The Foodie Yocal, drawing to an end...

This is my final blog post as The Foodie Yocal..... 

My name is Danielle and I have been on a social media adventure for the past 6 months, social media live training with a company called Digital Mums who have been training me to become a social media manager. The Foodie Yocal was created and loved by me, in order to enable my learning, as well as getting to know and work with some great businesses in the local area. Food is a passion so tying these two projects together has been a dream, albeit hard work.

Although I am sad to be saying goodbye after all the hard work, I am slightly sadder that I will no longer be digitally supporting those who are doing a great job within the food industry, whether it be great local fresh produce shops, amazing food in restaurants and cafés or those helping to educate the future generations of parents and children by providing great articles or superb, varied, adventurous and healthy school dinners and food education for all children from toddlers to teenagers.

The Foodie Yocal has been an amazing food education for me as well as my followers.  Bringing up a child healthily and creating good, healthy eating habits everyday is not easy but being educated is the first step to making it simple. 

For those amazing businesses in Whitstable and surrounds, I hope that my work has brought more interest in shopping locally, getting the kids helping to shop and cooking from scratch using great local produce.  I am certainly living it more than I was 6 months ago! 

So, what is the future?  Well, The Foodie Yocal on Twitter and Instagram has already faded, as these are two very high maintenance channels but I will continue to post now and again on Facebook, as I come across any articles that you may find interesting or useful. 

Keep shopping locally, keep eating well, keep buying local produce and cooking from scratch, keep encouraging your children to eat well and low on sugar! It's the best for you and your local community.

For me, the future will be working freelance from home, running the social media for small businesses. I am just beginning my first small contract with a locally run business and by the end of the summer (once my son starts school) I will start to look into expanding to other businesses. If you would like me to run an eye over how you are running your company's social media, I would be happy to do so, with no commitment.  You have all been part of my learning journey! Thank you...Danielle x

Thank you!

Danielle Biasutti 

daniellebiasu@gmail.com

Twitter @DanielleBiasu

Sainsbury Local just opened on our highstreet - friend or foe?

This is a controversial subject and I know that opinions will really vary.  I am not expecting everyone to agree with me. 

Sainsbury Local has just opened up on our high street, 100 metres from my house.  A few metres from my independent butcher and a few more metres from my independent greengrocer and independent health food shop.  A lot of people up in arms.  We live in a small town and already have two small Co-ops, a small Morrison (now 'MyLocal'), Iceland and Tesco Express not far away.  The large Tesco and Sainsbury are less than ten mins in the car.  Just writing this down it does seem a lot...  However, I am not convinced that this is necessarily a threat to the local independent shops.  There are people who will only buy prepackaged meat or their fruit and veg from the supermarket but there are so many of us that love the fresher, more local produce and the banter with owners or committed shop assistants whilst shopping locally.  

A few days ago I popped in to this Sainsbury Local with my 'Buy Local' bag and had a sudden crisis that I was going against my message, that I was being dishonest about my beliefs or just being a total hypocrite.  It took a while for me to work out what I was most concerned about and whether it was, in fact, ok to do some shopping in a chain mini supermarket with all my favourite independent shops surrounding me. 

For me the arrival of Sainsbury Local is great. I don't see it as a threat. There are certain products that we all generally only buy from a supermarket, for me it's  Weetabix, houmous (unless I make it), Milk, Yoghurt, frozen peas etc and when I run out I have to make a trip out of town in the car because I don't like the other mini supermarkets.  Once I am there it feels like I am in a vortex...my mind goes blank, I fill up a trolley and come out with a huge bill.  More often than not, all my good intentions of buying my meat from the butcher and my veg from the greengrocer go out of the window once I see a counter full of apples in bags and so forth.  The three year old is at nursery, this is my chance to shop. I don't have to struggle with him wanting to run around, steal a Lindt chocolate bunny or have a tantrum because I won't let him have a ride on Thomas.  My time is limited and I can shove it all in the trolley, pay and go and it's done for the week.   I get home, I have too much shopping to fit in my fridge and overflowing freezer and I haven't supported my local community.  So, for me the opening of this Sainsbury Local means that I can now pick up bits and bobs during the week that save me a trip out of town.  It will keep me local, keep me shopping in the greengrocer and the local butcher and the health food shop rather than take me away.  I wouldn't choose to get my meat from Sainsbury rather than the butcher.  It is a completely different quality.  I will still have to go out of town to shop once in a while, that's for sure but I say hooray for Sainsbury Local, you have made my life and community choices easier!

