Raining in Perth.

Hi everybody! Greetings from a rainy Perth, Western Australia. I think it has been 16 degrees in Perth and Scotland today. I am pleased that it has rained as we can get a bit short of water here. My mum is relieved as we have just planted some new fruit trees in our garden. Hopefully next year we can eat home-grown passion fruit, apples, mandarins and oranges.

You were right- I called myself Pavlova after the Australian dessert, though the name doesn't sound very Aussie to me! I had a look at Anna Pavlova, the ballerina, on You tube dancing Swan Lake. She was very graceful.

Today I had leak and potato soup for lunch. I helped my Mum make it at the weekend. I had a tiger bread roll with it-our bakers call it a tiger cub! I also had strawberries, a yogurt and the rest of the cookies. It was delicious.

Food-o-meter- 10/10
Health rating- 8/10pretty healthy though we stirred some cream through the soup.
Mouthfuls- 40 and 20 slurps of soup
Courses– main/dessert and my recess snack
Price- $3.50
Pieces of hair– 0
Amount of his packed lunch my brother brought home uneaten- even more than yesterday!
Number of Olympic medals won by Australia- 4- one more swimming silver today.

My Mum thought that my brother would eat more of his lunch if we put it in the blog. It doesn't seem to be working so far!

Our school is a “crunch and sip” school. We are allowed a small tub of pieces of vegetable or fruit on our desks to crunch on through the day and a bottle of water. It is supposed to help us concentrate and encourage everyone to eat a portion of veg or fruit everyday. Today I had grape tomatoes for my crunch and sip. I think it is a great idea and stops me getting hungry in class.

Some people asked for the traffic light food lists to help us choose healthy options. Here is a link to the website.

Max sent in a picture of his lunch. He comes from Warton, Lancashire. I need practise – it took me over a minute to find it on the map! I like the sound of Freckleton nearby. Does everyone have freckles there? I've never had stripy cheese before Max.

'My name's Max and I'm in Year 3 (I’m nearly 8) at St Paul's School Warton near Lytham St Annes in Lancashire (How many seconds)?

I always take a packed lunch to school every day and here is a picture of today's.
Tuna sandwiches, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and a chunk of Stripey Jack cheese.
For afters there's a KitKat (somewhere in there) and pineapple.
Washed down with Ribena.

Food-o-meter- 10/10! (I love my Mum’s packed lunches)!
Mouthfuls- about 47.
Courses- main/dessert
Health Rating- 9/10
Price- not worked it out
Pieces of hair - 0
Pieces of eight - 0

My mum always makes sure I've got a healthy lunch and unusually for an 8 year old I love my salad and veg!
I usually eat them first and then have my sandwiches.

In summer my veg is from our garden. We grow peas, beans, carrots, onions, potatoes, rhubarb and pumpkins.

Our school meals seem to be pretty good and they have a special lunch every term that you can have. They are usually themed as to what we are learning/doing.

Keep up the good work!

Max'

I will write more tomorrow. Until then a question…Which capital city is closest to Perth, Western Australia?
Until tomorrow,
Pavlova

Octo-dogs at sea!

Veg here

I had omelettes at my friend's house last week. I haven't had one since school ended and I really like them so I decided to make one for lunch. I had to go down to the hens to get the eggs but I remembered to turn off the electric fence so I didn't get a shock!

I cracked three eggs into a bowl and added a splash of milk and some pepper then beat them. I also put in some blue food colouring but it mixed with the yellow and made a green omelette! I sprinkled some ham and grated cheese on as I cooked it.

You can see why I wanted to a make an omelette sea now, for my octo-dogs! Thanks for the idea Bento Mama.

Tomorrow I am making my Japanese breakfast. I will ask you all to rate it. I am enjoying Pavlova's blog but it is unfair that her Australian winter is warmer then my Scottish summer! A company wants to use my photos to make a white board programme for schools so I asked her for a donation for Mary's Meals and she gave £50. That's brilliant and we are nearly at £113,000!

Veg

Hello Pavlova from Perth, Australia!

