I fell back in love with Sainsbury’s over Christmas – their stuff was great quality and just seemed that cut above the other supermarket offerings – and I’ve been stocking up there every week since then as a result. So I was thrilled to be asked if Child 2 and I would do a bit of cooking in support of Sainsbury’s Active Kids vouchers. If, like me, you are tremendously sporty (excuse ME, what’s all that hysterical coughing at the back there?) then you’ll see why I was an easy fit with such athletic luminaries as swimmer Ellie Simmonds, footballing ace Daniel Sturridge, Sprinter Johnny Peacock and footie star Lucy Bronze.
Ok then, I am probably not the most physical person in the world – but I have collected my not insubstantial weight in Active Kids vouchers at the Sainsbury’s checkout over the years. My children and stepchildren have all dutifully handed stacks of these in at school and traded them for plenty of good stuff.
This year, the emphasis is on eating right, keeping moving and, cruically, making sure that kids have the right information about food and healthy eating choices, after a survey for Active Kids showed some really shocking statistics about 11-14-year olds:
- Over one fifth of kids this age refer to social media, YouTube stars and bloggers to find information on healthy eating;
- 43% of kids think that cutting out a food group will lead to a healthy lifestyle;
- 41% of kids believe they should ‘probably do more’ when it comes to exercise.
Just to be clear – that basically means that a lot of our children are getting nutritional advice from the Kardashians, while glued to their mobile phones and not moving from the sofa all day long. Yep. It’s that bad.
So this year’s Active Kids vouchers can be swapped for really useful things like cookery equipment, games about nutrition, family activities like the Tastebuddies challenge (to get children trying new things), plus of course loads of sports equipment and activities. Have a look at everything on offer here.
To do our own bit for Active Kids, Child 2 and I decided to prepare a meal for the whole family including every single one of our 5 a day in one fell swoop. The menu was steak with a mushroom and pepper sauce, salad with rocket, lettuce, baby spinach leaves, tomatoes and avocados, puy lentils with basil and parsley dressing, and a pudding of pineapple, satsuma and mango to finish. As always, I had an ulterior motive – Child 2 will be off to uni in the autumn and, at the moment, the only thing she can cook is toast. She needs a few more culinary strings to her bow, and this was a great way of making sure she gets onto a health eating track right from the start. As you can see, she did us proud and there were well-cleaned plates all round at the end of the meal.
Thank you to Sainsbury’s Active Kids for a lovely family dinner, and I hope you all enjoy your next Sainsbury’s cookery session as much as we did.