Gillian Beattie (38) has been a vegetarian for 21 years and enjoys cooking healthy food for both her daughter aged 7 and her son aged 3.
What Gillian says
Why is healthy eating important to you and your family?
"Healthy eating is very important to our family because I want my children to understand to importance of eating healthy food and how it fuels your body. Also after receiving a kidney transplant in January of this year, I need to be aware more of what I’m eating; it has given me even more reason to eat healthy. I think nowadays a lot of food is processed and I like that when I cook something from scratch I know what we are eating."
Why did you want to become a healthy helper?
"I wanted to become a healthy helper for Eat Better Feel Better as I feel it’s really important to try and help others parents who might not know what’s healthy and what’s not. I hope I can help others by sharing some tips I’ve learned over the past few years including some healthy recipes which my family love."
Do you have any tips for families trying to eat healthier and on budget?
"I like to stick to a budget, as most of my friend’s do, so what I tend to do is make homemade soup, pasta sauce and fish pie, all great for freezing and saves anything going to waste. I also find doing a weekly planner really helps and I always look out for offers in the supermarket as things that can be going out of date can often be frozen."
Gillian's favourite recipe
"I absolutely love making the family veggie Bolognese. I make the sauce from scratch using lots of vegetables including tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms and use Quorn mince instead of meat. My kids absolutely love it; they always clear their plate!"
We also love the Eat Better Feel Better tomato pasta recipe - simple but very tasty!
Gillian's top tips
"Try and include a lot of bright colours in your recipes, it can make them look a lot more appetising for kids, for example yellow peppers, carrots etc."
"Plan your meals out every week using a meal planner, it saves time and also is a great way to get the kids involved in what you’re going to eat as a family."
"A lot of foods already have salt in them so don’t add anymore if you don’t have to."
