Small Plates Halloween Lunch

I was going to keep today low key... but I saw an idea for olive spiders on deviled eggs and really wanted to try them out. Since I wasn't up to making deviled eggs today, I decided to put the spiders on bagels with cream cheese for glue.

I also made carrot eyeballs, but I wasn't sure that my boys would recognize them as eyeballs, so I embellished with some more carrot and avacado to make a face.

I made "dessert" eyeballs from apple rings, apricots and raisins attached with peanut butter "glue." The boys were really excited about their lunch... especially the spiders! My two year old didn't eat the carrot eyeballs until I told him that they were carrots and showed him that he could "dip" them in the avacado.

A Muffin Tin Meal for a Picky Eater

In my post, Where to Start with Picky Eaters I mentioned that by familiarizing your child with Muffin Tin Meals using favorite foods, you can then use this "tool" as a fun way to introduce new foods.

Here's a sample "Muffin Tin Meal" for a picky eater:

Mac and Cheese and Turkey Hotdogs

Clementines (or any fruit you know your child will like)

Carrots (or any veggie you know your child will like)-and dip

*I cut the carrots into hearts, but before trying new shapes, it's important to consider your child's personality and how he/she reacts to new things.  My youngest is two and I wasn't sure that he would recognize carrots cut in this way. I also put some carrot sticks in his cup.  As predicted, he didn't know what to do with the hearts. He ate the sticks and left the hearts.

Halloween Party Breakfast

Jack-o-Latern Pumpkin Pancake.  We used a whole wheat pancake mix (Hodgson Mill). To the mix we added 1/2 can of pumpkin, 1 t. pumpkin pie spice, 1 T sugar, and 1/2 t. vanilla.  You can do the same with your favorite pancake mix. We have also subbed whole wheat for white in multiple pancake recipes- it works fine but you will likely need to use less flour than called for. We also added extra milk to get a thinner consistency.

To make the Jack-o-Lantern we (and when I say "we" I mean my husband) used a technique that we learned from Jim from Jim's Pancakes when he was on the Rachel Ray Show. You can see the clip here.

My husband put the batter into a ketchup bottle. He drew the outside shape, stem and face first. After it cooked for about 20 seconds, he then filled in the rest of the pumpkin with more batter.

Turkey Sausage Mummys  We cooked the sausage first  and then cut strips of crescent rolls which we wrapped around the sausage. Finally, we added two crescent roll balls as eyes.  We cooked them at 350 for about 10 minutes.

Scrambled eggs with cheese, spinach, and red peppers.

Mixed Berries.

A Picky Eater's Halloween Bento

In my post, "Where to Start with Picky Eaters" I mentioned that by familiarizing your child with Bentos using favorite foods, you can then use this "tool" as a fun way to introduce new foods.

Here's an example of a picky eater's Halloween Bento:

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cut into a pumpkin shape and decorated with fruit leather.

Carrot hearts and dip.

Yogurt with a "slithering snake" cut from fruit leather

Clementine sections.

Where to Start with "Picky Eaters"

Photo credit: Michal Marcol/ Freedigitalphotos.net

There are several challenges to overcome when teaching "picky" eaters to become more adventurous:

1.  Mealtimes are not enjoyable.  Mealtime has become a battle.
2.  Eating new foods has become a power struggle between the child and the adults in his/ her life.
3.  Being picky has become part of the child's identity.
4.  Pickiness has become a habit. The child habitually eats certain foods and turns down others.
5.  The child has developed a taste for certain foods and has failed to develop a taste for other foods.

Today's suggestions will specifically address challenges 1 and 2. In order to help picky eaters become more adventurous, we need to make mealtimes into fun, peaceful times, devoid of conflict and power struggles.

Before you can introduce new foods in a positive way, you need to change the tone of mealtimes.

Here's how to begin turning things around:

1.  Sit down and make a list of your child's favorite foods- all of the foods that he or she will eat without any struggle.
2. Plan meals for a whole week around those foods. If possible, make dinners that the whole family will be willing to eat.  If the adults are not thrilled about macaroni and cheese and hotdogs for dinner, try to at least sit down and have some as a family and then eat something else later. The idea is for the child to get used to everyone sitting down as a family and eating the same things- no one has a special or separate meal.
3. Do not clue your child in that anything different is happening. If they notice that things seem different, focus not on the food but on the fact that, as a family, you are working on enjoying meals together.
4.  Don't worry about how much your child is eating. Don't force them or bribe them to eat.
5.  Tell stories, talk and play meal appropriate games. (One of our favorites is "I'm thinking of an animal."  One person says, "I'm thinking of an animal that (is blue, lives in the ocean, etc.) and other family members try to guess the animal. More clues are given, if necessary, and the person who finally guesses the answer gets to think of the next animal.)
6.  Serve their favorite foods in different ways. Two fun things to try are Muffin Tin Meals, and Bento box lunches:

Click here to see an example of a Bento for a picky eater.
Click here to see an example of a Muffin Tin Meal for a picky eater.

