Adventures in vegetation: A foray into a summer CSA...

So, I've been thinking about food a lot lately. ;-) I've been enjoying the foray I mentioned last week of moving into menu planning, and trying to get my kids to expand their palate into actual healthy food. A few years ago, my sister gifted me this book that first got me thinking about this issue:

I really enjoyed it. I love memoir/slice of life stories such as these. And back then, I started trying to incorporate more whole, unprocessed foods into our routine and refrigerator. I would definitely say that it had a lasting impact, albeit a small one. A large impact necessitates more action on the part of the main dinner supplier (me), and I was still a bit too chicken to puree up some Brussels sprouts and tell my kids that they had to try it. I was content that they started to occasionally try different foods and grow to like a few of them. We had actual nibbles of guacamole, and consumption of corn on the cob. Baby steps, right?

True, but at this glacial pace the kids would barely have moved on to an actual bean before college. I thought of the book again recently, and re-downloaded it from my Kindle Cloud to read again. It re-motivated me. Then Shauna'h introduced me to Prep Dish, and then I found out about this new CSA that would deliver right to my office.

CSA's have always fascinated me. For the longest time, people around here would mention them, and I would wonder what that vegetable share acronym stood for (Community Supported Agriculture). I just knew it sounded like a really wonderful concept. Seasonal, weekly fruit and vegetables, all locally grown and harvested. If only my family would eat vegetables.

😱

I like most vegetables. Mike definitely likes them less than I do, but he always eats them. The kids? Well, they consider it torture to eat vegetables. They're pretty good about fruit, though Henry still requires a bit of prodding. Unless it's watermelon. Watermelon is the guy EVERYBODY wants to hang out with at the party.

I figured it just wouldn't be worth the money for me to sign up for one. There are lots of CSA's where I live in WNY. Tons of farms around here. And the ones I'd been familiar with required you to sign up and pay for the entire season up front. This new one I found out about is week-by-week, with no minimum number of weeks that you must claim. You pay a small registration fee ($15), and then from week to week decide whether or not to claim the produce. You find out on Fridays what will be in the boxes for the following week. If you don't want it, or will be out of town or what have you, you just put a hold on your delivery, and you don't pay for it. I decided to take a chance and sign up. I chose the smallest share, which is $16 per week if you choose to get that box.

Last week we got an English cucumber, 2 Hothouse tomatoes, a bunch of radishes, romaine lettuce, kale (yes, yes, I know, more to come on this ;-)), and a pint of strawberries. This week we're getting more strawberries and cucumbers, but also Boston Bibb lettuce, spinach, sweet potatoes, and a pint of yellow onions. Because Prep Dish always uses seasonal ingredients, there is inevitably overlap with what I'm getting in the CSA. Next week, the sweet potatoes, onions and spinach are going right into recipes from Prep Dish. The strawberries are always gone within a single day, regardless. Everybody in the house loves freshly picked strawberries. Mike and I both use lettuce constantly for salads at lunch. So it's been working out really well.

It's still early days, but so far so good. The kids are skeptical, there is no doubt about that. But let the record reflect that Anne ate baked Kale Chips yesterday and declared them good. I'm go claim my Mother of the Month medal right over here. ;-)

It doesn't always go so well. There was the Great Pineapple Salsa Incident of 2017. It had cilantro in it. Cilantro is green. Hence, it is met with utmost suspicion and disdain. The result of this little mutiny at the dinner table had unfortunate results for the entire family. But we made it through. Henry, in particular, looks particularly pained when he looks at the magnetic menu board I have stuck up on the refrigerator. His eating habits are much more ingrained than Anne's. But we're getting there, we are. He loved the lemon blueberry muffins that I made yesterday for breakfast.

I've been enjoying the heck out of finding out what my CSA box will have in it each week, and exploring the new recipes from Prep Dish. Summer isn't my favorite season, as you well know. I don't like hot weather. But I do love that it's dance performance season. And I am truly loving this foray into belonging to a CSA and really savoring seasonal food. I'm hoping this inspiration lasts through the fall harvest and beyond!

Any other CSA members out there? I'd love to hear about your experiences!

Feeling inspired with meal planning...

If your experience is anything like mine, your children have developed some eating habits that are, let's delicately say, less than ideal. Before I had my first baby, I didn't really think about this issue at all. I figured I would breastfeed for a year, and then my child would eat nothing but homemade applesauce and exotic gourmet meals that I would suddenly find time to make.

