Our mushroom barley risotto is a warm and comforting dish made with soft pearl barley, gentle mushrooms, and butterbeans, all cooked together in a creamy, cheesy sauce. Serve with peas and broccoli and it’s a nourishing meal that’s perfect for happy little tummies.
What do we love about our mushroom barley risotto?
With its soft, creamy texture alongside tender grains and blended beans this dish is easy satisfying for all ages. Pearl barley and butterbeans provide a natural source of fibre and plant base protein, while mushrooms, onions, and herbs contribute important vitamins and minerals. The milk, crème fraîche, and cheese also provide calcium, supporting strong bones and teeth for growing children.
Ingredients
- oil
- red onion
- mushrooms
- rosemary leaves
- thyme leaves
- pearl barley
- water
- milk
- butterbeans
- dried porcini
- nutritional yeast
- black pepper
- Italian cheese
- creme fraiche
- lemon juice
Download the full recipe, HERE.
While summer days may be more relaxed, maintaining some structure around food and snack times can help reduce stress for both parents and children.
Snacks provide a useful top up of nutrients and energy for young children but, without a consistent approach, frequent grazing can reduce appetite for main meals and make it more difficult for children to recognise and respond to their natural hunger and fullness cues.
Strategies to Support a Snack-Time Routine
A helpful principle to guide feeding is to remember that the parent or carer’s role is to decide what food is offered and when. The child’s job is to decide if and how much they wish to eat from what is offered.
Setting boundaries around snack times doesn’t mean you are restricting food, it means you are helping your child understand what to expect.
To help establish a consistent approach to snacks, consider the following:
- Use visual aids, like flashcards or a written schedule, to show when meals and snacks happen.
- Display the routine somewhere visible so your child can check what’s next.
If your child asks for food outside of snack times, you could say:
- “It’s not snack time right now, it’s playtime, snack time is coming soon, I’ll let you know when.”
- “Let’s check the plan together. We’ll have a snack after we come back from the park.”
Consistency is key. It might take a few days, but children usually adapt well to new routines and benefit from the structure.
Responding to Snack Requests
Snack requests often arise from factors other than hunger, such as boredom, excitement, or the influence of peers. Rather than responding with a firm “no,” using responsive feeding strategies can help maintain structure while also supporting your child’s relationship with food.
Here are some practical examples:
Scenario: You’re having a picnic and your child spots the ice cream van
Child: “Can I have an ice cream?”
Possible responses:
- “Yes, we can have ice cream. Let’s play and enjoy our picnic first, then we’ll get one on our way home.”
- “You had an ice cream yesterday. Your tummy needs lots of different foods to help keep you strong. If you’re hungry now, let’s have our picnic, we have lots of refreshing foods like watermelon or yoghurt.”
- “Ice cream isn’t on our menu for today, but we can think about a good day this week to have one. We’ll be here again on Thursday shall we put it on the menu for Thursday?”
Scenario: Your child spots their friend eating something they want
Child: “My friend has crisps. I want a crisps too!”
Possible responses:
- “Those do look tasty. We’ve brought some other crunchy things to try today, want to help me open the snack box?”
- “That isn’t our food. We’re sticking with what we packed today, but next time we can bring some crisps too.”
- “It’s so kind of your friend to share their crisps with you. Thank you! We can share some of our snacks too in return.
When Routine Doesn’t go to Plan
Life happens, especially during holidays. Some days, routines are impossible, and your child may graze on snacks all day or may be offered foods you wouldn’t normally choose. If this happens, try not to worry.
Instead, adjust your expectations around meals and consider the bigger picture of your child’s overall dietary pattern. If they have snacked all afternoon, they may not be hungry for dinner and that’s OK. If they’ve enjoyed more ice creams that usual with friends or family, try to focus on the positives they’ve gained from those shared experiences and remember that you can work on creating balance in the long term.
Instead of focusing on a single meal or food choice, reflect on the variety and balance of your child’s intake across the whole day, week or longer. One day of more flexible eating is unlikely to have a lasting impact, particularly if a supportive routine is re-established in the days and weeks that follow.
Key principles to keep in mind
When navigating snack requests, especially when they seem constant, these principles may help:
- Acknowledge your child’s feelings and respond with empathy.
- Maintain a consistent routine where possible, so your child knows what to expect.
- Avoid labelling foods as “good” or “bad”, which can create shame or guilt.
- Limit less nutritious foods gradually and without making them forbidden. Forbidding or overtly restricting certain foods can increase their appeal and make them more desirable in the eyes of the child.
- Reinforce the idea that all foods can be enjoyed, and that our bodies benefit from a wide variety of foods.
Remember…
Summer snack requests can feel relentless, but with structure, consistency, and some handy phrases in your back pocket, you can handle them confidently and help your child develop long term habits that support health, wellbeing and a positive relationship with food.
There’s a big change coming this September, and it’s all about making sure little ones are enjoying meals that are not only tasty but truly nourishing.
The Department for Education is bringing in new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) nutrition guidance for 2025. It’s clearer, more practical, and designed to make sure that every snack, drink and meal in early years settings is healthy, balanced and packed with goodness.
At Nursery Kitchen, we’re ready for it and if you join our family of nursery partners, you will be too.
What’s changing and why it’s great news
You might have seen the new guidance and thought, “What does this actually mean for our nursery?” You’re not alone. For years, “healthy, balanced and nutritious” was open to interpretation, but now there’s an actual guide.
