Today’s episode is part of our series of how to get kids to eat more of something, and today it’s the turn of pulses or legumes, so beans, lentils and peas.

I don’t think I need to explain in too much detail why it’s great to help kids to like legumes. So you want to have more pulses in your family’s food, but how to get your child to accept them? As with our other epsiodes on this, we’re not actually aiming to get our kids to do anything. We are finding ways to give children opportunities to build familiarity with a food and try it when they feel comfortable, or building foods into or alongside familiar foods so they feel comfortable to eat.

In this episode Joanne gives some suggestions of dishes where the beans or lentils are obvious to see and taste, and some where they are mixed or blended in so their texture might be easier to cope with for some children. But as usual even when we are mixing things in together, the idea is not to hide them and pretend they are not there, if asked you can always tell the truth or allow them to help to prep them. Hiding and sneaking only builds distrust. But there is nothing wrong with blending or mixing things in to make foods easier to approach and just be honest if asked.

The episode gives lots of ways to get more beans, lentils and peas into your family’s food. And there are lots of recipes in the shownotes.

Links in this episode:

Why beans are so good for us: https://foodfoundation.org.uk/sites/default/files/2025-10/TFF_Beans%20Facts_DIGITAL_0.pdf

Food Foundation Bang In Some Beans campaign: https://foodfoundation.org.uk/initiatives/bang-in-some-beans

Recipe ideas in the shownotes at: https://thefoodies.org/ffk101

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

In this episode of the Food for Kids podcast, Joanne shares simple, family-friendly meal ideas using seasonal produce available in May. The focus is on easy-to-make recipes that require minimal prep time, making them perfect for busy families. Joanne discusses three main meals, a dessert, and a quick snack, all utilizing fresh ingredients that are in season. She gives suggestions on adapting recipes to suit children's tastes and some swap ideas too.

Links to all the recipe ideas are in the shownotes at https://thefoodies.org/ffk100

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

On today’s show we are talking about how to support other people’s children who have allergies. We have had a couple of episodes about what to do if your child invites a friend home who has a special diet, we looked at coeliac disease in episode 10 and plant based or vegan diets in episode 41.

But today I wanted to look not only at inviting a child home for tea who has an allergy but also at the more specific topic of how to include a child with an allergy in a birthday party or event. It can be pretty nerve wracking entertaining other people’s children and especially if any of them have medical issues or allergies and you always want to do things safely and kindly.

Sara is a highly specialist allergy dietitian with over 11 years’ experience, who has worked at two NHS UK allergy centres of excellence: St Thomas’ Hospital in London and Southampton. She helped establish the first adult allergy dietitian service in Southampton and now specialises in supporting children with allergies, both within the NHS and privately through her company, YNRD Ltd. She has taught and marked on the Southampton Allergy MSc and taught allergy on the Dietetics MSc at King’s College London. She has also worked in CAMHS with children and adolescents with eating disorders, and is passionate about children’s nutrition, accurate allergy diagnosis, safe avoidance and reintroduction where possible, and providing realistic nutrition advice that supports a healthy relationship with food.

Links in this episode:

Sara's website: https://www.ynrd.co.uk

Sara's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saradawsondietitian/

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

In this episode, Joanne runs through a list of fruits and vegetables which are in season in the UK in May, and offers tips for getting children to try each of them. There is also a short list of imported foods that are currently in season.

This will be useful if you want to increase your intake of seasonal fruits and vegetables, and want some ideas for helping to build your child's familiarity with them, whether they eat the end result or not!

Links in this episode:

List of foods in season in ​May - www.thefoodies.org/seasonal/​may-food-ideas/

Printables of spring seasonal foods: https://thefoodiesbooks.com/product/spring-seasonal-food-printables

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

Today is the second of our two parter about preparing a child to feed themselves if they go to university or another post 18 route that requires living in dorms or shared accommodation.

The two episodes will run slightly long, to pack everything in without running to multiple episodes so please excuse the slightly longer run time than usual.

Joanne covers two different aspects, the catered route where you pay in your accommodation fees to include some or all of your food, and then the self catering route where some cooking facilities are provided and you make your own meals. For these episodes Joanne talks to her two grown up children Jacob and Anna, who both finished university in the last couple of years.

In this second episode it's an interview with Anna about her first two years in shared self catering flats living with strangers. We talk about the gap between students' ideas of how they think they are going to cook for themselves, and the reality when you have very little space, very little time and have to navigate other people and their cleanliness habits.

Links in this episode:

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

Today is the first of a two parter about preparing a child to feed themselves if they go to university or another post 18 route that requires living in dorms or shared accommodation.

The two episodes will run slightly long, to pack everything in without running to multiple episodes so please excuse the slightly longer run time than usual.

Joanne is going to be talking about two different aspects, the catered route where you pay in your accommodation fees to include some or all of your food, and then the self catering route where some cooking facilities are provided and you make your own meals. For these episodes Joanne talks to her two grown up children Jacob and Anna, who both finished university in the last couple of years.

In this first episode it's an interview with Jacob about his first year at uni when he lived on campus in a university where everyone who is on campus is fully catered. The brochure and the open days looked like a great set up, but for a bunch of reasons, he found the reality of it pretty tricky.

Links in this episode:

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

On today’s episode we are going to be focusing on food for teenagers, with dietitian Jo Scott.

We all have a general idea that when kids reach puberty and through their teens their eating might change, we know they will probably eat a lot more, they might be more independent and bolshy about their food choices, they might eat more socially and they might worry about their appearance and fitting in more and this might lead to them making different food choices.

But how do we know what they need as they go through this incredibly demanding time and how do we help them sift through all the misinformation on social media and find a good relationship with food for the future as they get ready to look after themselves?

Joanne is a paediatric dietitian with over 13 years of experience. She works in one of the largest children’s hospitals in UK and also has a busy private clinic. Outside of this she is a mother to 2 children and so understands first hand the complexities and practicalities of feeding a child. Although she works with lots of age groups, she posts primarily about teenage nutrition online, as she feels this area can be overlooked.

Links in this episode:

Jo's practice website: https://midlandhealth.co.uk/general-paediatrics/diet/

Jo's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theteendietitian

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat

This episode is part of a monthly series where Joanne runs through some ideas to reduce food waste and save money by storing foods well and using them up effectively.

This episode is about rhubarb so there some ideas about how to store rhubarb to make it last longer, and stop it going off. This includes how to store it in the kitchen, how to freeze it and how to dry it.

And then there are a few good ideas on how to use up leftover rhubarb - either surplus from a recipe or coming out of the garden.

The episode includes our monthly Q&A with Kate Hall from The Full Freezer on how to freeze rhubarb.

Links in this episode:

Kate’s Can I Freeze It? Video on rhubarb: https://www.instagram.com/canifreezeit/reel/CeWw1OLIDDm/

Kate's website: https://www.thefullfreezer.com

Freezing rhubarb in syrup: https://rootsy.org/freezing-rhubarb/

Links to recipe suggestions mentioned in the episode are in the shownotes at https://www.thefoodies.org/ffk94/

Music "Happy Days" by Simon Folwar via Uppbeat