*hope springs eternal* 😇

Well.

The breastfeeding part worked out, but the rest went into the Giant Fanciful Idea Receptacle In The Sky. My toddlers ate exactly what I swore would never happen: vast amounts of Goldfish crackers, those weird little puff things, an obscene amount of macaroni and cheese, and a proclaimed love for pepperoni pizza. The most "exotic" thing they ate was french fries. Now, my kids are 6 and 11. While they no longer eat puffs, they are still quite reluctant to try new foods. They do like fresh fruit, but the "v word" makes their faces pinch up like someone has very indelicately relieved a gas situation.

I've tried for many years now to get them to be more adventurous in their eating. It's a slow process, to be sure. But Anne now likes shrimp and Henry has tried Roast Beef on Weck (it's a Buffalo thing).

#VictoryisMine

We're getting there. But the only way they try new things is if they have no choice via what I make for dinner. And making something healthy and exotic for dinner means that I have to plan it. I need to make the menu over the weekend, procure all necessary groceries, and have things ready to go for the week. This does happen, but not always. It can be exhausting. :0

While I was visiting my sister over Memorial Day weekend, she introduced me to Prep Dish.

This is a subscription website whereby you get a menu for the week of 4 dinners, a salad, a breakfast, a snack and a dessert. The other days, of course, you can have leftovers and other stand by's, go out to eat, etc. You get a big grocery list for the week, broken down into categories (Dairy, Fruit, etc). Then, you have a "prep day" in which you are guided through preparing each of these meals, and storing the prepared ingredients away into your refrigerator. As you move through the week, you pull out the necessary prepped items, and have only a few steps to complete the meal. This is very handy during the work and school week, as you can imagine. The food is based on either a gluten free approach or Paleo. We as a family do not need to use either of these restrictions, so I simply use the gluten free menu and just include an ingredient we would normally use rather than it's recommended gluten free counterpart. The meals are mainly based upon a whole food and fresh ingredient approach, which is of course universal. And it's delicious, truly.

This isn't an affiliate post, I'm gettin' nothin' for writing this. :0 I just signed up for the free trial, and I have to say that I love it. The grocery list is THE BOMB. The categorization made it infinitely easier to find things at the grocery store. It's fun trying new things, and the food tastes wonderful. Monday we had a citrus marinated chicken with pineapple salsa, and tonight we're having a ginger/soy sauce stir fry with beef and bell peppers. Friday is an egg fritatta with mushrooms and kalamata olives. I brought in the snack with me to work today, which is a yogurt dill sauce for dipping fresh carrots and zucchini.

I'm enjoying having someone else do the planning for me. Has anyone else tried a menu planning subscription like this? I'd love to hear about it!

"Mommy! What's...THAT?!" *sobbing* Real food eating plan drawbacks...

We'd been doing so well, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to finally have a bad night with regard to this bright idea of mine. Dinner with the kids is still far from perfect, but we moved from them having "something else" (inevitably, highly processed) instead of the meal Mike or I had prepared, to never asking for a separate meal and at least taking a few bites of the family meal, sometimes even enjoying and eating a significant amount of a healthy new item. There are still lots of complaints and declarations of hating certain foods, but we've made measurable progress. I was feeling good. Then came last night.

I got home from work all gung ho about making my black bean patties with pineapple rice. I set right to work. Everything was going fine until the kids had a disagreement. Next thing I know, Anne is alternately crying and screaming, and then demanding that I hold her. I'm trying to juggle her while cooking and that isn't going so well.

"Can't Daddy hold you?"

"NO!"

"How about you stand next to me on a chair?"

"NO!"

This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the evening. :0 I got the rice going, and was working on the patties. I even used the food processor successfully.

*gold star!*

About an hour later, I was removing the completed patties from the skillet. They still looked a bit mushy to me, but they were starting to stick to the bottom of the skillet despite my non-stick efforts. I thought my consistency was off, but after talking to Shauna'h, who has also made these, she said they are supposed to turn out more like crab cakes than burger patties, which made me feel a lot better. I think I did everything right, actually. Aside from the sticking issue. Does anybody else use something besides one of those vegetable oil sprays for non-stick purposes? If so, please leave a comment. :)

So then we sit down to dinner. Both children immediately look traumatized.

"This looks disgusting."

"But it *tastes* really good. So try it." And it did. Those patties tasted awesome. Mike loved his.

Both of them ate some of their rice. When I was making that, each ate a bunch of the pineapple as I chopped it. This is an extremely nice perk of cooking with real food. Healthy snacking. But the patties were going over like a lead balloon with the kids. Pretty soon, Henry was crying because we were being so mean as to insist that he at least taste his, and Anne started crying because Henry was crying. The kitchen was an absolute cacophony of misery, and I sat there flaring my nostrils. I spent an hour making dinner after working all day, and this is what I get?

It was just a really bad night. After a night of sleep, I feel a bit better. With any endeavor, every day isn't going to be a good day. You have to take the good with the bad and keep trucking on.

To look at the positives, I'm already seeing some pretty fantastic personal results from this project, which I will detail after my 10 days is up next week. I'm trying new things and am actually excited about what I'm cooking and serving again.

I also love my new tea routine that resulted from all of this. I've always been a tea drinker. Nothing too fancy, black tea with cream and artificial sweetener. I have now switched to one cup of black tea a day, with real cream and honey, and one cup of herbal tea per day. And the herbal tea that I now have is AMAZING.

*angels sing*

I mentioned my trip to Teavana earlier this week. The chocolate based teas they have there are *delicious*. As in, they taste like dessert. In fact, you literally could eat their tea. :0 (ask me how I know this...) I brew one of those in the afternoon, add a little honey, and voila! Happy camper, with no artificial ingredients, and no late afternoon cravings and snacking. I have this precious little teapot to brew the loose leaves:

My teapot and I: in love.

 It's the Teavana Perfect Teamaker. Isn't it the height of preciousness? You just dump the leaves in, fill it with water and let it steep. When you're ready to drink, you place your mug at the bottom and it has this little sensor that dispenses the tea right into your cup while the leaves stay strained in the pot. I adore it.

One final note: My sister Shauna'h recently sent me a gift book for my Kindle:

I'm really enjoying it. It's giving me hope that my children actually CAN come to like vegetables and other foods they currently find repulsive. If her kids can come to like pickled pig snouts, mine can eat asparagus. :0 I'll keep you posted.

I usually rarely miss a 7 Quick Takes Friday, but I'm taking tomorrow off to watch basketball with Mike. He and I are taking Henry out to lunch, since he has a half day from school, and I know I won't get to do any blogging. I will check in with you all on Monday and I promise lots of food and Lenten updates. :) Have a great weekend everyone!

Adventures in healthy grocery shopping, Take 1...

Good day, all! Yesterday afternoon I had my first experience of attempting to stock "real foods" in our house for my 10 day real food pledge. How did I do? Read on, dear friend...

I left work around 3 pm, using some comp. time, so that I would have plenty of time to shop and not feel rushed. Those of you with children know what I mean: DIVIDED ATTENTION. It's a wonder I leave the house fully dressed each morning with my kids constantly clamoring for attention when I'm trying to focus on tasks at hand. And in the grocery store, this inevitably means that you get out to your car with the bags and realize you forgot to get 3 crucial ingredients for dinner that very night but you mysteriously have a package of Little Debbie cakes that you know you didn't put in the cart.

So anyway, I was blissfully ALONE with my list and the thoughts running through my own head as I headed into one of the big grocery store chains in this area. This store in known for being fairly "crunchy" in its volume of organic food, so I figured I'd find (most of) the crazy stuff I was looking for there.

*picture me wandering through an aisle muttering "agave nectar?" under my breath*

I can sum up my experience into these simple points. Shopping for non-processed food:

(1) Takes longer. Looking for wheat crackers made with 5 or fewer ingredients? Good luck.

(2) Also takes longer to check out.

"Um..."

"Cilantro."

"Ah, ok."

"Um..."

"Red onion."

"Ok. And, what's..."

(3) More expensive. $9.99 for a tiny container of real maple syrup? Ouch.

(4) Society is working against us. It is not always easy to find even simple things that haven't been processed to the very inch of its life. Ever look at the list of ingredients on a typical loaf of whole wheat sandwich bread? Do it. You will be shocked.

(5) All of the stuff you will read about eating real food will tell you to shop at the periphery of the store. I didn't really put a lot of thought into that, but that is in fact what happened just based on what I was looking for. Fresh produce, meat, fish, and dairy products all line the edges of the store. I've never been particularly adventuresome in this area, but that is now changing:

"Um, excuse me. I'm looking for pork...*consults list* shoulder?"

"Yes, we have some over here."

"Those are all 7 lbs. and up and I need 3-3 and a half pounds. Is there like a...substitution system for pork that I don't know about?"

"We can cut one of these in half for you."

"Really?!"

"Sure, come to the meat counter."

The meat counter. I felt like the next step was to head back to my homestead.

The other things on my list were also fairly close to the edges of the store. Frozen foods, for some vegetables that weren't in season. The baking aisle for spices, bagged tea and honey. The beverage aisle for carbonated water. Cereal aisle for rolled oats. The only time I dipped into the middle of the store was to get shampoo for the kids, and then to the canned food aisle for black beans and pureed pumpkin. Oh, and whole wheat pasta in the ethnic food area.

I was sweating my total, but I did the very best I could to pare back what I got. I selected regular vanilla yogurt to make my overnight oats instead of the Greek that I wanted, and I didn't get any fresh mint, figuring we could grow some this year in our garden and I could experiment with it then in a much cheaper way. My one splurge was pumpkin pie spice ($4.99 for the tiniest container you can imagine) to make Pumpkin Fluff Dessert Dip. My total?

$70.62.

I let out a sigh of relief. I was hoping to come in under $70, but I knew I would certainly be way above $50. I got enough food for 4 dinners (more if you consider leftovers), many breakfasts and some items for lunch that should last about 2 weeks. I was pleased.

When I got home, I had the house to myself for about a half hour. I prepared and put some Spinach and Cheddar Mini Frittatas in the oven, so that I could have those for breakfast on and off for the next several days. I was told that they keep well in the refrigerator. I also brewed iced tea and made the pumpkin dip. I was on fire.

When my family got home, they were very curious about my endeavors. Mike and I were planning to split some leftovers from dinner the past 2 nights. Although the kids ate those two dinners, they weren't overly thrilled about reprising their cooperation. Each child spotted the new bag of apples and asked for one. I was pleased. Then they asked after the frittatas. 

"Eggs and cheese? Oh yes! But what's that green stuff?"

*pause as I consider whether or not to tell them the truth* "Spinach."

I might as well have said that the frittatas were seasoned with Anthrax. They backed away in horror.

"Spinach?! Never mind." 

"It's GOOD, trust me. You can't even taste the spinach in eggs."

They were dubious, but agreed to try a frittata. Next thing I knew, I was sitting down to my leftovers and glanced over at the kids' plates. They were empty. Henry was requesting seconds.

My children ate spinach? Board up your windows everybody, the pestilence must be coming next!!

This, my friends, is a GOOD feeling. We'll see where these 10 days take us, but I'm excited! Tonight, we're having black bean patties with pineapple rice. Mike gave me a look when we realized that we will need to bust out our seldom used food processor for this shindig, but I was not dissuaded. I'm tired of hurriedly throwing together odd-tasting, artificial food during the work week. Next!

This morning, I heated up one of the frittatas and had a piece of toast with, get this, REAL BUTTER! *halo* This is living, people!

I will keep you apprised of how things are going, here in the continuing saga of Life of a Catholic Librarian: The Children Are Forced To Eat Brussels Sprouts.

;-0

Real food - a Lenten quest

Happy Monday all! Although not technically part of my Lenten resolutions, I've been thinking a lot lately about self discipline with regard to food. Listening to Fr. Roderick talk about his Lenten pledge to simplify his life in terms of physical and emotional clutter, as well as his eating habits, inspired me. I also recently read a book that I highly recommend, Real Food by Nina Planck. While I don't see us moving to raw milk (maybe ever) or grass fed beef (at least not exclusively) the ideas in the book really motivated me. I don't think the extent to which my family (and Americans generally) relies on processed food ever fully registered with me until I read this book. When I thought "processed foods," I thought about Kraft mac & cheese with the orange powder. I didn't realize that nearly everything we consume is from a box or package of some sort, rather than being a food in its natural form. This was very eye opening for me.

I mentioned sometime recently that I was trying to lose about 6 pounds of final baby/weaning weight (don't laugh, I know my daughter is nearly 3 years old :)), as well as improve my cholesterol. I'm at a healthy weight for my height, it's true, but genetics and, increasingly, age are working against me. I want to make some healthy changes, improve my blood work numbers, and feel fitter and stronger.

And so I've been doing lots of reading and research. In the meantime, I've been working on those pesky 6 pounds, and in a month's time, I've lost 1.8 pounds.

*picture me making the "big whoop" finger circling motion*

I mean, that's still good. I've been making some healthier choices, snacking less, and exercising more. And by exercising I mean fun stuff. I'm not a gym person. I walk, dance, and lift hand weights while listening to podcasts. Nothing hardcore over here. And increased exercise is excellent for your cholesterol numbers.

But I'm ready to take things to the next level. I drew the line in the sand with my kids a few months ago, too. No longer are we making dinner for Mike and I, and "something else" for the two of them that usually involves zapping something in the microwave that came frozen from the store. We all eat the same home cooked meal. There has been lots of complaining, and sometimes no dessert for little ones who do not eat more than a forkful of something "so gross!", but they try things now. And they do not expect separate, inevitably highly processed, meals.

So here is what I am going to do: I signed up for the 10 Day Pledge over at 100 Days of Real Food. I start this Wednesday, March 14th. I'm taking time today and tomorrow to do some recipe planning, shopping, and research. I'm not going to eat processed foods for a full 10 days, and my family will come along for the ride as far as dinners are concerned.

What are we talking about when we say "processed foods?" Generally, you want to avoid:

Refined grains, like white flour and white rice.
Refined sweetners, like corn syrup, cane juice, Splenda (and company), and even sugar (though I'll be honest: I'm not completely cutting out sugar. That doesn't seem realistic to me).
Things out of a box, can or package that have more than 5 ingredients listed on the label.
Deep fried foods.
Fast food.

Here are the rules. I'm going to do my very best. I don't do the majority of the grocery shopping for our house, so I have some challenges there, but I'm making my own shopping trip tomorrow and will otherwise work with what we have.

Here is my shopping list (things we don't already have in our cupboard or freezer):

For Breakfasts:

Rolled oats, pumpkin, yogurt, bananas, and chia seeds to make Pumpkin Overnight Oats. Frozen berries to have on hand.

For Lunches:

Greek yogurt. String cheese. Maybe some crackers (made with 5 ingredients or less) if I can find some. Otherwise, going to be relying on leftovers from dinner, and salads (we always have lettuce, tomatoes and cheese in the house, and I make my own oil-based dressing).

For Dinners:

I'm going to buy the ingredients to make these 3 recipes for certain, and hope that we get more than one meal out of each:

Slow Cooker Sweet Potato and Apple Soup
The Best Pulled Pork in a Crock Pot!
Cuban Black Bean Patties with Pineapple Rice

I also love dishes with eggs, like frittata, which we always have the ingredients for, to pitch hit. 

For Beverages:

Sparkling water. Fresh lemon and lime. Half & half and honey (for tea). Also going to be exploring some herbal teas with my birthday gift card from Teavana. :0 Going to be brewing my own iced tea with this recipe.

One of the things that I'm really happy about is eliminating artificial sweeteners from my diet. I use those a LOT to flavor my tea and coffee, and they're in the Crystal Light type beverages that we tend to whip up. Not good.

I am SUPER excited about all of this, and will naturally document my experience right here on this blog. :) Who wants to join me?! Leave me a comment!

NEWS FLASH:

Henry ate a black bean last night. In fact, he ate several. This is big news, people.

In our Quest For Henry To Eat Dinner Like A Normal Person we acted all normal last night while we made black bean burritos, all the while knowing that Henry has proclaimed to not like black beans, although he has never actually eaten one. He always wants me to just melt some cheese in a tortilla for his "burrito." Well, he's catching on to the new plan, because he conceded the beans pretty easily last night. He did, however, request that I leave the cooked belly peppers and onions off of his.

I had no problem with the bell pepper, but the onions were pretty integrated, so I left those on and just didn't tell him.When he asked me about the pieces of onion that were clearly visible inside his burrito (because naturally, he had to peel it apart to check my work) I told him that they were "spices."

Yes, I lied to my child. Guilt that I feel regarding this confession: Zero.

He ate the burrito, beans and onions included. And as I knew would be the case, he liked it.

Victory is mine.

Anne also ate some beans, and even some chopped tomato. It was a family dinner success story.

"What are we having for dinner?" *suspicion*

I just returned from our annual staff recognition luncheon, and I was set to receive a little award/gift since I recently got tenure. I have what I think is a great suggestion: instead of engraved items (which are inevitably paperweights) from Things Remembered, why not throw caution to the wind and just start giving everyone cash? I guarantee you, everyone loves cash. I don't care if it's $10. That's $10 I can put toward, oh I don't know. Yarn, for one thing. Books for my Kindle, another.

Oh well. They didn't ask my opinion, so I got a paperweight. But I will say, it's an adorable paperweight. It's shaped like a book, and it has my name on it. It's quite precious, actually.

But anyway, this post *does* have a point. I received some good suggestions on my last post regarding kids' eating habits, and I really want Henry to start toeing the line on this one. He had a swim lesson last night, which Mike took him to, so Anne and I made a quick trip to Target for a few needed items while they were gone. While there, I grabbed a box of Hamburger Helper and some ground beef for dinner. Nobody judge me, that's just the way it has to be sometimes on week nights. Plus, it's not like I can browse the aisles real well with Anne in tow. The instant the cart comes to a stop, she attempts to climb out. The little restraint? Useless. She somehow becomes a chipmunk with no bones and worms her way out of it. I can see her, struggling and working at it, while I try to shop. It's terrible. So I just grabbed the first thing I saw and headed for the checkout.

When we got home, I began browning the meat. As I was setting everything to simmer, Hank and Mike get home. Hank takes one look at the Hamburger Helper box and declares that he doesn't think he'll like this dinner, little button nose wrinkled up in disgust. I told him that this was what was for dinner, and he was going to have to try it. I put as positive a spin on it as possible:

"It's hamburger with cheesy noodles!"

He wasn't buying it.

However, he ended up loving the dinner. He even asked for seconds, which is pretty unprecedented for him. So, our first dinner success story. :) Anne will pretty much eat anything that I give her. She has a texture thing going on, so I can't cut up meat and put it on her tray. She touches it and looks repulsed. But as long as I feed her off of a fork, she eats everything. Fruit, vegetables, meat, pasta, you name it. She ate the Hamburger Helper and couldn't get enough. She'll eat crackers, cheese, and some fruit off her tray. But she definitely seems to have a meat texture issue if she actually has to TOUCH the meat.

I guess I can't blame her.

Just cute life stuff

"Honey, I really appreciate you and all that you do for me and the kids. I just wanted you to know that. I'm so glad that I don't have to share you."

"You've been watching Sister Wives again while I take Hank to soccer, haven't you?"

Well yes, I have. But that's not the point, now is it? :)

School is out for the summer, and happy, frolicking children abound in our home. Of the two children these days, Anne is actually the easier eater. She's suddenly decided that she no longer cares for pureed baby food, and just wants table food. This is great, I just wish it hadn't happened right after we stocked up on jarred baby food. But I digress. She eats cooked vegetables, cheese, crackers, fruit, all that good stuff. Henry, on the other hand, nearly passes out at the sight of a vegetable. Sigh. He does like fruit, but he ends up eating something different from what we eat far too often. He's 6. Should I be forcing the issue more now, or will he outgrow this?

Inquiring parental minds want to know.

Anne is just at a wonderful stage. She's into everything, but she's just a delight. Running around, giggling, being cute, it's just her full time job. Last summer, while I was on maternity leave, was just an idyllic time. Mike was home with me, and it was simply smashing. I will say though that I enjoy my children more when they're no longer newborns. :) I love them always, but the early baby days are tough on my psyche. With Anne being a toddler, things are so much fun.

Life is good.

What's new in Anne's world...

Unfortunately, "sleep" is not new in her world. But we're persevering.

What is new to her this week is finger foods. She's loving her foray into Cheerios. And those little puffs you can buy at the store that have approximately 20 calories per 200,000 puffs. But it's sweet, you can pop her into the high chair with some of those on her tray and she'll happily entertain herself for 20-30 minutes while you actually have your hands free to do something other than pull her chubby form away from Something That You Don't Want Her To Have.

She used to hate her high chair. Suddenly, it's her best friend. Usually. Occasionally she'll kick and throw her head back when you try to put her in there (this can't possibly bode well for the Terrible Two's, sigh). But most of the time she's happy as a clam in there.

We have a traditional looking Fisher Price high chair. Easy to wipe down and wheel about when the need arises. And the seat features this little bug print. They're friendly looking bugs. Although Anne apparently does not share my opinion. I keep catching her swiveled around in the seat looking at the bugs with an expression that can only be read as:

"There you are again you EVIL FIENDS!! Why are you staring at me like that?!"

She's precious.