Think about how you shop.  Could you find a better solution to driving out of town to shop?  Make a list. How much shopping could you do on the high street?  Here  is a link to a menu planning website, which could help you to work out what you need for the week and then decide where you could buy the products. http://www.athriftymrs.com/2013/06/free-meal-plan-printables.html  I bet you can get more on the high street than you realise.  I don't find it more expensive as is commonly believed.  I buy less and waste less because I am not buying prepackaged goods. I buy what I need.  I don't think we should feel guilty about using a mix of independent shops and 'mini supermarkets'  I believe they could help the 'shop local' message rather than sabotage it. 

What do you think?

#KeepYaPoundsLocal

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Sugar and food education

You may have noticed that my campaign seems to be moving away from cooking seasonal foods, shopping locally and reducing food waste to an increased focus on sugar, food education and getting children helping with food preparation, shopping and generally more interested in the food that they eat. Initially this was not intentional but as the campaign has developed over the weeks, the focus in the news has been heavily based on obesity, children's diets and their high consumption of sugary foods. This is a great interest of mine.  I will continue with the other subjects too as they are all important to me as it is all incredibly relevant in the subject of food education and how our children see and understand what goes into their bodies. 

With a three and a half year old at nursery who will start school in September, I am becoming increasingly aware of how much his diet is changing and potentially could dramatically change when he is out of my care.  I managed to shelter him more or less until he was three from sweets and lollypops and only having some chocolate at Easter.  Now, it is difficult to go to the supermarket without a fight every time he sees anything vaguely resembling a sweet packet.  A fight isn't the answer and I do allow sweet treats but sometimes I am struggling to know how to deal with it. 

The incessant selling and promoting of processed cupcakes, decorated biscuits, sweets and chocolates that appear at nursery events is alarming. Cooking, as part of the nursery activities I actively encourage but what they produce is always along the same line.  It's cheap to produce sugary treats and nursery doesn't have much money.  I do wonder though why they can't just make cheese scones or something similar, for a change.

I have recently downloaded the Change4Life Sugar Smart app which is pretty good for gauging how many sugar lumps are in foods.  In a lot of cases it is alarming and if you read my last blog post about my Toblerone binge you will see that we as adults could really benefit from using this app too!

Food education does seem to be improving in schools however, which gives me some hope that when out of the home my son will continue learning the right way. 

I still believe that the best way to teach children is in the home, which is why I have created the #KidsInTheKitchenChallenge.  The aim is to promote getting our children involved in cooking at home depending on their age, whether it's, watching, mixing, chopping, stirring, adding.... it all helps.  Children from a young age love watching and helping with food preparation.  Let's embrace that and teach them about their food and how it is prepared.  Many parents find that picky children really benefit from this too, as they start to get involved and see how their meal develops.  

Equally getting children involved in shopping for the food locally is also a great education for them. Ask them to help you choose the fruit and veg, show them the meat in the butchers (my butcher gave my son a trotter to give to his dad...he thought this was brilliant!), let them smell the bakers shop and the fish market (saying that I used to have to stand outside the fish monger as a child because it use to make me retch!). Generally though, this should be a positive experience.  

I would like to add finally that you don't have to do this every meal or every time you go shopping but just make a point of adding it into their life.  I have found it very difficult over the past year to take my 3 year old shopping.  Supermarkets were a nightmare because he wanted to get out the trolly and walk...and then run.  Locally I had to take him in the pushchair otherwise he was all over the place (and often still is). Once, when he was two and a half he reached out to get an apple in the greengrocer and tipped out of his pushchair so that he was on his hands and knees and the Maclaren pushchair was on his back...like a turtle!  He came out happy after the owners sent him out with an apple, grapes, a banana and some strawberries...I vowed to leave him at home next time...  