If you familiarize your children with Muffin Tin Meals and Bentos using foods that they like, these will serve as great tools for slowly introducing new foods in a fun way.

Depending upon your family dynamics and your child's history with food, you may need to continue these steps for longer than a week. Do it for as long as it takes until family meals "feel" different and the power struggles around food have subsided. You will then be ready to slowly introduce new foods.


Next week, I will post suggestions for starting to introduce new foods.

"Sometimes Food Tastes Better Than it Looks"

We were visiting my parents, and my kids were hungry for lunch.  My mom had mentioned that she had made stew and there were leftovers in the fridge. I figured it would be a quick and easy lunch, but when I pulled this container out of the refrigerator, my daughter made a face.  Weighing her words, she said, "Mom, sometimes food tastes better than it looks." This was her way of telling me that this did not look like an appealing lunch.

Although I knew that my kids had eaten and liked stew in the past, they had never had this particular stew, and I knew that I may need to think about how I presented the stew in order for this to be a successful lunch.

I looked at the dishes in the cupboard, and decided that the stew would look best in a small blue bowl.  I added only a small serving to the bowl to make it less intimidating.

I typically would have served apple slices with this lunch, however,  I usually serve them their main course so that they can start eating while I cut up the fruit.  Because I knew that there was some hesitation regarding the stew, I decided to try a different approach.

 My kids have recently been excited about what they call "goldalicious" apples, so I said, "Oh look! Grandma has goldalicious apples."  They were now excited about at least one thing on their plate. I decided that I needed on more thing, and I thought they might enjoy dipping bread in their stew, so I toasted some sandwich thins and put them on a plate with the apples. I then put them small bowl of stew on the plate to make an, overall, appealing looking meal.  (Notice how much better the color of the stew looks in the blue bowls, it's not just the pictures- for some reason, the stew really did look gray in the clear container.)

This time when my daughter saw the stew, she said, "Oh, I think I had this before."

And then, she ate her lunch.

I decided to capitalize on this learning opportunity by pointing out that my daughter was absolutely right when she said that sometimes food tastes better than it looks.  After the meal, I reminded her about what she said she first saw the stew.  I then said, "It's so good that you were willing to taste it anyways. Otherwise you would have missed out on a good lunch!"

Have you had any experiences with food that tastes better than it looks?  What strategies have you used to get your kids to try food that lacks visual appeal?"

Breaking Out of the Cereal Rut- Day 5

It's been one week now since I started my challenge to break my family out of the cereal rut.  Today's breakfast was tortilla roll-ups with cashew butter, uncured turkey bacon from Trader Joe's, and berries.

Overall, I would say that the challenge has gone well.  It's becoming easier for me to think outside the box when it comes to breakfast, and to not just resort to cereal because it's quick and easy and they're "starving," and needing something right away. My children don't seem to be missing cereal, and I've noticed that they aren't snacking all morning.  They also seem less ravenous at lunch time.

I saw a few things this week that reinforced that I was on the right track in ditching the cereal.  The first was an article called, The 20 Unhealthiest Cereals.  On the list were some that I would expect, and I others that I would not, including one of my family's favorites: Kellogg's Raisin Bran!  I always take other's interpretations of what's healthy and what's not with a grain of salt, but it has certainly given me pause.

Last night I saw a guy on Jay Leno who is a personal trainer and is purposely gaining weight so that he can lose it again. When asked what he was eating to gain weight, his breakfast of choice was cereal!  I couldn't find the Jay Leno clip on youtube yet, but if you want to learn more about his story, check out: Fit2Fat2Fit.

I've linked up to:

Breaking Out of the Breakfast Rut-Day 4

Today's cereal alternative was a food my kids have eaten many times before- just not for breakfast. We call these Bean Pizzas, and they are my go-to meal when I need something quick and easy for lunch or dinner.  Now, they will definitely become a go-to quick breakfast as well!

Bean Pizzas



Whole Grain Sandwich Thins (bagels, or English muffins)
Refried Beans (I use Trader Joe's Refried Black Beans with Jalapenos)
Avacado (or, if I have it, Wholly Guacamole)
Cheese (Shredded or Sliced- I've used cheddar, muenster, or mozzarella)

1. Lightly toast the sandwich thins.
2. Spread beans, and layer avocado and cheese.
3. Warm until cheese is melted in the toaster oven (or conventional oven/ microwave)

**This is also a great combination for quesadillas. If I don't have avocado on hand, I will just use bean spread and cheese.
**If you are new to buying refried beans, be aware- Not all refried beans are created equal in terms of health...

Breaking Out of the Cereal Rut- Day 3

If you read, Breaking Out of the Cereal Rut-Day 2, you know that I intended for this morning's breakfast to be quiche.  Shortly after writing yesterday's post, I decided to multitask by baking the pie shells while we ate dinner.  Needless to say, I completely forgot about the shells until I smelled them, and by then it was too late.