Adventures in Eating

Deltaflute posted a great comment yesterday regarding my vegetable post, and I thought it important enough to warrant it's own post :)

So, couple of things. I talked about how toddlers and older young children have this list of "preferred" foods that they shun every other nutrition-bearing item for. Deltaflute had the excellent suggestion that we try to make some of these foods ourselves and "health them up" a bit, for instance homemade macaroni and cheese. This is a fantastic idea! We could use multigrain pasta, bake it, maybe sneak some veggies in. The only issue I foresee here is that our little ones do tend to ferret such subversive vegetable attempts out like blood hounds.

"Mommy, what's *this*?" *accusatory stare as a minute piece of bell pepper is detected*

But I do love this idea. This would also work for french fries.

Overall, in regards to getting children to eat things that they'd prefer not to eat, the question is: how do we accomplish this? Deltaflute mentioned that she didn't want to force her son to eat anything, although at times it may seem like alternative solutions are wanting :) I completely relate to this. I think we're all familiar with the old-school tactic of:

"You're not leaving this dinner table until you eat what's on your plate."

I've even seen this enforced the *next day,* that after the child wakes up, they have to eat what's on that plate if they want to ever move on to something else. I know that in parenting, so many things are sensitive, because there are many, many strong opinions. I don't judge anybody, unless I see outright abuse. We all have to do what we feel is best for our kids, and this is rarely easy. In my opinion though, I don't agree with this strategy. I believe in giving even young children small choices.

I'll be reasonable. "Would you like 2 green beans, or 3? Would you like a carrot instead?" Let the child feel like they have some control in choosing their food. "You don't want any vegetables? Ok, but this is what is for dinner. If you don't eat the vegetables, no chicken nuggets, and no dessert." The next opportunity to eat something different comes at the following designated meal time. I've read that children will not starve themselves. Eventually, they will eat. If I feel that the child is really hungry, I'll offer something else that I know they like, but that is nutritious, like nuts, maybe a slice of whole grain bread with some fruit, etc.

So far this has worked for us. Sometimes Henry will choose to forgo dessert because he so dislikes what is being offered at dinner. And I'm reasonable about that too. I know that he hates broccoli. I'm not going to make him eat it, so long as he gets vegetable nutrients from a source that he finds more palatable. Everybody is entitled to dislike a few things. You're just not entitled to dislike everything.

So, this is my philosophy. Anybody else want to share strategies for getting our little ones to eat healthy food? Comment away.

Oh, a parting anecdote. This is Hank's take on feeding babies:

"Mommy? If God gives us a baby, can I help feed the baby? I can put the food in my hand, and the baby can eat it right out of there, just like the goat at the petting zoo."

Adventures with a 4 year old: Vegetables? Temper Tantrums? Oh joy

I thought I'd devote a whole post to what's new with Henry :) My precious boy. He's getting so, so big. Very tall, very curious, very bright. He's a good, good boy, to be sure. He's going to be starting kindergarten in a month, and Mommy is feeling decidedly weepy about this. I saw a commercial for a car manufacturer the other day that I thought was ingenious, and relates to this very issue. A man is talking to this little girl, maybe 5 years old, who is sitting in the drivers seat of a car. He's telling her to be careful, not to talk on her cell phone while driving, to be home at a decent hour, etc. She keeps saying, "Yes, Daddy." Finally, when he looks into the car a final time, we see a grown young woman of 18 years. It was her the whole time, it's just that her father still sees her as his little girl. And I feel that even now with Hank. I look at him, and I still see the newborn cradled in my arms, nursing. It just doesn't seem time yet for him to be so big.

With him growing like a weed lately, my latest mission is Eating Control. The thing is, let's be honest. What do our toddlers and preschoolers eat? I mean, REALLY eat? As in the things that they consistently like and will actually chow down on. These are NOT the things that we would prefer them to eat, mind you. I present to you, the Young Child Food Pyramind:

Goldfish Crackers
Macaroni and Cheese
Chicken Nuggets (can be dinosaur shaped)
Gummy "fruit" Snacks
Possibly Fruit RollUps for a particularly daring entrant
Chef Boyardee Spaghetti'Os
French Fries
Cookies
Ice Cream
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Cheese Sticks

With the exception of the last 2, I think we'll all agree that everything else on this list has a nutritional value of ZERO. And I know that innumerable parents will sympathize with me when I admit that too often I fall into the desperate trap of allowing my child to eat these foods. As we all know, there is nothing wrong with any of them in moderation. We just don't want this to be the main part of their diet. And if our little rascals had their way, they'd eat nothing else.