Hi Everybody! My blog name is Pavlova and I am 9 years old just like Veg. I live in Perth – not in Scotland- but in Western Australia. Can you guess why I have called myself Pavlova?
I go to Dalkeith Primary School and we don’t have a school canteen so I have to take a packed lunch every day. We all eat outside our classrooms on the shady veranda.
It is like having a picnic everyday. Here is a picture of my lunch today.

I had Vietnamese chicken spring rolls filled with grated carrot, coriander, capsicum (that’s red pepper) and the left over chicken from my Sunday roast. It was delicious dipped in chilli sauce. I had fruit salad after though Mum forgot to pack a fork so it was a messy business! I had an oatmeal cookie for recess which was tasty too.

Food-o-meter- 10/10- it was delicious
Health rating- 9/10- lost a point because of the cookie though it was homemade.
Mouthfuls- 48
Courses– main/dessert and my recess snack
Price- difficult to say as was bits of leftovers from our Sunday lunch though about $3.00.
Pieces of hair– 0
Amount of his packed lunch my brother brought home uneaten- about half and all of his fruit!
Number of Olympic medals won by Australia- 3 one of each color!

At my school we are not allowed junk food as we have a healthy eating policy. There is a traffic light system of food. Food on the red list is not allowed. This is sugary and unhealthy food. We can have food from the amber list sometimes and we must try and eat lots of healthy stuff off the green list.

As Veg said it is winter here in Australia but it has been a beautiful sunny day. It was 23 degrees. I have just checked online and it is 14 degrees in Scotland though I guess you may still warm up a bit this afternoon.

It great news that Veg has been nominated for the great Scot award. I hope she wins.

I am really excited to be in filling in for Veg this week. See ya tomorrow!

Pavlova

Veg's dad here We've had a great science project sent in by the William Campbell College in Nowra on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. So over to Steven who is 7 years old.

'My Australian food that I chose is Ginger Beer. My mum buys ginger beer for me and I love it.

Ginger beer is “red” food. That means you can only drink it sometimes. The main ingredient of Ginger Beer is ginger, and it tastes really good. It’s not like other beer, because it doesn't have alcohol in it, so kids can drink it too. One serving is one bottle(375ml) and it has 40g of sugar!
Ginger beer is my favourite cold drink. If I was allowed to, I would drink it every day!
From,
Steven'

Great Scot!

Veg here

It's been a great week. At last I can tell you that I have been nominated for the Great Scot Award this year! A really nice lady came with her cameras and took lots of photos. I had my Mary's Meal t-shirt on and my Mary's Meals mug with me. I don't know who nominated me but I think it's really for everyone that has supported Mary's Meals. I am visiting the Friends of NeverSeconds kitchen in Malawi when the ceremony takes place so if we win I can share the award with all the children. Fingers crossed.

You can read the article here.

I really liked all the meals on the blog this week. Thank you for sending them in. The Octo-Dogs look brilliant!

As a project I am going to copy the Japanese breakfast from Asuka. I will photograph it and rate it. I have never had a breakfast like it and I hope my family like it.

There are only 61 days until we set off to Malawi. This week Dad booked our flights. It is very exciting but I need to have 2 injections on Thursday. I have forgotten what it's like to have injections but it was ok when I was younger so I will be fine this time too.

We have been watching the Olympics. I stayed up to see the three Malawi atheletes but fell asleep and almost missed the end. Next week the blog is in Perth, Australia (22 seconds). It is winter in Australia but I wonder whether it is warmer than Scotland still. The week after, it goes to Brazil just like the Olympics!

Veg

Dinner- Israel

Hi VEG,

My name is Nicole and I live with my 4-year old daughter Tal, in Israel. During the week, Tal is in full-time daycare and eats breakfast and a cooked lunch there. But Fridays and Saturdays she has a light lunch at home and then a cooked dinner.

Dinner today consisted of tuna salad (Tal’s request), rice crackers, pitted olives, cherry tomatoes, and freshly squeezed orange juice. In addition to what is in the photo, she asked for an extra rice cracker after she finished the first one, and another half glass of juice. After she finished, she ate a plain unsweetened yoghurt. The only vegetables Tal likes are cherry tomatoes, but she doesn’t seem to notice that I sneak cut-up red capsicum and cucumbers into the tuna salad – and she really likes that.

