I have been asked for years what I feed my boys to make them so big. Have you been putting their feet in manure? How much do they eat? I think we eat the same as most Aussies, but there isn’t much down time – it’s buying the food, preparing the food or cleaning up after cooking the food. They have always been chalk and cheese, if one loved bananas the other hated them, same with peanut paste, broccoli, cheese, but they both love meat and veges and chocolate slice so we had some common ground.
For some reason, I just assumed I would have daughters – no family history reason – I just assumed. Even as my 2nd son was being born I hadn’t thought of any girls names as I knew it would be a girl. Dainty little things who would be so cute and we’d write and colour in and play with sparkles……and buy frilly dresses and bags – lots of bags. Well I couldn’t believe it – another Man Child – I didn’t have babies – they were already walking when they were born -they haven’t stopped running and eating since that day. Not a frilly dress to be seen. And I wouldn’t change it for the world –but I did have a steep learning curve to learn about boys.
As I have mentioned in other blogs, I was an older mother – 1st child at 36 and 2nd at 38 so I was very set in my ways when the first came along. The fridge was full of wine, cheese, pate, and beer so needed a few changes there. I smoked which I am so incredibly grateful to have given up {that’s a whole ‘nother blog} so, all the things I lived on and were familiar to me – had to go.
But that was in 1998 and 2000 and we have come a long way since then. They are both still big boys and I have fed them accordingly. It’s been trial and error as it is for all women but I was lucky to have a great role model. As kids, we had 3 meals a day – cereal and cooked meal for breakfast, sandwiches and fruit for lunch, and steak and 3 vege for dinner. If we had sweets it was ice cream and all our desserts when we did have them, Mum made. So I based my food prep a lot on my parents and grandparent’s role modeling.
So, today for instance breakfast for the boys was 3 rashes of bacon, 2 eggs, 2 toast, a smoothie with mango/peach/goji berry/seed and nut mix/ Greek yoghurt /and milk. Then a packed school lunch which was chopped watermelon, 3 ham sandwiches on wholemeal, a dozen lychees, 2 nutty muesli bars, 4 pieces of homemade slice, 4 Shortbread cream bikkies, 2 poppers and 1 huge banana. Not only will it all get eaten, but afternoon tea will be required before dinner so today that is sausages and bread for afternoon tea and there is roast chicken and veges for dinner tonight.
We have roasts at least 3 times a week as they fill their bellies, offer good protein and are a good price. I spend a bit more now on groceries since I left my former life, as I am culling all other costs eg now we don’t eat out a lot, we rarely do take-away, we mix easy cheap meals like Salmon or Fish Cakes or Carbonara some nights and on others we’ll have Roast Blade, Topside or a Roast Chook or a Corned Beef cooked in the Slow Cooker. We all love curries so that’s once or twice a week and toasted sandwiches are a snack along with homemade cakes, slices and biscuits, cereal, nachos, pasta or left-overs.
Now, I’m not trying to be clever or show how to feed your family on a shoestring or even asking you to do what I do, I am merely saying this is what we do. We have ‘shares’ in Mooloo milk and drink about 6 litres a day – not really shares but I am only allowed to buy local milk. Our staples per week are about 10 loaves of bread, 4 roasts, 1kg mince, 1kg bacon, 1kgham, 1.5kgchicken breasts, 12 sausages, cheese, potatoes, veges, fruit, salad, yoghurt, breakfast cereal which is rarely eaten at breakfast…, with a breakdown of about: $110 for meat, $30 for veg and salad, $45 for fruit, $68 for dairy, $22 for breads, and about $15 on dry goods like gravy, sauces, coconut milk, herbs, French onion soup etc whatever we need at the time. So that’s about $290 a week – and of course there are things like Glad wrap, toilet paper, wash powder, detergent, rice, pasta, flour, sugar, coffee, tea etc which are say $80 month so add $20 for that. Not all weeks are this and sometime I can reduce it by $50 – $80 a week – it just depends.
So why, you ask do they eat so much – you spoil them others will say – the reason is because they are big and fit and need it to fuel their body. It’s all good food – they do 2-4 hours of sport a day and have always been active boys even before they got into competitive sport. They go to the gym; they play representative sport, and wear size 13- 15 shoes where a lot of their food goes…..They are both 6ft 4in and still growing.
Both boys are healthy, fit and appreciate good wholesome food made at home. They look after their bodies and know about nutrition and good health so I know that will keep them in good stead throughout their life. One is going into grade 11 and the other just finished grade 12 and has been accepted into University. One aspires to play for the Wallabies, the other for the NBA – at least if they shoot for the moon they will both be healthy high achievers in their world whatever path they choose.
