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We are changing our eating habits around this house, and I just laughed right out loud when I found this on ETSY.
Thinking I need to put this in our dining room, asap.
Are you one of the families that ever became ensnared in the “cooking two meals” scenario at dinner time? My children ate a wide variety of foods…GOOD foods, until they each reached about 2 1/2 years of age. After that, it was peanut butter and jelly (or honey) all the way. And y’all, especially my youngest…he would gladly skip his meals and go to bed hungry if he didn’t like what was on his plate. No swayin’ that kid.
Recently though, we’ve been convinced that they need a better nutritional foundation than what they currently have. We’ve always prided ourselves on not allowing them to have certain things; they’ve never known the likes of Fruity Pebbles or his counterparts…they’ve never had soda. We don’t have daily desserts. If we have bread, no white stuff here. Whole wheat or whole grain all the way. But it isn’t enough to cut out certain things…you have to add the good things as well. I actually convinced Jack to have some fresh green bell pepper last night. Victory! They each had some vegetable soup after much cajoling at lunch today. Victory! But how long will this last? That’s where your advice is greatly appreciated.
We want to add more fruits/veggies/grains/nuts to our diet. We want to cut, to a HUGE degree, white flour/sugar/dairy. Do you have any tricks up your sleeve for getting the good stuff into your children without the crying and gnashing of teeth? Do you have any really good, really healthy snack food ideas? I picked up some nuts, seeds, dates, and banana chips yesterday and they seem to be fairly satisfied with them.
We have the Sienfeld book where you grind up the veggies and add them to casseroles, etc, but I don’t want to go to the hassle of hiding them, when in reality there is such a small amount in each recipe. So I guess…prayer is the best thing! If y’all could pray my kids would say “Sure mom! I’ll gladly gobble down my veggies!” that would be fantastic. 
Oh get this. Laugh out Loud. Jack just asked me if he could have some whoopie pies (Erick promised to make a batch for his class, so they are sitting in our fridge, untouched by us) and when I turned that request down but offered some cashews instead (raw, unsalted), Jack gave a resounding “YAY”!!!! hallelujah!
Not that I’m expecting that reaction every time.
So dish…anyone have any ideas? Encouragement? We could use it!
Okay, just a suggestion here, but what if you try and do something creative with the veggies and make them cute! Make a penguin out of an egg and some olives with carrot or yellow squash for wings. Well, maybe not, LOL!, but you get my drift.
I was the pickest eater ever as a child, and I would eat English peas, black eyed peas, etc. I also ate squash if it had butter and pepper. But there has got to be some sort of healthy way to get them to eat veggies. I think fun foods might start it off.
XO,
Sheila
I feel you there! I have one very picky eater who just recently decided she doesn’t like fruit or veggies of ANY kind (unless they’re orange) One can only live on carrots and oranges and mac and cheese for so long. We don’t eat much meat at our house and our dairy intake is limited too-so what we’ve found to work is persistence and clever trickery. The youngest will gladly eat almost anything right now if we pretend she is dog and the food is her doggie treat. I don’t know how long this will last but we’ll work it as long as we can. We’ve also found that she likes things separate, not mixed together at all. For veggies and fruit it’s all about presentation, we try to make it fun (or funny) and serve it along with some sort of dip. Ranch is her dip of choice right now, I’m good with that if it helps to get the good stuff in her. We’ve found that the less we stress about eating the more peaceful it is, the point is to constantly offer healthy choices-over and over again. They’ll get it, eventually. I really think with her it’s less about the food and more about being able to voice her opinion about what she eats-having some control over it. We always ask her to take one “no thank you” bite. And that’s the best we can do-we figure she won’t starve herself.
Gosh, this is really long…hope it helps!