Food-O-Meter: 10/10 (Tal said “It’s yummy, this is my favorite dinner”)
Mouthfuls: about 60
Course: Dinner
Health Rating: 8/10 (I would like her to have more vegetables, and there is a bit of mayonnaise in the tuna salad, but otherwise I think it is OK)
Price: Approximately 12 shekels for her portion (£1.94)
Time spent eating: 50 minutes (and that was only because I hurried her up because we had to go out)
Pieces of hair: 0
Leftovers: None
Songs sung while eating: 3 (2 in English and 1 in Hebrew – Tal speaks two languages)

Lunch- Spokane, Washington, USA

Hi VEG! My name is Laura, and I am 30 years old, 33 weeks pregnant, and I work at a private university in Spokane, WA., USA.

This is a picture of my lunch today:

I am having two open-faced ham and swiss cheese sandwiches on rice & corn cakes, a whole avocado with lime and salt, and 1/2 c. of fresh blueberries!

I am gluten intolerant (my body cannot tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and triticale), and I also have gestational diabetes! I manage my gestational diabetes through diet, so keeping my carbohydrate intake within certain limits is very crucial! Also, I cannot have sweets, as I am only allowed a certain number of carbohydrates a day, so I get the most out of them by eating fresh fruit and whole grains!

Also, you can't see it in my picture, but I have a big bottle of water for my drink.

Food-O-Meter: 10/10 I pack my own lunches, so I will only pack what I want to eat!
Mouthfuls: 30 give or take
Course: Main/side/dessert
Health Rating: 9/10
Price: Probably less than $2.50
Hair: 0 (YAY)
Carb count: about 30 g. of carbs total.
Baby kicks while eating: about 10 or so, plus a couple somersaults!


Keep up the great work!

Breakfast- Tokyo, Japan

Hello

I have a 2-year-old daughter, Shiho who goes to nursery on weekdays. If both parents work in Japan, they usually fight for limited seats available in nurseries. Luckily my daughter has gone to one since she was 6-months old. Nurseries are available until they start elementary school at age 6. Great thing about nurseries is they feed kids lunches and snacks prepared by qualified nutritionist. I must admit her diet is much healthier and perhaps more appropriate for the age than the stuff I cook. Nonetheless, I try my best to prepare delicious breakfast for her (and my husband of course) when only time all three of us sit around the table together on weekdays.

Though many people prefer 'Western' style breakfast and cannot wake up without their coffee these days, my family still prefers 'ordinary' style in the morning which consists of a bit of different dishes on the table, generally. Rice and miso (soya-based) soup (seaweed, tofu & leeks usually go into this) is a must. In addition, we usually have some proteins, in this case Japanese-style omelette with bonito flakes, fermented beans, and also some baked fish (usually a type of mackerel or salmon). Grapefruits is her most favourite fruit so routinely comes up on the table.

The photo seems a bit too much for 2-year-old girl, but it is shared with my husband and myself apart from rice & soup. We have own bowls for those.
Although preparing such breakfast seems a hard work at 6 am in the morning, it is in fact quite easy. Five-minutes to grill the fish, mix the beans with soy sauce, and prepare omelette & soup in between take about 10 minutes. Rice cooker does its work before I wake up.

Food-O-Meter: 8/10
Mouthfuls: countless
Courses: Breakfast
Health rating: 10/10
Price: About $2 for her portion
Pieces of hair: 0
Pieces of rice stuck on her face and clothes: about 20.
Pieces of bones thrown onto the floor: 5

Lastly but not the least, I'm grateful that one of my friends who posted on this site the other day introduced me to this site (Thank you, RAHA!). I was amazed by how interesting looking at what people eat in different places, and also the fact that they do make it so attractive for kids so that they eat well. Hope readers enjoyed the breakfast from Asia, too, which is very much different from other parts of the world - it seems heavy, right? But nothing on the table used any oil or sugar, so keeps us feel light even after the meal :)

Best wishes
Asuka