesting seminar on Australian almonds, complete with some delicious samples. I already knew almonds were full of healthy fats, a good plant-based source of protein, rich in vitamin E and also a source of fibre, calcium, zinc and iron. ... What I didn’t previously appreciate was how much work has gone into making almonds a water efficient crop and what growers are doing to improve bee health - it turns out a diverse diet is as good for bees as it is for us! Australia is the 2nd largest grower of almonds in the world and we now produce enough to meet domestic demand, so definitely buy locally. New season almonds are available from around April. Most children can’t take nuts to school these days so try to encourage them as an after school snack or part of breakfast. What’s your favourite way to eat almonds?

24.01.2022 Healthy holiday snacks the kids can make themselves - Part 2... Bliss balls are really easy and can usually be made from ingredients you’ll have on hand. Focus on including protein, fibre and healthy fats and try to minimise dried fruit and sweeteners. I keep serving sizes small by using a melon ball sized ice cream scoop. Press the mixture into a baking paper lined tray, cut into squares and don’t worry about the extra coconut and they’ll be super quick to make. ... However, it’s the holidays and you want to keep the kids occupied for as long as possible, so get them to roll the mixture into balls and then in coconut. Practical tip - sit the bowl of coconut and storage container inside a serving tray, if you can, to minimise the spread of coconut throughout your kitchen! Store in the fridge or freezer. Three of our favourite recipes below: Nut- free cacao bliss balls by Well Nourished https://wellnourished.com.au/nut-free-cacao-bliss-balls/ Lemon cashew balls by Dr Libby https://www.drlibby.com/recipes/lemon-balls/ Carrot cake bliss balls by Goodie Goodie Lunchbox https://www.goodiegoodielunchbox.com.au/carrot-cake-bliss-/

24.01.2022 Two people mentioned scrolls to me over the weekend and I had some sourdough pizza dough that needed to be used up, so I took that as a sign I should make some pizza scrolls for today’s lunch! Lots of Mediterranean flavours inside: artichoke, olive, sundries tomatoes, feta, basil and spinach. I made some chocolate black bean biscuits for extra protein but they were a little dry so they got a dab of jam and sandwiched together. Hopefully that will get them across the li...ne. Also in the lunchbox today: blueberries cheese, rice crackers and dried apple vegie of choice was cucumbers

23.01.2022 Popcorn is a classic Game Day snack, so that’s what we made this morning while watching the game! While popcorn on its own is healthy (whole-grain, high in fibre, contains B vitamins), the stuff you buy in the shops can be high in salt and/or sugar and full of ‘natural’ flavours and additives. It’s easy to make on the stovetop, but if you still want the convenience and easy clean up of microwave popcorn, or you think your teens are more likely to cook it themselves this... way , skip the packets and try this method: Place 1/4 -1/3 cup popping corn in a large, microwave safe bowl. Cover with a plate, leaving a small gap on one side for the steam to vent. Cook on high for 3-5 minutes (depends on your microwave, listen for when the popping has almost stopped). Please BE CAREFUL when removing as the bowl will be HOT. Drizzle with a little melted butter, olive or coconut oil depending on the other flavours you’re adding, or leave it plain. Today we had a choice of pumpkin spice, chocolate and cinnamon and za’atar, which turned out to be the kids’ favourite!

22.01.2022 Loving Father’s Day leftovers this morning: roast lamb with lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and capsicum strawberries some cheese biscuits which all came back home again - possibly a bit too much of a cayenne pepper kick? ... Granny’s chocolate slice a smoothie of kefir, cacao, avocado, banana and maple syrup because it was 31 degrees today! Thankfully cooler tomorrow. Hope your week is off to a great start. A x

22.01.2022 I love the shift that occurs as winter moves into spring - the weather, the light and of course the food. The burst of warm weather over the weekend made want a lighter meal, so I made this Vietnamese chicken salad. It’s infinitely adaptable and really doesn’t take long to put together. Also, it makes a lot, which is a bonus! I’ve served this in the lunchboxes, but you could definitely put it in a thermos for school. ... Practical tip: Quick way to ‘shred’ the chicken - cut it into large chunks then pulse in the food processor a couple of times. https://www.taste.com.au//30c8e92e-ef2a-4284-88fa-e8e24496

21.01.2022 Saturday is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! It’s not a school day but the kids will still need feeding, so why not grab your junior deckhands and get them to help you to prepare some pirate-themed foods for lunch or a snack plate? You don’t need anything fancy, it’s more about looking at what you’ve got and ‘rebranding’ it. Who knows what new food they might try? . If you do have some themed cookie cutters definitely get them into action though. In today’s lunc...hbox we have: X marks the spot sandwich - if you don’t have a cutter use a paring knife to carefully cut out the X gold nuggets - popcorn flavoured with nutritional yeast and butter swords with blueberries and strawberries - use any fruits of vegetables you have and put them on a stick, kids will love them! cannon balls - chocolate bliss balls - I used Well Nourished’s nut-free recipe ‘walk the plank’ snow peas - celery, capsicum and cucumber would also work here fish - slices of carrot cut into fish shapes You could also do meatball ‘cannon balls’, rockmelon or orange wedge ‘boats’, cut shapes from watermelon - use whatever you have at hand and get creative! I didn’t send this to school with my teens, but they’ll be eating it when they get home. Don’t forget to tag me in your pirate food photos @practicalnutritionwellness Happy weekend everyone. A x

18.01.2022 We found ourselves near Adelaide Lebanese Bakery yesterday afternoon so stocked up on a few things, including lunch for today. Love making it nice and easy on a Monday morning! The kids love manakeesh - flatbread with za’atar (a delicious mix of sesame, dried oregano, thyme and marjoram and sumac). Normally we’d get some lamb pastries but they were out, so we have some with spinach instead. Served with a side of tabbouleh. Also in the lunchbox today: ... Cucumber and carrot with hummus Blueberries Cheese and dried apricots Chocolate Cookie Monster biscuits from Well Nourished So delicious!

17.01.2022 Anyone else looking forward to school holidays? I am, but we all know that brings more ‘’Muuum, I’m huuuungry’. Stick around over the next two weeks and I’ll be showing you some school holiday snacks your kids can even make themselves! Have a safe and relaxing break and hopefully we’ll have the whole country back to school in Term 4. A x

17.01.2022 Mondays always start better when I’ve pre-made lunch the day before. If nothing else, at least I can start the week feeling organised! So I made this frittata on Sunday using some little chat potatoes, which were cooked then cooled. Cooking them this way increases resistant starch - so-called because it ‘resists’ digestion on its journey through the small intestine. When it gets to our lower intestine the good bacteria there use it as fuel to create byproducts that help... support a healthy digestive system. So resistant starch is super important for good bowel health! Also in the frittata are peas, broccoli, asparagus and lots of dill and mint, with a little cheese on top. Also in the lunchbox: rainbow carrots blueberries strawberry coconut cookies from Goodie Goodie Lunchbox baby cucumbers

16.01.2022 My eldest hates pumpkin. Strangely, he’ll eat pumpkin soup, but that’s about it. However I’m pretty confident he won’t realise the muffins in today’s lunchbox are full of orange goodness! The delicious struesel topping and the warming spices are a such a winning combination, plus there lots of fibre from the pumpkin, oats and yoghurt. You can find the recipe and other delicious Middle-Eastern inspired foods here: https://cosetteskitchen.com/re/pumpkin-oat-streusel-muf...fins. I’ve made quite a few adaptions, such as swapping the fats to olive oil, the honey to maple syrup, using roasted pumpkin instead of canned, leaving out the sugar in the dry mix and blending all of the wet ingredients together at once because it was late and I wanted to speed things up. . It made 23 regular sized muffins for me, so a good return on the time invested. Continuing the Middle Eastern theme of today’s lunchbox we have: roast lamb fattoush - with an extra container of crispy bread to add at lunchtime hummus and pita bread dates filled with almonds and some berries

16.01.2022 In today’s lunchbox we have leftover takeaway pizza. The kids have had a couple of big weeks at school and we had a celebration last night. They all wanted pizza and today they’re having the leftovers. Getting teenagers to make healthy choices is hard, even when they’ve been exposed to whole foods all their lives. We eat really well most of the time so I don’t stress about the occasional takeaway, plus I love pizza as well! It’s all about balance and recognising how... your body feels when you eat certain foods. My three kids are each at very different stages of that journey, but I’ll keep trying! Also in today’s lunchbox: Well Nourished Anzacs choice of vegetables apple or mandarin chocolate, mint, banana and avocado smoothie in a thermos

15.01.2022 Haighs fans please be aware of this food recall.

12.01.2022 Even better than serving up leftovers for lunch is serving them up cold! Last night’s teriyaki chicken went straight into the lunchbox ready for today. We also have: celery, tomatoes and baby capsicum mandarin (peeled to make it fit nicely!)... blueberry muffins For the muffins I adapted the recipe below, as follows: only whole-wheat spelt flour cow’s milk instead of soy olive oil instead of butter 1/3 cup maple syrup no agave mixed the blueberries with the flour before adding the wet ingredients So, quite a bit really. They’re really quick to put together and a hit with the family. https://www.popsugar.com.au//Gwyneth-Paltrow-Healthy-Blueb

