Week 5 – Let’s shop together
Aim of the week – Involve your kids in a new shopping experience
I can clearly remember the moment when I was pregnant with my first child and in the supermarket on a Friday early evening. There seemed to be an abundance of tired parents and even more exhausted kids who were desperately trying to hold it all together and get the weeks shopping done. The kids were protesting to have certain foods, the parents were giving in to have a bit of peace… trolleys were full of “edible products” to get through another week.
This is about the time when I decided that if I did not want to be in the same situation it would either have to be no kids or no supermarkets. Clearly I was not choosing the first but dropping supermarkets did not seem like such a bad idea.
So what are the alternatives?
Shop online in the comfort of your own house, after you have eaten and when the children are in bed. This way you have the possibility to choose what would be best for you all and not out of hunger, tiredness or desperation. You can either arrange to pick up your shopping or get it delivered.
Check out the availability of markets, small organic shops, local producers who open their farms, vegetable boxes or collective buying schemes in your neighbourhood. Not only are you supporting smaller farms, producers or retailers but often it is a great way to meet your community and we busy mums always need a friendly face or a family near by that we know and trust.
Involve your kids in a positive experience of shopping. For kids it is fascinating for them to learn where our food comes from and involving them can make a mundane weekly chore into something quite fun. Choose your place carefully – we go to an organic market where I know that I would be happy to give them 95% of what is available and the other 5% is not that bad either. It is fun to let them choose the vegetables, weigh them, put them in bags. If they are still very small even the fact that they get used to being part of choosing what you are going to eat that week is important.
Top tip:
Make a game out of it…
Tell your kids before you go shopping together that they can all choose their very own fruit or vegetable this week and together (depending on their age of course) you are going to find out about how it grows, what vitamins and minerals it is full of and find a recipe for preparing it…
If they enjoy it – they can pick another one next week
Recipe(s) of the week
You will need to find a recipe with your ingredients so you can either have a look at my website: www.suzysumner.com/recipes
Or here are some of my favourite recipe websites: