Episode 45: Easy Healthy Food Swaps When Eating Out

Episode 45: Easy Healthy Food Swaps When Eating Out

In this episode of The Easy Feed Podcast, we're digging into how to make better choices when eating out with the fam. We all know life gets crazy busy, and sometimes, grabbing a quick meal is the only option. But what if you could enjoy those takeouts without feeling bad? Join me as I drop some practical tips and simple food swaps for different cuisines—from Italian to Chinese, Mexican, Thai, and even your go-to fish and chips.

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Links
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/3-week-feeding-kids-reset

Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.00)
Choosing Healthy Eating Out with Family (00:33.454)
Pizza Work Experience and Health Concerns (02:51.522)
Healthy Pizza and Pasta Choices (05:15.832)
Limiting Child's Consumption of Garlic Bread (07:25.1)
Thai Food: Healthy Options and Nutritional Considerations (09:46.316)
Mexican Cuisine: A Balance of Nutritious Sides and Fats (12:10.41)
Healthy Burger Consumption Guidelines (14:22.54)
Reducing Sugar in Meal Consumption(16:35.852)
Ordering Food in a Burger Shop (18:54.774)
Sushi as a Healthy Snack Option (21:15.52)
Sushi Recipes for Kids (23:36.11)
Australian Food Consumption Trends (25:57.55)
Indian Food and Its Balance (28:13.1)
Promoting Healthy Family Habits (30:33.794)
The Easy Feed Podcast Episode Summary (32:53.302)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

Key Discussion Points:

1. Healthier Swaps for Italian Favourites—Pizza and Pasta:

- Discover why opting for a thin-crust pizza, loaded with veggies, is a better alternative to the oil-heavy, thick-crust options. Plus, find out why choosing a tomato-based sauce over a creamy one can make all the difference in keeping your pasta dish light and nutritious.

2. Navigating Chinese and Thai Cuisine with Better Choices:

- I’ll guide you through selecting healthier options like steamed dumplings, stir-fried vegetables, and lighter soups that are just as flavourful but much better for you and your family.

3. Making Mexican Food Work for You Without the Extra Calories:

- Mexican food is full of vibrant flavours, but it can also be laden with cheese, cream, and fried items. I’ll share tips on choosing soft tacos with grilled proteins, fresh salsas, and nutritious sides, so you can enjoy the bold tastes without the extra calories.

4. Tips on Choosing Better Burger Options at Fast-Food Joints:

- Fast food doesn’t have to be a guilty pleasure. Find out how to make better choices at burger joints, from selecting grilled chicken burgers over double-patty beef burgers to managing those tempting sides like fries and sugary drinks.

5. How to Enjoy Sushi and Japanese Food While Keeping It Nutritious:

- Sushi is often a go-to for a quick, healthy meal, but not all sushi is created equal.from avoiding tempura rolls to embracing brown rice sushi and nutrient-rich options like avocado, salmon, and edamame, i got tips for you!

So, if you’re looking to make smarter choices when dining out, tune in and discover how you can indulge in your favourite foods while still looking after your family’s health.

Show Notes:

- Explore kid-friendly recipes: Nourish with Karina - Kids Recipes

- Join me inside Nourishing Kids: Nourish with Karina

- Follow me on Instagram for more tips and updates: @NourishWithKarina

Introduction (00:00.046)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 45, easy healthy food swaps when eating out with your family. Hi there. I'm Carina Savage. And with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learned all the secrets that busy moms need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast.

Choosing Healthy Eating Out with Family (00:33.454)
Good to have you here. Today we are talking about good choices when we are eating out with our family, because let's face it, we all do it, well, many of us do it because life is busy and we often need that quick and easy grab from the shop. Or, you you get sick of cooking or your kids just get sick of your cooking and there's a co -edio takeaway. So it's good to have, I guess, some little tricks up your sleeve.

when you are eating out or when you're getting takeaway so that you can make some slightly healthier choices without them even realising. So they still think they're getting takeaway. Well, of course they're still getting takeaway, but they're still getting the treat of the takeaway or eating out, but it's a slightly healthier swap. So let's dive in. We're going to cover Italian cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Mexican. We're going to touch on burgers, sushi, fish and chips, Thai.

So we're going to cover them and I'm going to give you some quick tips, some quick wins for each of these cuisines. So let's start with my favourite cuisine of all time, because I grew up with this cuisine and my mum's is from the north of Italy. In fact, my mum didn't learn English until she was five years of age and went to school because she grew up speaking Italian. So my nonna spent...

a lot of time with us in our home. And I think she lived with us for a couple of years too, when I was probably about six or seven. And so I grew up eating a lot of yummy Italian food. so Italian is still my number one cuisine. Although I must say, you know, some others are starting to creep up there. I'm really loving Japanese at the moment, but yeah, Italian will always be number one to me.

And I think it's a really popular choice for many families and many kids. mean, who doesn't like pizza and pasta? Not too many, unless you've got gut issues or IBS or CELAC. But even having said that, there's a lot more gluten -free options in that cuisine that are yummy and tasty and things have improved significantly in the gluten -free world with Italian food. So yeah, and of course, risottos are always going to be gluten -free as long as the stock used is gluten -free.

Pizza Work Experience and Health Concerns (02:51.522)
So let's first talk about pizza. Look, my first ever job was at Pizza Hut in Australia, and I still vividly remember squirting oil into pizza pans, prepping them for the onslaught of pizza orders at night. And the disgusting job that I had at the end of the night when you had to clean the dishwasher. So the dishwasher was this big industrial dishwasher that

was for cleaning the pans, the pizza pans. And these were thick crust pizzas. And so they were kind of like cake pans really, but they were round and they were pizza pans. So not as deep as cake tins, that's the word. But anyway, you'd have to wash these and you'd have to wash trays, pizza trays, and you would wash utensils and things that you were using to get all the food and everything into the like, stainless steel v

containers that you would have lined up to put the, you know, the capsicum and the onion and the cabanossi. Anyway, long story short, the, the dishwasher by the end of the night, the filter of the dishwasher, this is going to make you want to vomit. Made me want to vomit. I don't know how I just digressed right into this, but just a little story. But the amount of melted cheese and beans at the bottom of the dishwasher was the

disgusting. So, you know, when I think of thick crust pizza, it takes me straight back to when I was 16 working in Pizza Hut and cleaning the disgusting filter. Look, it's things you do, it's where you start, So it takes me back to that. But yeah, that oiling of the pan, of those thick pans and the oil that's in those thick crust pizzas is disgusting. And so my first comment around Italian food is

Where possible, avoid those thick crust pizzas because they're really oily, they're not healthy. You can even get those cheese filled crusts. And again, that just adds more oil and calories and fat. So wherever possible, I would move towards going for a thin, like a traditional Italian based pizza. So it's like thin, lots of air pockets, sometimes crunchy, but definitely a thin base pizza.

Healthy Pizza and Pasta Choices (05:15.832)
So I would go for a thin base pizza, definitely over a thick base pizza or a cheese stuffed pizza because you're just going to already reduce the calories, reduce the bad fats and make it a healthier choice. And then wherever possible, add vegetables to the pizza. Now kids aren't huge veggie lovers always on pizza and I know mine aren't either. It's always the margarita. It's never the vegetarian. So.

Where possible, add some veggies, but if not possible, then a margarita thin -based pizza is a good option still. Definitely try and avoid the pepperoni meat lover type pizza because the more processed meats you get slathered on that pizza, the more unhealthy it becomes. So less processed meats, more vegetables, but at the end of the day, if it's just a margarita,

I think that's the best option. think that's a better option over like a ham and cheese or a ham and pineapple because again, not a big fan of the processed mate. If we look at pastas, always try to choose a red sauce over a creamy sauce. A red sauce, a salsa is going to be healthier. Tomatoes are really rich in vitamin C. They're rich in lycopene, which is a nutrient that is very good for you. So red sauce.

over a creamy carbonara -based sauce any day of the week. Stay away from the creamy, cheesy, wherever possible because often those carbonaras have heavy cream, butter, bacon, making it a lot higher in fat and low calories. It doesn't really matter so much with kids because often they need them because they're growing.

However, you want it to be the right type of calories. You don't want it to be saturated fat. You want it to be good quality protein or good quality carbohydrate or healthy fats, right? So avocado or salmon. You don't want it to be butter and cream and bacon. Garlic bread is another one to be careful of because it's often loaded with butter and margarine contributing to a higher saturated fat intake. And again, look, if this is a sometimes food where you're having it once a week and once a fortnight,

Limiting Child's Consumption of Garlic Bread (07:25.1)
Who cares? course, give them the garlic bread, allow them to have the garlic bread because we want them to feel like they can have that treat. But if it's a very regular occurrence and they love lots of garlic bread, then perhaps try to pull back on that a little. If your child loves food is perhaps on the heavier side of the spectrum, or if you're worried about their overall health, because yeah, things like garlic bread can be a lot higher in saturated fat. So.

Yeah, I'm a fan of garlic and garlic's very good for you. If you're making it at home, guess you could regulate how much butter you put on it. But really at the end of the day, if you're going eat garlic bread, you want it to be a yummy garlic bread. And most of the time you're not going to make it yourself. know I'm not. So garlic bread is just something to watch out for. But at the end of the day, if it's a couple of pieces of garlic bread next to some thin crust margarita, no big deal. What you can do instead of garlic bread is you can get those thin based garlic pizzas.

And that's another option. If it's a thin based garlic pizza using olive oil, it's possibly a better option than the buttered garlic bread. But again, at the end of the day, it's what the pizza shops got and it's what your child wants. And remembering this is like a sometimes food. So you want to just have the real food, the sometimes food, not feel like you can't have it. Because if you deprive yourself, then it's going to backfire and you're going to want something else anyway. Okay. Moving on to Chinese cuisine.

With Chinese cuisine, you want to really stay away from the really deep fried battered options. So things like sweet and sour pork, sweet and sour chicken, honey chicken, lemon chicken, all of those that are really battered and deep fried and often covered in sugary sauces as well. So they're not as healthy options for, you know, your regular takeaway nights.

fried wontons and fried dumplings and anything that's really deep fried is not going to be as good as something that is steamed. Like a steamed dumpling, these are lighter and they're still yummy. So I would go for steamed over fried where possible. And you can also go for things like steamed chicken with vegetables or stir fried veggies and meat, lean meat. Because those stir fried options and those steamed dumplings and steamed

Thai Food: Healthy Options and Nutritional Considerations (09:46.316)
wontons are going to be healthy options. And the same goes for Thai cuisine. Going for fresh spring rolls over like a deep fried spring roll is going to be better. I know that when I buy them in the freezer section, I can then just pop them in the oven to bake them versus being deep fried. But I'm actually not sure. I think it varies depending on the restaurant as to whether they're deep fried or not.

Noodle dishes such as Pad Thai are often higher in oil and sugar in the sauce. So just being mindful of that. But you know, I know my daughter loves Pad Thai. That's her number one option. And her second option is a coconut milk based curry. And look, they're rich and creamy and delicious, but the coconut milk does make it a little higher in saturated fat. At the end of the day, coconut milk is a little controversial because it's a medium chain fat, but it is still a saturated fat. So just be mindful of it.

But to be honest with you, doesn't stop me ordering it. That's my, one of my favourite Thai dishes is a red curry and I love the coconut milk and I use coconut milk and coconut cream at home too for her because it means she eats the vegetables and I still think that's a better option if she's eating veggies with like a coconut based and you can always put healthy protein in there, whether it's chicken or tofu or edamame. So, know, coconut milk curries.

Again, if it's like a sometimes once every week or two, I don't have a problem with it, but just be mindful that is a bit creamier. If you're going for like a lighter soup, like a Tom Yum soup or a broth or a miso, then that's going to be a better option, but then the miso is going to be higher in salt. So it's like, pick your poison, right? But definitely like a Thai salad with grilled chicken. my gosh. I was up in Brisbane the other day and I had one of these and it was so delicious. was, what was it? was like shredded chicken.

mixed with, I don't even know what it was doing, so I could probably find the ingredients, but it was like full of coriander and mint and lime and goodness, what was it? was kind of like a soft tender bamboo, just delicious. So like a Thai salad with grilled chicken would be a great option with a tangy lime dressing. As I said, like a Tom Yum style soup that's not so coconut milk or cream heavy. But you know, at the end of the day, I think Thai food is actually

Mexican Cuisine: A Balance of Nutritious Sides and Fats (12:10.41)
a reasonable option for takeaway, even if it's got the coconut milk or I mean the pad thai, again that is higher in, is more greasy. You just want to load that up with veggies to try and have the balance there. With Mexican cuisine, I would steer away from anything that's too heavy in like cream and cheese and unhealthy fats. So you know, your tacos that have been

fried, like your fried chilled tacos, the frying process adds unnecessary unhealthy fats. Like a cheese quesadilla, I've got to say it properly, is often loaded with cheese and then you've got sour cream and other things on top. mean, Mexican food can be very healthy, so you just want to make sure that you're opting for those tacos that are perhaps the soft tacos with grilled chicken.

And then you can load up on fresh veggies and salsa because they do have so many nutritious sides in Mexican. You've got corn, you've got the tomato salsa, you've got avocado, cucumber, and then they've got the red kidney beans or black beans. So there's a lot of really delicious sides and delicious vegetables that can be incorporated into Mexican cuisine. So it's looking for those instead of too much of just the cheese and the cream and the fried taco shells.

Because nachos can again be very laden with a lot of unhealthy fats. So we've got the corn chips and then you've got it loaded up with say perhaps mincemeat and then cheese and then sour cream. so you can make healthier versions of those, but yeah, it's just about being mindful of those healthier versions. So you could use baked tostadas. So you bake tortillas.

And then you could have black beans and salsa and guacamole and just a sprinkle of cheese rather than it being drenched in cheese and sour cream. You could do a chicken or veggie burrito. And that's another good option. So you could use a whole grain tortilla with grilled chicken or veggies, black beans, salsa, and you could skip the sour cream and reduce the cheese there. But really like the soft tortillas with like chicken, other lean proteins and load up on veggies and salsa is a great option for Mexican.

Healthy Burger Consumption Guidelines (14:22.54)
Or if you're the wrap again, loading up with those ingredients, including brown rice, rather than those wraps that have the hot chips stuffed in the middle of them. Again, that's probably what my family would love. In fact, I think that's what they've ordered before, but I prefer the one that's got the brown rice and of course, I love hot chips. could some big, big favorite of mine.

but not in the middle of a Mexican wrap, I must say. So yeah, just being mindful of trying to load up with the veggies as much as possible and swapping for the baked tortillas and tostadas or the soft tortillas rather than anything that's been too deep fried. Okay. Let's now move on to burgers. So when you're buying, whether it's at McDonald's or Hungry Jax or your local burger shop, just be mindful about

doubling and tripling up on the protein. And by that, I mean the patties or the bacon or the cheese or the egg. Because I mean, look, if you've got a little one that you're trying to beef up and actually get them to gain some more weight, then you want to be doubling and tripling the protein. It's not likely to be a healthy type of protein, especially when you're looking at adding extra bacon and cheese and whatnot. Because again,

then you're doubling or tripling the saturated fat and the salt. So if it was a quality beef patty or a quality chicken burger, then yeah, look, I think that's the best option. And always try to add salads, so lettuce, tomato, cucumber, whatever they want or whatever they will eat. Often when you're eating burgers, it's everything that goes with it as well. So how many fries, how much mayonnaise, how much tomato sauce.

how much soft drink or milkshake goes with the burger. So it's the whole complete meal. And look, you can certainly make healthy choices if you're going through the drive -through. Say you're at McDonald's, you don't get a drink, you get water. Because often with the happy meals and what other kids, you can choose your drink, whether it's like a soft drink or maybe juice or water. So you can definitely just say, look, we're getting it, we're getting takeaway, but we're just getting water.

Reducing Sugar in Meal Consumption(16:35.852)
And that way you can significantly reduce the sugar component of that meal, because there's already going to be sugar in the bun. I watched this really interesting YouTube video the other day, or maybe it on social media. Look, I can't remember where I saw it, but basically it was a man who had three packets of fries from, I think it was McDonald's. He had a small, a medium and a large. And he took that small packet of fries and he tipped.

it into the medium packet of fries and it looked like a medium packet of fries. And then he took that medium packet of fries and tipped it into the large packet of fries and again it filled it up. And what it looked like they've done is they have, even though the packaging is bigger on the outside like it's taller, it's actually narrower on the inside so the chips sit up higher.

So you're actually getting the same amount of fries in a small, a medium and large. So interesting. If anyone does that experiment and they go and buy a small and a medium and a large and they weigh it and the chips are the same, then let me know because it was a really interesting thing that I saw and I was like, wow, that's a very clever way for McDonald's to make a lot more money on the same amount of fries. yeah. So look, whether you actually are getting more fries in the medium and the large.

Probably just get the small fries, that's probably all they need anyway. And look, it's probably the same. We just say to them that. Say, look, Corina told me that the small is the same as the medium and the large anyway. So let's just pay for the small. That could be your way around it. But just be really mindful of the, the sides that go with it. So if you're at a burger shop, again, just watching out for the drinks and then the desserts that go with it. Cause often it's a special treat night. so.

When you open the floodgates, I've take away often then that comes with dessert as well. It depends on the family, but yeah, it's something that will often happen. And so it's just about being mindful of all the extras that go with it to really overload the sugar and the unhealthy fats. But definitely doubling and tripling up on those unhealthy proteins like bacon. Fried eggs are still a healthy protein. It's probably the bacon and the cheese are the ones that I'd just be eliminating as much as possible.

Ordering Food in a Burger Shop (18:54.774)
So what would I order if I went into a burger shop? I would go for a grilled chicken burger. I think that's a better option. And I would go for lettuce and tomato and beetroot and mayonnaise because I do love mayonnaise. So that's what I would go for. I would still eat fries because I love fries. You just need to watch, I guess, how many fries you eat. But I definitely wouldn't buy soft drinks for the kids. They would be like, no, we're getting water.

If they really twisted my arm and if we were in a pub, then I'd say, yeah, you can have like an orange juice. There has been times when my 10 year old has a bit of lemonade, but I'm getting stricter again. I was getting a bit soft there for a while. He just feels so bad when all the friends are doing it and you just think, just let him do it. But yeah, he actually gets a little bit of sore tummy afterwards sometimes. So I'm thinking, it's probably not the best for him anyway. So I'll kind of try and come at it from that angle as well. Like you might get a sore tummy.

So yeah, as much as possible, just go for water. If you were to buy fish and chips, again, if it's sometimes food, enjoy the battered fish and chips, right? But if it was something that they weren't really fussed, whether they went for the beer battered or the battered fish or the grilled fish, then just go the grilled. And maybe some families just go, you know what, I'm not even going to get them used to the battered fish. We're just going to go for grilled fish and chips because you're still getting the fried.

chips anyway, so maybe you just choose grilled fish and fried chips. And then again, the mayonnaise is often higher in fat, but you know what? Who doesn't love hot chips and mayonnaise? I'm sounding very Dutch now, but my gosh, it's delicious. Even when I roast my potatoes at home, I just absolutely love smothering them in mayonnaise. I really need to get back to Amsterdam and just smash out some more potatoes and mayonnaise because it's so yummy. So again.

It's a treat food. It's a sometimes food. So have your mayonnaise. I'm not going to say swap it for like a tartare sauce. mean, unless you really want to, you can, you could swap it for a yogurt based sauce rather than mayonnaise. But at the end of the day, I'm also all for enjoying food, but just having those treats sometimes. Okay. Moving on to a very popular cuisine in our children these days, and that is sushi. So with sushi, it is very carb heavy, generally.

Sushi as a Healthy Snack Option (21:15.52)
most of the time, unless you're going for like a big chunk of salmon or you're in a restaurant and you're getting like, you know, kingfish sashimi or something like that. But a lot of the Japanese foods are very carb heavy, especially sushi. And in that sense, it's still fine. And it's still, think, a healthy option for kids far better than going and getting a packet of hot chips or, you know, hot dough. So I must say that is a very big weakness of mine. But anyway.

I digress very quickly from sushi to hot donuts, but back to sushi, tempura rolls, where you've got the deep fried ingredients do add extra calories and unhealthy fats. Now look, my daughter does go for that and she enjoys that. So I need to try and, you know, sawing her back to her avocado and cucumber. look, sometimes if they don't have the tempura, then she will go for the avocado or cucumber. But I'm thinking I need to sort of push her back towards that way a little more often.

I haven't got them onto brown rice yet, I'd like to do that. They're on the white rice. The rice, the sushi rice is usually mixed with the sushi seasoning and that often will be a combination of vinegar and sugar. Now my members in my membership have access to all my recipes and sushi is in there, my Narrating Kids membership. So yeah, go ahead if you're one of my members and you're listening, go ahead and make it.

And you can get that sushi seasoning from the supermarket or you can make it yourself with a combination of vinegar and sugar. And I've got that recipe for you up on my website, but on the whole, think sushi is still a reasonably healthy option as a snack option is that, you know, on the go instead of grabbing more junk food. think, you know, vegetable based sushi is still very healthy. You've got the nori roll, like the seaweed outer, and that's a rich source of iodine. So.

I think sushi is still a good option, but just be really mindful of the deep fried ingredients and things like the spicy mayo rolls and the sushi with cream cheese, because then you just got a lot of fat and rice and you don't really have much nutrition. You don't have avocado, you don't have salmon, you don't have tuna. You really just got a lot of fat and a of rice. It's better to go for something with a bit more nutrition. So like a simple nilgiri or sashimi is just, you know, fish and rice alone and some

Sushi Recipes for Kids (23:36.11)
Kids quite like that where you've got the little rice mound and then the fish over the top. But you can definitely just go for the little cucumber mini rolls, baby cucumber rolls, the baby avocado rolls. Brown rice sushi, if you can, would be better for the kids if they'll eat it. So like a veggie, like a brown rice avocado sushi would be one of the best options because you're getting brown rice, you're getting healthy fats or brown rice with tuna or salmon.

or chinner and avocado, brown rice or salmon and avocado, they're all really good options for sushi. And of course, last but not least, edamame. How good are edamame? Edamame are like a super food. They are so nutritious. So they're high in protein. They're high in fiber. They're a great vegetarian protein. They've got iron. They're such a good food. So yeah.

As much edamame as your child would like to eat. I would always serve edamame if they're an edamame fan. And at the sushi shop, you buy them in the pods themselves, but then at home, you can buy them already as the little beans. And edamame are immature soybeans, so they just haven't ripened up yet. So edamame are super nutritious and a great option when you're eating sushi. And a bit of trivia for you, I've just Googled it.