It is only now, at three and a half that I have reintroduced him to shopping again.  I'm being brave and facing my fears.  He may be a master vegetable eater but I still need to do more with the food education and practice what I preach!  Why don't you do the same? 
Get onto the highstreet and buy local. 

Join us in the #KidsInTheKitchenChallenge and #BuyLocalChallenge.  

Why not do tell us what you are doing? or show us a photo or a video and then nominate a friend or grandma!?

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Sugar - My disastrous binge and some more thoughts

With all this Healthy food preaching, I would like to make it clear that I am not self righteous. I eat too much sugar myself (although as I've said before, I don't buy many processed foods).  I have sugar in my tea and coffee. I love milk chocolate and cake...and biscuits.  I have tried to give up sugar in my tea but I then just stop drinking it and then eat more chocolate to compensate. It's an addiction, I know this and for that reason I'd like to reduce. 

I had my NHS health check (for the over 40's) the other day and I was very low risk of everything, which was great but I am not sure how clear a picture they get of a person.  I eat healthily, I generally don't consume much sugar on an average day.  My tea and coffees amount to around 2 teaspoons a day and my daily food sugar consumption is pretty low but what is not taken into account is the female monthly binge on chocolate for instance.  This happened to me the evening of my health check and the day after.  

My lovely husband thought that as a treat he would buy me a medium size bar of Toblerone, which he'd seen on offer whilst picking up some milk. I offered him some and he had one, maybe two triangles.  I consumed three that evening. I could have had more but it was already late.  The next day I was busy working and kept nipping back for more, feeling the need for a pick-me-up.  Lunch time came and went and I picked at some more.  Eventually I realised I needed some lunch and must stop eating chocolate.   The same afternoon I downloaded the @sugarsmart app from Change4Life to experiment for my campaign.  Knowing that my cupboards have very little inside that is in their database I started with the Toblerone.  I was shocked....I was appalled....I stopped eating it immediately and asked my husband to remove it or hide it from me.  In each triangle there is 2.2 sugar cubes.  That's about 2 level teaspoons of sugar.  In around 15 hours I ate about 16 teaspoons of sugar.  Something like Toblerone isn't just chocolate, it has the nougat bits inside, which increase the sugar but this makes it even more addictive. 

I have had a wake up call.  I know that on the average day I don't consume a huge amount of sugar but on days like the 'Toblerone day' I have no control. No will power.  Just sugar addiction. 

Yesterday, a friend and I tried the app in her kitchen.  She had a few more applicable products, but not many. Again, it was pretty shocking to see how much sugar there is in seemingly everyday products and 'healthyish' cereals. 

What we concluded (for now) though was that as two mum's who cook from scratch most of the time, the 'occasional' convenience food for that late arrival at tea time is fine.  The days that we will need to monitor are those where they have been with a parent or grandparent who doesn't follow our way of dealing with food or a day of treats.  A hot chocolate, a lolly, a piece of cake, a couple of biscuits....all of those could tip their sugar levels over the edge or way over the edge depending whether they have one or two or more treats.  But, as a wise friend of mine once said to me, as long as you are cooking from scratch, teaching them about food and sugar and not consuming much at home, then the days that are overloaded with sugar will balance out over a week.  Look at the whole week, not just the day.  

I think this is good advice....although I don't think that justifies my Toblerone binge!

I would recommend downloading the app as you may think that you are sugar smart already but like us you might be frightening surprised. 

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Visit The Foodie Yocal's profile on Pinterest. Find some great seasonal recipes here.

January thoughts

So, we are heading towards the end of January. I didn't make any resolutions.  I never do. I'm more of a 'do it for the right reason at the right time' kind of girl rather than 'because it's the 1st of January'.  In the same way I have never dieted, I just make changes to my diet by making more healthy choices. 

In the past couple of weeks I have looked at adding more varied seasonal vegetables into my diet and buying them locally.