12.01.2022 Saying goodbye to winter with the last of our blood oranges and HELLOOO to spring with this green vegetable pesto pasta. Most kids love pesto pasta so it’s a good way to get a few extra vegies into the lunchbox. For me, spring means asparagus so I’ve added that along with broccoli, snow peas and sugar snap peas. All of these green vegetables provide fibre and vitamin C, but they’re also a particularly good source of vitamin K. Vitamin K needs some fat to be properly... absorbed - which makes pesto, with its extra virgin olive oil, the perfect lunch partner! Make extra for dinner and pack leftovers straight into lunchboxes for the next day. Pat yourself on the back for being so organised. Happy weekend everyone. A x

09.01.2022 We had an early start this morning so I packed lunchboxes last night. But after a busy evening driving kids around I was keen to get it done as quickly as possible, so we have a number of low fuss options on the menu today: The All Natural Sausage Company sausages cooked in the oven for easy clean up. Chopped up with a bit of lettuce underneath, which may or may not also get eaten. A one bowl chocolate cake that used olive oil and apple cider vinegar because eve...n cracking eggs and melting butter was too much trouble last night! (So egg and dairy free if you need that. I also only added 110g sugar all up. Super moist and chocolatey.) https://smittenkitchen.com//chocolate-olive-oil-cake-more/ While the cake was cooking I chopped up a couple of carrots and a cucumber and washed some blueberries. Even the skewers only took about 5 minutes to put together.

09.01.2022 Pineapple on pizza - are you or ? Pizza is always popular, but especially on a Friday! Using up the last of the Lebanese bread from Sunday, today we had everyone’s favourite ham and pineapple pizzas. I made a ton of granola last night so that got repurposed as a snack with yoghurt and fruit. Always a great standby if I dont have any baked goods. ... Also using up some salad vegetables and I still can’t stop buying blueberries! Luckily everyone else likes them as well. Hope the week has passed quickly for everyone in Melbourne. Stay safe and have a great weekend. A x

07.01.2022 A delicious Mum Lunch today, because I’m worth it. Pretty much the same lunch as the kids, just cut my mountain bread wrap into pinwheels, used up some leftover carrot and potato from last nights dinner and subbed some nuts for the banana bread. Quick to put together and nice to be able to just pull it out of the fridge when I got hungry. ... Nuts are such a good source of protein, good fats, vitamins, minerals and fibre. A serving is 30g, which is about 1/3 cup or a small handful. And different nuts contain different nutrients, so try to change them up when you can to get variety in your diet. Raw and unsalted is best. Happy weekend everyone. A x @ Adelaide, South Australia

06.01.2022 How long has it been since you made jaffles? It’s been quite a while for us because we don’t usually have rectangular sliced bread in the house. However last week I bought some Healthybake wholemeal spelt sourdough, which is a great choice if you still want sliced bread but with no nasty additives or preservatives. It’s pretty pricey though and if it’s starting to go stale I don’t want any to go to waste, so toasting it is a good option. ... I added leftover roast lamb, baby spinach and a little feta and they were a hit with my kids, even though they were cold. Jaffles are a great way to use up leftovers when you don’t have enough to stretch into a complete meal. Any roast meat, taco or bolognese sauce and or thick stew makes a delicious filling!

04.01.2022 A bit late posting today after I got sidetracked with after school activities and feeding the extra teenagers who appeared at our house! Today was a simple lunchbox that all the nutritional boxes: wholegrain rolls with lettuce and leftover brisket and cheese for protein... fruit vegetable sticks good fats and more wholegrains and protein courtesy of a baked muesli bar from The Feel-Good Family Food Plan by Dr Joanna McMillan This is the first recipe I’ve made from the book but I snuck a piece this afternoon and it was pretty moreish!

04.01.2022 Are your kids on holidays yet? This is our last week of school here in SA, so five more days of lunchboxes. Yesterday’s prep session made packing today’s lunches so quick and easy. I don’t always prep on Sundays, sometimes it’s midweek, sometimes both - depends on time and how fast we’re getting through the food! You can see what else I made in my Stories. In today’s lunchbox:... zucchini slice apple muffin (tried an ‘icing’ of labneh and maple syrup, got told they preferred ‘real icing’ please. Thankfully only did today’s muffins ) strawberries kale chips assorted vegetables One down four to go! Have a great week.

03.01.2022 A simple lunch of red foods for #redweek with Eat the Rainbow - Kids Red foods contain lycopene, which acts as a powerful antioxidant in the body. As well as supporting heart health, a diet rich in lycopene may help lower the risk of some cancers. ... To increase the body’s absorption of lycopene it should be eaten with a fat. For this lunchbox we could add a dressing to the tomatoes, hommus with the capsicum and grated cheese on the red lentil and tomato pasta. Just another reason to eat the and try to include a wide variety of fruit and vegetables in the diet. Search back through my previous posts to look at my purple, pink and yellow themed lunchboxes. Smoothie is coconut water, watermelon and raspberries. Happy weekend everyone! A x