Australia's number one most ordered takeaway dish is the grilled chicken burrito from Guzman and Gomez. It was the most ordered takeaway dish in Australia. that's 2018. Come on. Give me some more pop - give me some more recent data. But looking at it, you know, some of the other winners were Zambrero, burrito from there. There's a lot of popular burritos.

Hokey bowls are actually a really good option. The number one takeaway food in Australia in let's say 2023. Well, it looks like Guzman and Gomez is still up there. I reckon they're number one. Let's have a look, 2023. So we've got fish and chips, grilled chicken burrito from Guzman and Gomez, the OG from Fish Bowl in Sydney, beer -battered fries, Melbourne.

Australian Food Consumption Trends (25:57.55)
Tommy the Chook from Boss Burger in Geelong. Chicken Schnitzel from Schnitz in Wollongong. Classic burrito from Zambrero in Adelaide. Okay, and there's some other stats looking at the number of Australians aged 14 plus who ate or had takeaway in an average of four weeks. And this was in 2020, so a couple of years ago.

8 million had had McDonald's, 6 .8 million KFC, 4 .2 million Hungry Jacks, 4 .1 Dominos. I don't know if Dominos do with thin crust, they probably do. Hopefully they do. I think Subway is quite a good option actually, because I think you can load up the salad there. Red Rooster, 2 .15 million, Nando's 1 .2, Grilled 1 .1, Guzman and Gomez 1 million, Pete to Hut 1 million.

Yeah, so interesting. And look, I think in terms of stats, the consumption of convenience foods is only going to increase further because we are so busy these days. We seem to be working harder than ever. We seem to be relying on convenience foods more than ever. And so I can't see those trends reducing. I see them increasing or staying the same because I feel like we do rely on those foods.

because we're so busy. And look, I think it's fine to have that balance of home cooked meals and takeaway foods, but it's about having the balance. And I think really, I mean, there's some weeks where our family would have takeaway foods more than once a week. And I would say that I have to confess there's been times when we may have relied on it like three times a week, but it wouldn't be the norm. it would be the anomaly.

Most of the time I'd say at the moment we would have takeaway baby once a week because I think that's, it's, well, A, you're generally going to get healthier food when it's cooked at home and B, it's expensive. I haven't actually done Indian, sorry, I should throw Indian into the mix because Indian is another common one and we do often get Indian, but I was just thinking about our Indian bill. Our Indian bill is often close to a hundred dollars, but that's a treat for us. we...

Indian Food and Its Balance (28:13.1)
We love it. And definitely in winter, we love it. Like the kids love a good buttered chicken. I love a good dhal. Everyone loves a good naan. So yeah, with Indian, I think it's about trying to, again, choose vegetable dishes as much as possible. What I love about Indian is it's got a lot of spices. Just stay away from anything that's too creamy. If you're worried about saturated fats, go for more dairy based.

grilled options rather than anything that's drowning in the creamy sauce. But having said that, often though you ground up cashews and cashews are very healthy. Read the ingredients, but always try to include our lean protein and lots of veggies in the dish. If you're going for something like a butter chicken, which I would say 90 % of kids would love to order, try and get some veggies on the side or perhaps chop up some capsicum and carrot on the side.

when you serve Indian at home. But if you're eating in a restaurant, of course, you're not going to pull them out of your bag and say, do you mind if we just pop our little bowl of salad, our little tupperware container of chopped carrot on the table? No, you're not going to do that. But you might order a dish that's got veggies in it. You just have to make sure that some of these vegetable dishes are very spicy and very delicious, but sometimes for kids it can be too much. So yeah, when you're eating out with Indian, again, the roti, very

oily, very fried, but delicious. So it's really that balance. And if it's, as I said, if it's a treat, go for it. Don't restrict it because you want to be able to enjoy the food. But if it's becoming very regular and you're having these takeaway foods, you know, three nights a week, then that's when I think you need to just be mindful about making sure that you're not always getting the really high fat, really oily, cheesy, creamy options, because that's not healthy for anybody. All right. I think.