I love good healthy food but I didn't grow up loving vegetables like my little boy does.  I grew up in the 70's with a mother who couldn't cook when she got married (she was taught by my dad!) and the vegetables were more often than not, overcooked.  Food was generally very English, meat and two veg.  I loved meat but I only really liked raw veg.  In fact, given half the chance I would have happily eaten all my veg raw but the benefits of raw food were unknown and I was pretty much forced to eat my overcooked veg.  It was often minced in a Mouli-mix into my gravy so that I had fine green bits floating around in the now thick gravy otherwise I would retch over my dinner as I tried to eat them.  I should mention that for the past 20+ years my mum has been a FANTASTIC cook.  However, she feels proud that now, as an adult I eat 'everything' and more.  From my side I really don't think that this success is down to mum forcing me to eat overcooked veg!  Saying that, in spite of the rise of food technology and the influx of more processed foods around that time, we had only home cooked food prepared from scratch generally.  No spaghetti hoops or baked beans, no fish fingers or any of the other ready meals...just home made food.  Perhaps this is the good food education that I received and where mum can feel proud (although I am quite partial to a fish finger, particularly in a sandwich with crusty bread). 

Although I am now a great vegetable eater I don't often buy typically British winter veg like cabbage, sprouts, kale, parsnips, swede, cauliflower etc.  I would eat them with a Sunday roast (at my mum's....crunchily cooked nowadays) but wasn't interested enough to make them at home.  Rediscovering these veggies has been one of the best elements of my social media campaign so far.  Seasonal veg is by far better for us than imported veg.  For me and my tastes though, I often prefer to mix and match the seasonal veg with the imported...or use some great spices. 

My mission over the past couple of weeks has been to try new recipes for seasonal veg in order to make them less boring.  So what seasonal foods have I cooked and how?


CAULIFLOWER

 Cauli tossed in garlic and olive oil and topped with parmesan breadcrumbs (although I usually use Grana Padano as it's cheaper). Yummy...addictive. 












KALE  

Kale crisps...first impressions quite nice but edges get a bit dark almost a burnt taste. Second attempt better but wasn't sure about the after taste and green bits in my teeth.  Other than that pretty delicious.











Various varieties of kale added to an onion, garlic, olive oil, smoked bacon canellini beans and tomato.  Should steam kale first as it was still a bit chewy but delicious. 

BRUSSELS SPROUTS
Steamed in a little water in wok then olive oil added with garlic and cumin seeds to stir fry gently.  Add a little more water at the end if too crunchy still.  This also softens the cumin seeds. Delicious.  My three year old couldn't get enough. 















SWISS CHARD

Steamed until fairly soft and then ground rock salt, olive oil and lemon juice added. Simple and delish. 


















PURPLE SPROUTING BROCCOLI
In a delicious Gino D'Campo recipe for pasta with broccoli rabe (haven't found it here) where cherry tomatoes, lots of garlic and a little chilli are simmered in olive oil then poured over the pasta and broccoli. 















Purple sprouting gratin steamed or lightly boiled and then a béchamel sauce poured over the top which is then topped with cheese. 

















They have all been delicious and the best thing is that my son really enjoyed them too.

More seasonal veg to come this week and I'll be looking a bit further into the issue of children's food education and sugar...as well as my own sugar addiction.

Soon I will begin making pledges to the following issues and perhaps you'll think about joining me!

#EatSeasonal #KeepYaPoundsLocal #BuyLocal  #ReduceFoodWaste #TeachEmYoung #ReduceSugar

Follow @FoodieYocal

Visit The Foodie Yocal's profile on Pinterest. Find some great seasonal recipes here.

After Christmas lull - A slow start.

Happy 2016!

So, January has arrived, the holidays are over and now it's time to find some energy to ramp up my campaign.  

My Christmas holiday was away so I don't have an excess of food to use up for my food waste interest. Number 1 fail for my campaign.

I came home and immediately went straight out to the supermarket for 'all' of my groceries because it was convenient and I needed to get on with the unpacking, washing and cleaning before hurriedly settling down to some work.  So I've failed on the shopping locally then!  Number 2 fail for my campaign.

...and now I'm wondering why I am not feeling motivated!  