The new EYFS nutrition guidance covers:
- Infant feeding and introducing solid foods
- Foods to include, limit or avoid at each meal or snack
- Portion sizes and label reading
- Safe food preparation and choking risk reduction
- Menu planning ideas and variety across the week
- Meeting dietary needs for allergies, intolerances, SEND and cultural or religious requirements
- Budget-friendly tips for healthy food provision
- Resources for engaging parents and families in your food approach
It’s a brilliant step forward, recognising that the food we serve plays a big role in children’s health, development and their learning. And we’re all for it!
Already a Nursery Kitchen partner? You’re sorted.
If you’re already using our sample menu, here’s some lovely news, you don’t need to change a thing. Our Early Years Nutritionist and Development Chef have worked hand in hand to create meals and design a complete menu that already meets (and often exceeds) the new early years nutrition guidance.
That means:
- Meals with the right balance of food groups
- Dishes low in salt, sugar and saturated fat
- 5-a-day, every day
- At least 40 plant points per week
- Oily fish every 3 weeks
- Variety of wholegrains
- Meals to meet special dietary needs
- MSC-certified sustainable fish
Would your nursery like to be all sorted too?
By joining Nursery Kitchen and following our sample menu, you’ll be offering the best to your children and ticking all the guidance boxes.
Prefer a bit more flexibility? Our Menu Accreditation can help
If you’d like to build your own menu using our nutritious meals and snacks to suit your nursery’s own routine, that’s absolutely fine, and you can do this as a partner too. However, with flexibility comes the need for a little double-checking.
That’s where our Nutritionist Approved Menu Accreditation Service comes in.
Through this, our in-house nutritionist will carefully analyse your full menus (regardless of how much you buy from Nursery Kitchen) against our Mighty Menu Checklist, which is fully aligned with the new EYFS nutrition guidance.
With our Menu Accreditation, you’ll get:
- A clear sign your menus are not just compliant, but shining examples of best practice
- Confidence during inspections
- Reassurance for parents that you’re going above and beyond in food provision
It’s a brilliant way to show leadership in early years nutrition, and it’s available exclusively to our partners.
We’re here to help you get ready
We know how much care goes into feeding little ones well, and we also know that keeping up with new guidance can feel like a lot.
That’s why we’re here.
As a Nursery Kitchen partner, you’ll have expert support at your fingertips. Whether you’re following our full menu or building your own with our meals, we’ll help make sure your food offering is something to feel proud of.
As September gets closer, here’s what you can count on with Nursery Kitchen:
- You’ll be offering meals that meet the new EYFS nutrition guidance
- You’ll have the chance to get your menus fully accredited
- You’ll be part of a community that’s passionate about helping children thrive
So, if you’re not a Nursery Kitchen partner yet… come and join us at the table. It’s the easiest (and yummiest!) way to stay compliant, give parents peace of mind and serve up meals that make a real difference.
Let’s give children a healthy start – together.
Would like to find out more about becoming a Nursery Kitchen partner?
In February this year, the Department for Education (DfE) introduced important updates to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework to strengthen food safety in early years settings, particularly around choking risks, allergies and the introduction of solid foods. You can view the updated guidance for safer eating in early years settings here, on page 30: Early Years Foundation Stage safeguarding reforms.
At Nursery Kitchen, we fully support these changes and are proud that our current practices and resources already reflect many of the new EYFS requirements. Keeping children safe at mealtimes has always been a cornerstone of our approach and this will never change.
Our meals are thoughtfully created with child safety, as well as good nutrition, in mind. We follow rigorous ingredient specifications to ensure that the size, shape and texture of foods are suitable for young children, significantly reducing the risk of choking. These standards are monitored at every stage of production so that nurseries can serve our meals with confidence.
The updated EYFS guidance highlights the critical importance of supervision during mealtimes, a message we strongly echo in our own food safety guidance. We advise that children should never be left unattended while eating, and that staff should sit facing children to observe their eating and respond swiftly to any signs of choking or allergic reactions.
We also understand that every child develops at their own pace. That’s why for safer eating in early years settings we emphasise the importance of tailoring food preparation to each child’s stage of development, something that the EYFS now also requires. Our weaning resources and webinars have been created to help practitioners understand and support texture progression during infancy and beyond and we are always on had to offer guidance on adapting meals for individual children if needed. If you haven’t accessed our weaning resources yet, we encourage you to do so. Read more.
Allergies and anaphylaxis are also a central focus in the revised EYFS guidance. While all our meals are clearly labelled and produced under strict allergy management procedures, we know that successful allergy management must happen in partnership with nursery staff and families. That’s why we’ve developed a series of Allergy Factsheets and hosted a webinar with Dr Penny Barnard, a leading paediatric dietitian specialising in allergies. These resources are designed to build your team’s confidence and help you support families in navigating the complexities of food allergies.
At Nursery Kitchen, we’re not just here to help you stay compliant, we’re here to help you create safe, joyful and nourishing mealtime experiences for every child. We’re proud to stand with our partners as the sector embraces these new EYFS standards, and we’ll continue to provide the tools and support you need to thrive and ensure safer eating in early years settings.
Happy Healthy Eating Week! We couldn’t let it pass without sharing a crunch-tastic salad recipe that’s perfect as a snack or a side for so many dishes!
This one’s more than just tasty - it’s a hands-on activity too! Let little ones chop, tear, and grate their way through colourful raw veggies. It’s all about exploring new foods in their own way and having some fun!
Download the recipe, HERE.
