When I make waffles, pancakes, or french toast, we eat them with syrup. And my oldest likes to use a lot of syrup. It is often annoying, and we frequently tell him to stop using so much syrup; but this particular morning it was disgusting. Even though I recently switched to a non-high fructose corn syrup brand.
So I decided I'm done buying syrup.
And this morning, it didn't go over too well with my oldest. He claimed he didn't like any of my topping choices of applesauce, sliced strawberries, or greek yogurt. I shrugged.
He ate one piece of french toast compared to his normal four.
The rest managed just fine, so I'm sure he'll come around eventually. Our goal is to eat less cold cereal (because who can stay full on that stuff for long, even after two or three bowls?) and to eat more eggs and fruit (bread is never a problem in this house). I don't think the kids will complain as they like those foods, it just means more work for me in the mornings.
But we need to make the change.
We eat too much sugar and far too few vegetables.
I used to offer vegetables with every dinner. Somewhere along the line I kind of stopped that. I think it was because I wean out the foods my kids won't eat. And I have some very picky eaters.
It's not my kids you see loading up a green salad onto their plate. Or spoon eating avocado. Or chowing down the sweet potato oven fries (that would be me doing that). I wish the phrase "kids copy what they see" was true for what they'd eat, because I'm still the only one who loves peas.
I once came across a fun website last year that encourages families to eat every color of the rainbow.
They have some fun fridge charts, but it didn't seem practical for four kids.
We also learned a catchy song from the website, "Today I ate a rainbow, and it was on my plate..." but it didn't help that much, at least not for long. I guess because we forgot about it.
Now to get back in the vegetable groove, I have a few ideas - let the kids pick out the vegetables they want to try, let them help me cook them, and educate the kids as to why each vegetable is important for us. Phew! Looks like I'm going to need some books, healthy kid cookbooks would be fun, and other resources to help get me started. I'm kind of discouraged just thinking about this extra work and the resistance I'm sure to meet.
So I'm expecting this to be a bit of a rough road, and a long one.
But my goals aren't outrageous. I simply want my family to start eating healthier - with less added sugar and more vegetables and fruits in our diets.
A lot of the problem is that I get stuck in a rut. I make the same things over and over and have no inspiration on how to introduce new, healthy foods.
I'll give myself credit for making my banana bread this afternoon with half the amount of sugar the recipe called for. It's a start, right? Right???
If you have any great websites or books, please share with me! I need all the help I can get!
I don't have any recipe or cookbook ideas but when my kids were little I put vegetables in the main course. When I made spaghetti I would put in grated onions and carrots and then I would also grab a few big handfuls of spinach and chop it up small and put it in the sauce for the last couple of minutes- they cook down to just little green specks. You can do this to other recipes too. And if your kids don't like chunks (like some of my kids didn't) just put the vegetables in the blender. I used to blend mushrooms for this reason. And if you put a cheese sauce on the cauliflower that sometimes helps. The pediatrician also told me it's OK to let them dip a lot of vegetables in Ranch dressing because it will still help them to develop a taste for them. Just be creative- you can probably think of other ways to get veggies in them without necessarily serving them as a side EVERY night.
ReplyDelete