On a positive note I did however feel very disappointed at the dry bag of Kale that I bought from the supermarket and immediately went straight out and bought a beautiful fresh head from the local greengrocer.  I couldn't bear to throw out good food though so instead I found a great recipe for Kale crisps (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi9RFJ-soVc) and experimented with those, which were amazing. What this taught me was that we all need to go to the supermarket at some point in our busy lives for convenience...use it if you have to but admit defeat and pledge to try not to buy everything there and rejoice when you have the same discovery as I did, that buying local is so much more enjoyable, fresher and healthier. Just look at this kale!

The week did improve after all and I managed to get to the farmers market and also made a batch of basil pesto for the freezer....and it is the best pesto EVER.

So, other than shopping locally, eating seasonally and reducing food waste, what am I really interested in this January....what do I feel passionate about..what is bugging me that is constantly in the news in the food world...... 'Sugar' and particularly sugar and children.

I have a 3 year old who is increasingly interested in lollypops and chocolate and anything sweet. I have been fairly restrictive over the past 3 years with the attitude of 'what he doesn't know, he doesn't need' but now he is starting to discover and I know that restriction isn't the answer.   Christmas abroad was a disaster on the sugar front.  My little boy ate more biscuits and chocolate than he had ever had in his 3 & a half years.  Often he was able to self regulate but why is it that people think that it is a good idea to fill little mouths with so much sugar!?  As a parent of a boy who loves food and eats his veg as a priority, how can I start to teach him about sugar and how do I manage his intake without being too restrictive and having a counter effect?  If we eat very little processed food, am I over reacting to additional sugar intake?

This month I will be looking into sugar and food education for children #TeachEmYoung as well as maintaining my interest in #KeepYaPoundsLocal #EatSeasonal #EatWellNotDiet #WasteNot.  

Join me to find out more.  

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Visit The Foodie Yocal's profile on Pinterest.

The Foodie Yocal - Campaign for better eating.

This campaign is a project to encourage eating well and eating more seasonally where possible, as well as eating and shopping locally when time and budgets allow. This campaign is also about reducing food waste, reducing sugar in our diets and helping our children to take an interest in what they consume. We all have financial and time restrictions and it is not always possible to live up to our own high standards but with a little motivation and inspiration we hope to encourage more of you to...

#EatWell #EatSeasonally #KeepYaPoundsLocal #ReduceSugar #WasteNot #TeachEmYoung

Who are we?

We are a family living by the sea, in Whitstable, Kent.  As a family we eat well, we eat together and love food.  In our single days we travelled the world with our work and experienced food from all the continents visited.  We eat a huge variety of flavours and so does our 3 year old (and he 'loves' veg...yes, I am a lucky mum!).  

I have loved cooking since my university year abroad in the south of France in the 90's.  An area offering a wealth of colour, smells, flavours and local markets, which encouraged me to write my dissertation around the Mediterranean diet and it's correlation with lower rates or cancer and heart disease. I spent my time there in my make-shift kitchen entertaining friends with freshly cooked dishes...and my French wasn't too bad either...  

I continued to widen my cooking skills and flavours over the years, experimenting on friends and flatmates.  I certainly don't claim to be a master chef but I do love a big bubbling pot of scrumptiousness. Since I gave birth to my son though, the passion for cooking has wained slightly with the lack of energy, lack of time and lack of motivation. We eat very well still, don't get me wrong but the creativity and pleasure has faded.  I am on a mission to re-find that happiness in the kitchen.  

Nowadays, there are more issues to focus on than just what tastes good.  We are more aware of environmental issues, we are more aware of how our food is produced and what chemicals are put into or onto them.  We are also more aware that sugar, colour and flavourings are something to be kept to a minimum to prevent diabetes, obesity, hyperactivity and lowered concentration and that children need educating in the home about food to create and encourage a healthy, balanced future generation.  

So, this campaign gives you a wide variety of information around real food, seasonal eating and shopping locally.  It is about eating well, not dieting.  It is about health and enjoyment. It is about learning and teaching.  It is about loving food and passing on that love. 

In the next few weeks we will be launching a series of Pledges which you might like to follow and join. These are to keep us on track to a healthier, tastier and more conscious new year ahead.

I hope you will join us in our mission and perhaps enjoy discovering a new you too.

Happy eating!

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