I'm starting to battle back. Especially in the summer, without central a/c and not wanting to heat up the kitchen with use of the oven, we default to "ad hoc" dinners. You know. Chicken or tuna salad, random sandwiches, cheese and fruit, that sort of thing. And if Henry doesn't like what we're having, which is the majority of the time, sigh, he'll want "somefing else." I will say that he loves fresh fruit. However, the child can pack chicken nuggets away like there's no tomorrow. And I'm now determined to put a stop to it.

I have no objection to 1 or 2 chicken nuggets, *so long as* he also has a bit of what we're eating. And I've learned an important lesson. You must WITHHOLD the desired item UNTIL the healthy food has already been consumed. Otherwise, the nuggets will disappear and quickly be followed by: "I'm fuuulll."

So far, this is going better than I thought it would. There was a bit of righteous indignation when I declared that he had to eat vegetables, but he has been complying, for the most part. I try to give him a reasonable portion, so that when the situation breaks down into the inevitable negotiation phase, I can simply declare that I didn't give him that much; if he wants the nugget, he has to eat everything else on his plate.

I'll say it plainly. My son is an Anti-Vegite. Otherwise known as a founding member of the League of Children Against Vegetable Eating, CAVE. Waving a stem of broccoli in his face makes him faint with terror. He *hates* vegetables. Mysteriously, he will eat them at school. Except broccoli, the horror. But everything else he eats there. But at home? The vegetable boycott comes out in full force. CAVE members unite.

We've been working on this for about a week, and it's getting gradually more successful. Last night, I foisted grilled chicken with carrots and corn onto his plate. Although they had been "contaminated" by sharing a skillet with broccoli, he agreed to try them.

"I don't yike the chicken. I ate a carrot, can I have somefing else now?"

Under much duress, he ate all but 2 carrots and a niblet of corn. We're getting there, sigh. But the child needs more vegetables. He's good about fruit, and I've even gotten him to branch out in that regard as well, adding berries to his repertoire. Tonight we're having a ground beef taco casserole, and I'm going to steam some green beans from our garden. He WILL eat a green bean, if I have anything to say about it. He claims to "wike beef," so clearly he's a carnivore like us. I only cook with lean ground beef or turkey. We'll see how it goes.

This morning, when I rushed into his room to kiss his snuggly face, we were presented with a 4 year old activity that comes up less frequently than it used to, but when it does, is mighty in its power: The 4 Year Old Temper Tantrum. This, my friends, is a force to behold. Whereas 2 year olds have, what? *daily* temper tantrums, 4 year olds have navigated away from the frequency, but the force is virulent. NOT a pretty sight. As I snuggled Hank this morning, he declared:

"Why was my sleep so short?" *scowl*

Given that he had slept for 12 hours, I knew this wasn't a good sign.

"Hank, Honey, why don't you go pee for the morning?"

"I DON'T HAVE TO GO PEE."

Oh boy. I knew, just *knew* even based on that one statement, that this was going to be one of *those* mornings.

I coaxed him again, and he denied the need to pee about, oh, 20 more times. I left him in the bathroom, looking surly, and went to get dressed. I could hear him peeing. I called out directions for him to get dressed, but when I came out of our bedroom, Hank was standing in front of his room wearing nothing but a pajama top and a frown.

"Honey, why don't you go get dressed?"

"I DON'T WANT TO GET DRESSED."

This as well, went on for a number of denials. Then, true disaster struck.

"Is that the coffee maker? Did Daddy turn on the coffee maker without me?!"

"Well, yes, Hank, because you weren't listening and and are taking so long to get ready."

*HYSTERICAL SOBS*

Oh dear. The sobbing continued throughout the dressing process, leading to a full fledged meltdown on the stairs as he kicked and flailed. When that happens, you just have to sort of stand back and let the power be unleashed. Not much can be done there until the settling down proces shows signs of life.

And eventually, it did. Much sniffling and nose blowing commenced. There were some more tears when Tom & Jerry was denied, but he had lost steam by that point. I got him to school in better spirits, to find another invitation to a Chuck E Cheese party waiting for us in his cubby.

Never a dull moment in the life of a parent, I tell you. And crazily enough, we keep wanting to do it again and again. God really has a sense of humor :)