Cindy’s Other Blog

Although overweight has many different causes, one thing that certainly doesn’t help is junk food. It’s not that junk food is a bad thing of itself, it’s just that a lot of people, especially children, eat it regularly.

The main problem isn’t even so much the junk food itself, but the lack of time for food preparation that sees stressed parents picking up or ordering in, instead of cooking. But as Jamie Oliver says, there is really no faster “fast food” than home-prepared food, because it takes longer to go and get or wait for purchased meals than it does to throw something exciting together in your own kitchen.

It’s not just that home-cooked meals are faster than buying junk food, it’s that the savings on food bills are extraordinary. Consistently cooking at home can save thousands of dollars every year. In addition, healthy fast cooking gives parents and children the nutrition they need to succeed at school, at sport, at work, and in life generally.

Yes, home-cooked food wins on all points - but of course you have to know how!

A brand new Australian web site hopes to have a global impact by helping parents to be more confident about ripping into some truly fast meals. They’ve started a “Fast Food Bank”, seeded it with a few great recipes, and hope that families will get with the spirit and post up their own fast favourites for everyone to share.

The very first recipe is called “Tabouleh Wrap with Eastern Turkey” and it packs a terrific flavour punch that the fussiest eater would love. At just 15 minutes from start to first mouthful, it’s a more nutritious alternative to junk that would cost twice as much!

FastFoodBank.com is part of the Kind Communities Initiative, with a mission of giving families everything they need to support individual and family health and wellbeing, to drive down rates of overweight, obesity, diabetes and depression and give them their lives back in an overly hectic world.