Trying to get my kids to eat their vegetables can be a challenge. Lately I've been trying a new tack and it seems to be working out very well. This is no magic formula and it certainly isn't rocket science. What it does do is get lots of good food inside my kids without any begging or cajoling (that would be me) or complaining or grumbling (that would be them).
Right around 5:00pm my children begin to wail and carry on about how hungry they are. We don't sit down to dinner until after 6:00 so I give them a snack. A snack right before dinner seems like a bad idea, but I put out bowls of carrot sticks, slices of apple and grapes and any other veggies or fruit that I have on hand. This works out in so many ways. They are legitimately hungry not just bored so they are glad to have something to munch on. I'm happy to let them fill-up before dinner on fruits and vegetables since it may be the only time all day that I can get them to eat healthy without having to put up with any complaining. The bonus for me is that these little snacks satisfy them while I'm busy making dinner so I don't have to be constantly talking them down from their hunger induced hysteria.
To make it easy on myself, I do the simplest preparation I can get away with. Thus carrot sticks (or even easier - pre-washed baby carrots) sometimes with hummous or peanut butter. Cucumber slices with salt. Apple slices, grapes. Anything that my kids will eat that is in my fridge.
When we do sit down to dinner at 6:30 I'll still have vegetable on the menu - usually broccoli - and they'll still eat some as required by mom and dad. At that point, I don't really have to worry too much since they have already consumed the total number of USDA recommended daily servings of fruit and vegetables.
Showing posts with label Food and Kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food and Kids. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Ratat - oeeewie!
My kids are not big fans of vegetables. I’m sure your kids are. Everyone else’s kids seem to be. I have friends whose children will eat grilled asparagus, roasted beet soup and sautéed kale. Please! The only way I can get my kids to eat kale is in Veggie Booty – and I don’t think that powdered-kale-covered-crunchy-corn-puffs count as a vegetable, exactly.
The pediatrician says don’t worry. If they eat broccoli and carrots they will be just fine. Well, my kids will eat carrots, raw only, and broccoli – with lots of butter and salt added. I hope that still counts. Apparently if a nutritionist were going to pick two vegetables to eat these two would be the winners.
But my husband and I eat all of our vegetables. We are stellar examples of vegetable lovers. My husband loves salad and has one every night with dinner. All summer long I’m cooking and serving and eating with gusto all the interesting and tasty vegetables that I get from my share at my local CSA.
My children do eat a lot of foods that some people might find exotic. They love burritos, for example. Chinese food is a favorite as well. I can even take them –willingly and without bribery of any kind – to Dim Sum in Chinatown and there are some adults that won’t go there with me. That is what is so infuriating. I know they would like them if they only would give them a real try. But they won’t. And I can’t make them. Believe me, I’ve tried.
When I was a kid I ate everything. Really I did. You can ask my mother. But I didn’t like zucchini. I don’t know why, but somehow I just set my mind against it and I would not eat it. No amount of cajoling, no rational talking to, nothing would sway me. I didn’t like zucchini. I kept it up too. Well into my 30s I still thought “I don’t like zucchini” Then one day I brought one home from the farm, sliced it very thin and sautéed it in olive oil with sea salt. It was so delicious. I was as amazed as anyone. How could I suddenly find a deep and abiding affection for a vegetable I’d detested my entire life?
For one thing – because I knew that I didn’t like it I had never tried it again as an adult. I had only my childhood experience to go by and it simply did not occur to me that I might feel differently about something if I tried it again as an adult.
I guess this explains why experts tell you not to make a big deal about eating or not eating a specific food. Either they will try it or they won’t and if I don’t make a big deal out of it there might be more chance of their trying it with an open mind before they turn 33.
So for now it is lots of carrot sticks and buttered broccoli, but I do believe that someday my children will be digging in to my homemade ratatouille alongside my roasted turnip and my green salad.
The pediatrician says don’t worry. If they eat broccoli and carrots they will be just fine. Well, my kids will eat carrots, raw only, and broccoli – with lots of butter and salt added. I hope that still counts. Apparently if a nutritionist were going to pick two vegetables to eat these two would be the winners.
But my husband and I eat all of our vegetables. We are stellar examples of vegetable lovers. My husband loves salad and has one every night with dinner. All summer long I’m cooking and serving and eating with gusto all the interesting and tasty vegetables that I get from my share at my local CSA.
My children do eat a lot of foods that some people might find exotic. They love burritos, for example. Chinese food is a favorite as well. I can even take them –willingly and without bribery of any kind – to Dim Sum in Chinatown and there are some adults that won’t go there with me. That is what is so infuriating. I know they would like them if they only would give them a real try. But they won’t. And I can’t make them. Believe me, I’ve tried.
When I was a kid I ate everything. Really I did. You can ask my mother. But I didn’t like zucchini. I don’t know why, but somehow I just set my mind against it and I would not eat it. No amount of cajoling, no rational talking to, nothing would sway me. I didn’t like zucchini. I kept it up too. Well into my 30s I still thought “I don’t like zucchini” Then one day I brought one home from the farm, sliced it very thin and sautéed it in olive oil with sea salt. It was so delicious. I was as amazed as anyone. How could I suddenly find a deep and abiding affection for a vegetable I’d detested my entire life?
For one thing – because I knew that I didn’t like it I had never tried it again as an adult. I had only my childhood experience to go by and it simply did not occur to me that I might feel differently about something if I tried it again as an adult.
I guess this explains why experts tell you not to make a big deal about eating or not eating a specific food. Either they will try it or they won’t and if I don’t make a big deal out of it there might be more chance of their trying it with an open mind before they turn 33.
So for now it is lots of carrot sticks and buttered broccoli, but I do believe that someday my children will be digging in to my homemade ratatouille alongside my roasted turnip and my green salad.
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