2 Dinners- Sydney, Australia & Ashbourne, UK

Hi VEG, my name is Jamie and I have a 21 month old son Mason. We are from Sydney Australia and for dinner tonight we had barbecue steaks and Mason had lamb cutlets with roast potato and salad.

Food-O-Meter: 9/10 he loves tomatoes and olives
Mouthfuls: a lot! Mas usually takes around an hour to finish his meals
Course: Main
Health Rating: 8/10
Price: around 6 or 7 dollars for his portion (about £4)
Hair: 0 :)
High chair escapes: 2

We also had apple pie for dessert and Mas had his with a cup of milk (he had water with his dinner)

I love your blog and check for updates every single morning while drinking my tea :) congratulations on achieving so much for Mary's meals and good luck for the future :) much love Jamie and Mas xo

From Sydney to Ashbourne!

Howdylydoodly everybody, my names Jessica! I live in the English countryside in a small village with my little girl Julie, I absolutely love reading NeverSeconds blog; it has given me so many ideas on how to vary my daughters dinner! Julie is 6 years old and loves baking and helping me cook the meals herself, she is probably more willing to try new things than I am! Her favourite thing to make is cranberry muffins, she runs off to her room to lick the bowl clean when we have finished making them, and I'm left with everything else to wash up!

Today for her dinner I made her Grilled Smoked Basa fish, with lots of mixed veg and a small bowl of wholemeal pasta in a some vegetable stock , I have to overcook the pasta till its really mushy because she won't eat it otherwise. I also I had to help her finish the fish because I had given her a very big fillet, her own words claim it to be 'Very scrummy!' though. Later on she had a milkshake made with milk, ice cubes and coco powder all blended up. I was going to take a picture but she had already drank most of it by the time I found my camera!

Food-O-Meter: She gave it a "8 maybe 9"
Mouthfuls: She lost count! A lot though because the veg kept falling off her spoon!
Courses: Dinner
Health rating:10/10 I tried to balance it with the food groups
Price: About £1.30 for her portion
Leftovers: Nope, apart from a lone pea!

It's an honour to be starred on such a great blog, I hope VEG never stops!

Lunch- Bristol, UK

Hi VEG,

I'm Kate, mum to Eleanor (aged 2 years). We had lunch late today because Eleanor fell asleep in the car on the way home from the supermarket but I thought you might like to see a picture of it.

We both had the same: tomato, cucumber, coleslaw, tuna mayo sandwich and some mini cheddar biscuits. We had orange juice to drink.

It's been really hot here in Bristol (UK) today, so I wanted to make something light and fresh tasting. I try to put a range of food groups on Eleanor's plate at each meal but she doesn't usually eat everything on her plate. From all the things on her lunch plate today, she ate the coleslaw and the cucumber. She also drank the orange juice. I'll probably put the rest of it back in the fridge in case she wants a snack later, before dinner.

Food-o-meter: yummy bear!
Healthy: 9/10
Mouthfuls: lots (Eleanor ate the coleslaw with her fingers, so it took a long time!)
Courses: main
Price: about £1?

Breakfast- Vancouver, Canada

Hello again!

Bento Mama here sharing one of my family’s (even French toast hating Mr.Bento!) favorite breakfasts with you! Being a full time working mom, a part time student, and having between 4-6 people living in my home at all times, I’m all about doing things as efficiently and cost effectively as possible with ideally minimal amounts of waste. I recycle almost everything, reuse and repurpose where possible, and generally find as many ways as I can to save money, and the environment. Many people have asked me if bento making creates a lot of waste with all the bread, meat, and cheese scraps. The answer is a resounding YES… and no!! While bento making creates lots of scraps, I have taken to saving them (in either the fridge or freezer) for use in different meals! This super delicious French toast breakfast casserole is an excellent example. All my sammie scraps go in a bag in the freezer for use in this budget friendly and super easy meal!

I served today’s breakfast with fresh sautéed berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries) and a little icing sugar for garnish. The kids also had grilled ham and a glass of milk to balance out the meal.

Here’s today’s breakfast rating (according to my kids!)
Food-o-meter: 10/10 “it’s really yummy!!” (it started at 2 out of 10 until I re-explained how the rating system worked to my 4 year old)
Mouthfuls: Lots! Little mouths take lots of bites!
Courses: Breakfast
Health Rating: 9/10, The icing sugar brings this one down
Price: Super cheap!! This meal is made entirely out of leftovers!!
Pieces of hair: 0!
Dining time: 21 minutes and the plates were licked clean, and it would have been longer if I didn't bribe the kids with cartoons!

If you want the full recipe to make your own super cheap breakfast head over to my blog. If you’re not a fan of cooking, but still want a cheap meal, head over here to help NeverSeconds provide meals, and a kitchen with Mary’s Meals to children in Malawi! A mere £10.70 or $16.92 Canadian will feed a child for an entire year!
Thanks again VEG and Daddy VEG for allowing to me participate in this amazing initiative!
Until next time,
Bento Mama

Dinner- Washington, DC, USA

Hi VEG and VEG'S dad!

This is a picture of Benjamin's supper this evening.

He is having ground beef with veggies (carrots, peas and mushrooms) and toast sticks, steamed broccoli, apple sauce with nectarine, and a sippy cup of water. He's 14 months old, but I think he could eat all of the dinner you get during the school year because he has 16 teeth already!

