The Chip Family and the Apple Family

Sarah and I tend to think of ourselves as quite healthy. Healthy because we like fruit and vegetables, and cooking fresh food, and all that malarky. Quite healthy because we'll still eat a whole bag of Doritos watching Nashville given the chance. And we do eat a fair bit loads of cake.

So today we were headed to the supermarket to stock up after a week in Center Parcs - which was an ace time with friends, and some lovely food, but also a lot of biscuits/wine/cake - and chatting to Esther about having a healthy week. She said that she felt like one of the Chip Family.

Gratuitous Gorilla impression photo. No real reason for it.

For the uninitiated, there is a book called The Chip Family and The Apple Family, which was written and lovingly illustrated (in plasticine!) by a Scottish schoolgirl. Unfortunately I can't find a link to it for the life of me, so you'll just have to bear with me. The gist is that the Chips are unhealthy; toothaches, stomachaches, fatigue, it's a real horrorshow. Along come the Apple family to diagnose and solve their various ailments with fresh air, toothbrushing, exercise and healthy food.

For Esther to say that was concerning. She even asked to have no cheese on her pasta. She is four. Her life is fairly cheese-centric, so that one was a shocker.

We've resolved for this to be an Apple Family week. We went pretty veg-heavy with our trolley, and I've got a fairly vegtastic set of meals planned for this week. If you're interested -

Sun - Braised squid with chickpeas
Mon - Green lentil cottage pie
Tue - Bean chili wraps
Wed - Cheese ravioli with tomato sauce
Thurs - Vegetable noodle bowl
Fri - Spaghetti with sardines

We feel like we need to mix up Eliot's diet a bit too. We have become a bit addicted to the convenience of Ella's Kitchen pouches, but they're fairly pricy and he is comprehensively constipated. He seems to like most things we give him, we just need to be a bit more forward-thinking and get them made. So I've spent this evening making Annabel Karmel's ratatouille and cheesy biscuits - and popping in to watch Eurovision with Sarah, of course.

Does anybody have any healthy (and inexpensive) meals that kids like too? Let us know in the comments below. I'll let you know how our week goes.