Wildly Tasty (plant-based meals for families)

Although it’s good to cook food from scratch, life doesn’t always work like that. But if you look, there are far better alternatives to ready-made frozen nugget meals for children!

Wildly Tasty is a lovely company created by a professional chef, offering award-winning plant-based meals for children (and adults) that taste yummy and are packed with nutrients (and also low in salt). And a portion of profits helping a Surrey wildlife rescue charity.

Read info by dietitians on food allergens (they say the top 8 allergens of milk, eggs, soy, shellfish, fish, peanuts, tree nuts and wheat account for around 90% of all allergens, the others being mustard or sesame seeds).

Read up on food safety for people and pets. Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps (acids may harm compost creatures).

Minimum order is £25 (free delivery over £50). And next day delivery, if orders are placed before midday Monday to Friday. Get 20% off off your first order, if you sign up to the newsletter, and share your unique referral link for £5 discount for you and friends/family.

Each kids’ meal serves two young children or one older child, depending on age and appetite. The family size miles serve 2 adults (or 1 adult and 2 children).

Just heat in the oven for a few minutes, or store in the freezer for up to a month (thaw overnight in the fridge then heat).

These meals are not for babies (check age guides on meals) under 1 year. While the ingredients are all allergen-free, they are made within a kitchen that handles all major allergens. 

Meals are delivered in recycled vegan insulated packaging and ice packs (keep dry ice away from children and pets). They can be stored in the freezer for 3 months. Recycle packaging at kerbside or supermarket bag bins.

Different Ways to Serve Wildly Tasty Meals

This post has plenty of suggestions on how to serve the meals to bulk them up for both filling up tummies and affordability:  Examples are:

• With jacket potatoes and salad
• To fill up veggie burritos
• With rice or pasta
• As a jacket potato filling
• With sweet potato wedges
• With couscous or noodles
• Reduce with water, to make soup

The Range of Wildly Tasty Meals

The range includes:

• Mushroom and Lentil Bolognese
• Apricot & Chickpea Tagine
• Coconut and Sweet Potato Dahl
• Yellow Thai Veggie Curry
• Sweet Potato & Bean Chilli
• Super Tomato and Five Veg Sauce

Quality Ingredients (veggies over carbs!)

One feature that is popular with parents is these meals are not ‘padded’ with carbs, so you can add your own carbs to meals, which gives children more nutrients and choice.

The company was founded by a mother of ‘two under two’ who was finding it a struggle to cook everything from scratch, but could not find meals to her health, taste and ethical standards in shops.

As she had 6 years of experience developing recipes for Mindful Chef, the solution was obvious!

The ingredients are top quality too. Vegetables and fruits are sourced from New Covent Garden, tomatoes from Italian farms and coconut milk from Biona (not just organic but guaranteed free from monkey slave harvesting).

The meals also include natural proteins like beans, lentils and chickpeas, alongside naturally dried apricots (to avoid sulphites). Even the oats are grown and milled on a British farm.

And rather than palm oil, the company uses extra-virgin olive oil and virgin raw coconut oil for fats.

Approval from Kids Food & Drink Collective

Wildly Tasty has recently become approved by the Kids Food & Drink Collective, an organisation campaigning for better healthy food for young tummies, after discovering that 78% of ‘children’s foods’ in stores would be classed as ‘unhealthy’ by nutritionists. Recent nominees for its ‘Yucky Awards’ are:

• A fast food chain for campaigning against councils trying to stop hot takeaway food being sold near schools.
• A ‘Toddler Milk’ brand claiming nutritional benefits, of a drink that is similar to chocolate milkshake, and is against NHS guidance.
• A baby rusk company promoting ‘reduced sugar’ benefits, but actually have a third more

Wildly Tasty also supports Dylan Strong Foundation, an organisation founded by the mother of a boy who outlived his cancer diagnosis by several months, due to her feeding him nutritious plant-based meals.

The organisation now supplies (with the help of this company) healthy meals to child cancer patients, both at home and in hospitals.

Author Lucy Watson is a well-known vegan and animal welfare campaigner. She was one of the original stars of the reality show Made in Chelsea, about wealthy inhabitants of this London suburb.

Choking Hazards for Children

Choking hazards should be avoided for children and people with swallowing difficulties (and allergies). Also keep small toys off the kitchen floor where toddlers and pets could find them.

Learn how to help someone who is choking. Foods to avoid include:

• Nuts, Seeds & Nut/Seed Butters (avoid for under 5)
• Chia seeds (soak in liquid first, if used)
• Dry Bread, Crackers & Croutons
• Crumbly Foods (pies & biscuits)
• Peas, Grapes, Cherry Tomatoes, Cherries (even sliced)
• Carrot Sticks
• Sausages (slice lengthwise & again, for older children)
• Foods with Seeds (raspberries etc)
• Boiled Sweets
• Sticky Foods (some cheese, marshmallow, mochi)
• Tough Foods (steak, bacon, skin/bone/gristle)
• Stringy Foods ((beans, rhubarb)
• Floppy Foods (lettuce, cucumber, spinach)
• Chia seeds (mix with water first, if using for others)

Does Plant-Based School Food Harm Farmers?

It’s the law for schools to offer plant-based meals to those who ask. Some MPs have complained that offering plant-based meals harms farmer incomes. But most animal-based school food is from big factory-farming brands.

Across the pond, California’s MUSE Global School serves plant-based food to children, often grown in raised beds, via a Seed to Table program. If growing your own school gardens:

Read more on no-dig gardening and humane slug/snail deterrents. If you live with animal friends, read up on pet-friendly gardens (some recommended flowers and fruit trees are not safe). Also avoid netting to protect food (just leave some for wildlife!)

Do Children Know Where Food Comes From?

A worrying survey by British Nutrition Foundation found the following disturbing answers amid primary school pupils:

• A third thought cheese was made from plants
• 25% thought fish fingers were from chicken or pigs
• A third of young children thought pasta & bread came from meat
• Almost 20% of younger children did not know potatoes grew underground. 10% thought they grew on trees!

Yet nearly all children know that we’re supposed to eat at least ‘five-a-day’ showing that information does get through, if campaigns are run well. But (wrongly), 20% of children thought canned versions don’t count (they do – a can of peas is fine if you can’t find fresh).

Years ago, all schools offered cookery classes. Yet just like first aid and swimming, learning to cook (and budget) are essential skills that should be up there with maths and English.

Learning how to make a meal with fresh ingredients (and knowing how to balance a tiny income) is far more important, than using a protractor to estimate the angle that a triangle goes up against a wall!