Food-o-meter- 8/10 (he isn't too fond of the apple sauce, though I am not sure why)
Mouthfuls- i lost count at 40, after he took out a bunch of broccoli, looked at it and then put it back in to his mouth... does that count as one bite or two? hmmm...
Courses- supper/dessert/drink
Health Rating- 10/10 (for grown ups, we shouldn't eat so much beef, even local/kindly raised beef, but Benjamin is a bit anemic, so beef is very healthy for him!)
Price- about $3
Pieces of hair- 0
Pieces thrown on the floor- 4

Lunch- Columbus, Ohio, USA

Hi there, from Columbus, Ohio. My name is MIMI and I am a mom to 3 kids, ages 2, 3, and 5. All of whom are rather picky eaters. I've had to find lots of ways to incorporate good, healthy, well balanced meals that are kid friendly and look appealing to my kids. That's why I almost always "sneak" the healthy into my kids food. I do this by pureeing a lot of veggies and fruits into everyday items. After I am sure my kids like a food item and have tried it several times, I always let them know what healthy items I hid in their food, that way, when I present the food to them later in it's natural form, they are more willing to give it a try. They seem to like the food and are now a lot more open to strange foods. My daughter gets upset now if I don't somehow use spinach in a food item. I've been known to sneak spinach in everything, even in brownies!

Here is our dinner from today. It is sneaky mac n'cheese muffins. Noodles, with cheese on top, but hidden inside are pureed beans, spinach and tomatoes. There are also cut up hot dogs and an egg to make it very protein enriched. I've also included carrots, peanuts and half a banana as side dishes. With a cookie for dessert and a glass of milk to drink. With preschool aged kids, portion sizes need to be smaller, and variety is key. They aren't very big kids so they don't eat as much as adults, and they need to see a food 5-8 times before they decide definitively if they like something or not. So I always put lots of small portions of different items on their plates.

Here's today's food ratings, according to my 3 kids:

Food-o-meter-8/10, the youngest wasn't sure about the mac'n'cheese muffins.
Healthy- 9/10 very healthy except for cookie, but you can't get them to eat anything without reward of cookie at end. :-)
Mouthfuls- a lot, it took well over an hour to get all 3 completely done.
Courses- Dinner/side/dessert
Price-about $2 per plate plus I have enough leftovers for another meal or two.
Thumbs up- 6

Breakfast - Brigerbad, Switzerland

Hi!

Richard, Anest, Harri (4) and Anwen (3) here - you can call us RAHA! We live in France, but are on a camping holiday in Brigerbad, Switzerland at the moment - how many seconds VEG? (12 seconds!- Veg)

In France, little ones start school in the year they turn 3 so neither of my monsters are pre-schoolers anymore, but since we are in France and as there is no canteen at the school, I still get to feed them three times a day as they come home every lunchtime. There is a lunchtime option at school by an external provider, but it's expensive at 6.50€ (£5) per day even if it is starter, main, cheese, bread and dessert. Only about 20% of the school children eat there.

Anyway, this week is not about school meals...back to them next week. As I said, we're camping at the moment and here is what we had for breakfast:

I tried to keep it as Swiss as possible to my knowledge (any Swiss readers out there please feel free to comment). There was some Gruyère Cheese, a slice of Swiss Ham, 2 slices of bread (one with strawberry jam) and 2 Reine Claude Plums. In the beaker is some chocolate milk. Seconds of cheese, ham and plums were had. There was Birchermuesli (muesli mixed with yogurt) on offer too, but that was rejected. We don't normally eat a savoury breakfast and I'm not sure why as I much prefer it! It was meant to be A's plate of food, but she ate most of hers before I could take a photo and she was not interested in rating it as she just wanted to get down and play...so here is how H rated it:

Food-o-meter: Great!
Mouthfuls: we forgot to count, but if H is enjoying food it disappears in big mouthfuls so probably not that many!
Courses: Breakfast
Health Rating: H said it was not healthy because of the jam...I asked him what "healthy" meant and he said "yucky"...hmm work needed there...(I would give it 8/10)
Price: about 4 CHF (£2.60)
Pieces of hair: 0
Pieces of grass: 1

Hope you enjoyed reading...we're off to see the Aletsch Glacier this morning, hope the breakfast sees us through until lunch...then again, we are on holiday, so we may find a nice boulangerie along the way!

Thanks to VEG for your inspiration and to VEG's Dad for your hard work in bringing this to us all and of course to everyone for the superb amount of money raised for Mary's Meals so far - its amazing how so little money can go so far - keep it coming!

RAHA

Dinner- Sheffield, UK

Hello, I am Julie, mum to 18 month old Robin. We also live in Sheffield, England although I grew up in New York State, USA. For dinner tonight we had beef stew, broccoli, Robin had some cream cheese and whole wheat tortilla wrap that he didn't finish at lunch time, and a cup of milk.

It isn't really stew weather where we are right now but we had it leftover from Friday so it really needed using up! The stew had beef, onions, potatoes, carrots, and peas--you can try making it for yourself if you want to, the recipe is here.

Food-O-Meter: 7/10 (Robin eats this meal better than most but any bites of peas or onion came right back out!)
Mouthfuls: 24 that I caught!
Course: Main
Health Rating: 9/10 (I think! I find it hard to judge but everything is home-made so it must be all right!)
Price: Somewhere around 75p for this portion.
Hair: None!
Spoons dropped and chewed up by the dog: 1

VEG's Dad To have your early years breakfast, lunch or dinner featured please send to NeverSeconds@gmail.com . Slots available!