I will leave it there. I think we've covered a lot of the delicious takeaway options. And yeah, look, don't feel bad if you are getting takeaway three or four times a week at the moment and life is chaotic because that's where you're at. It is often more costly unless it's McDonald's because McDonald's is very cheap compared to what healthy food costs. my advice would be if you are getting takeaway

Promoting Healthy Family Habits (30:33.794)
you know, at least three times a week, try and pull it back a little bit and perhaps make some home cooked meals. So things like baked beans on toast, eggs on toast, they're going to be much more nutritious options than going through the drive through a McDonald's. And just say to the kids, this is a treat. This is a sometimes food. This is not, you know, twice a week when we're coming home late from sport and I haven't got dinner sorted.

And if you are currently doing those two or three times a week, then yeah, just encourage you to grab a couple of tins of baked beans, grab a carton of eggs and grab some toast and, and literally just do beans on toast, eggs on toast. You could just do a side of like carrot and cucumber or, you know, a bit of red capsicum. It doesn't have to be fancy, but that's going to be a better option because we can just fall into these habits. And again, there's no judgment because life just gets away from us sometimes, but it's about.

kind of just taking that 30 ,000 foot view and going, right, what are we doing at the moment? And is it what we want to be doing or what's one simple thing that we could change to improve the health of our family or improve what our family is eating? And if you can just take a couple of minutes, I mean, the fact that you've listened to this podcast is fantastic because you're already invested in your family's health.

And if you can just, while you're driving or while you're putting out the washing or whatever, if you can just take a couple of minutes and think, right, what's one small change we can make that done consistently will make a big difference because that's exactly what you need to do. Small, simple changes done over the weeks and the months and the years make a gigantic difference. Okay. Really tremendous, significant difference. And it doesn't seem big, but it becomes big.

It's a bit like depositing money in the bank, right? Just little deposits done consistently over the weeks and months and years end up adding up to huge amounts. So same thing here with habits, it's just about forming those really simple but highly effective habits that will accumulate over the years. So I encourage you just to think of one, one simple change that you can make to your family's week, whether it's reducing the frequency of takeaway, whether it's just making a simple swap to

The Easy Feed Podcast Episode Summary (32:53.302)
water instead of soft drinks or not adding the bacon and the cheese to the burger or trying the grilled fish or swapping out the pad thai for something else. Just one simple thing that you can do but done consistently will make a big difference. So I'm always here just to make things easier for you and just to give you the knowledge because knowledge is power. I'm never here to judge, never here to be critical because everyone's in a different place with their life and their busyness and their kids age and their...

confidence in the kitchen and how much time they've got and how much money they've got. So there's absolutely no judgment. You've just got to look at where you're at and work out some simple tweaks that you can make for your family to make things better. So I hope that's helped you. Please leave me a review. I'd love to hear how you're enjoying the podcast episodes of The Easy Feed. Reach out to me on the gram. I'm also on the web, nourishwithcarina .com.

you want to join me inside nourishing kids, head to my website and you can find the links to click through. We're having so much fun. We're connecting now every two weeks, having live calls and we're chatting pretty much daily in our private chat group. And it's a lot of fun and we're having some really awesome wins with the mums in the group and what the kids are eating. So it's great.

Well, we've been chatting a lot actually lately about label reading and food additives and colors and trying to really choose healthier snack options for our kids because it's a bit of a minefield at the moment. If you've been listening to what's been going on with toddler snacks and labeling in Australia. Anyway, that's a whole nother topic. think I've probably already recorded a podcast on that. If you flicked back through my previous episodes, you'll find some juicy topics there, but

Yeah, that's been a lot of good chat in group lately about a whole lot of things. So anyway, I will go because I now need to head off to my children's school to pick them up. I hope you have a great week and we'll chat to you soon. Bye for now.