At 10 p.m. last night, with no plan for breakfast, I got a lifesaving message from my Aunt Marie- She had a breakfast idea for me! Yeah!!  She told me that she loved oatmeal with apples, walnuts, cinnamon and honey.  That sounded like a great combination (except for the fact that I don't have any walnuts at the moment.)

Unfortunately my kids see oatmeal as just one "round" of breakfast rather than the whole thing... I needed something else.  Never fear, my aunt had another idea.  Eggs, veggies, and cheese baked in a muffin tin. I decided to use spinach, white cheddar, eggs, and ham and cooked them in a mini-muffin tin, in keeping with my theory that when serving something new, "Less is More." 

My two year old woke up early, so I let him help me make breakfast. As he happily whisked the eggs, I realized that this was the first time that I really cooked with him. At two years old, my daughter helped me cook all the time. She still often begs to help, so somehow, I just hadn't noticed that I wasn't cooking with my little guy.

He was so proud of his egg cups and proudly shared the breakfast that "he made," with his brother and sister.

Thanks to my aunt, breakfast was a big hit, everyone was full and no one asked for cereal. (Though they did ask for more "egg cups!"

My First Bento

At about the same time that I saw the idea for Muffin Tin Meals, I saw the idea for Bento lunches on What's for Lunch at Our House.  However, just like my hesitation with Muffin Tin Meals, I worried that I didn't have the right supplies or sufficient creativity to really give it try.

Basically, Bento, an idea that appears to have originated in Japan as a takeout meal with a variety of foods served in a box shaped container, has been taken over by moms (and dads) everywhere as a fun way to send packed lunches to school. The basic idea is to serve small portions of a variety of foods in small compartments.

After serving my boys their Muffin Tin Meal on Wednesday, I decided that I should take the leap and try my first Bento. I found this container set at Home Goods. It has a rectangular ice pack which separates the sandwich section from the other small containers.  I also bought some silicone baking cups to use as dividers

The sandwich is cashew butter and jelly.  The fruit section has clementine sections, raspberries, and one dark chocolate chip (which my daughter said got "slimy" from the raspberries.) The veggie section is red pepper hummus and cucumber sticks.

I'm excited to try some other ideas in future lunches. My daughter had been telling me that I wasn't packing her enough for lunch.  I had been packing at least as much food as she would have been eating at home. But, I guess, in the world of the first grade cafeteria, a sandwich and apple slices is, admittedly, a little boring.  I think that Bento lunches will give me the opportunity to give her a greater variety of food, without actually giving her more food.

By the way, if you want to see some amazing, art quality Bentos, check out Happy Little Bento.

Something's Gotta Give!

This is what my kitchen looks like right now. And, truth be told, I don't plan to do a thing about it until tomorrow.  This week, I've taken on new challenges like, Breaking out the breakfast rut, Muffin Tin Meals, and making my first Bento lunch for my daughter.  I looked at this pile in the kitchen and, for once, instead of feeling overwhelmed by the mess, I decided that "Something's gotta give."

All too often when we try something new, we dive in full-force, only to realize that we can't keep up the pace.  And all too often, when we can't keep up, we quit.  If you are trying to teach your kids to be better eaters, you may be tempted to try to do everything all at once. I urge you not to. Start small, start slow, and don't expect much.  Like learning to read, or learning mathematics, learning to be a good eater is a long and slow process. The goal is not to have a good eater today or tomorrow, the goal is to have a good eater for a lifetime, and that takes time.

Breaking out of the Cereal Rut- Day 2

Today was day 2 in my continued effort to "Break out of the Cereal Rut."  Today went well, it was made up of 3 tried and true favorites in my house:

"Grammy Style" Eggs:  Saute spinach in olive oil.  Whisk 8 eggs and add 2 wedges of Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb Cheese (smash with fork until it forms small chunks in the eggs.)  Add eggs and cheese to the spinach and continue "stirring" with a spatula until almost cooked.  When almost cooked but still moist, add 1 t. Penzey's Spices Fox Point Seasoning (a mixture of salt, shallots, chives garlic, onion, and green peppercorns.)

Mini Pumpkin Muffins

Sliced Bananas with Raspberries

***No one asked for cereal! (And no one has even asked for it as a snack!)
***Just as I was thinking about how well this morning went, my older son said he was still hungry. I gave him another small serving of eggs and that seemed to satisfy him.

I will say that, so far, this has been more work than just giving the kids cereal. However, cereal usually turned into: Cereal Round 1, Oatmeal, Eggs or Toast with Cashew Butter, Fruit, Cereal Round 2 (yes, one child may have eaten all of those "meals" in one morning!!  So, if looking at the big picture, this probably is taking less time (and I'm certainly using fewer dishes!)

Plan for tomorrow: Quiche
Click here to see what happened Day 3 and why we DIDN'T have quiche!

Tips for Picky Eaters- Less is More

A while ago, I realized that if I served my kids a normal sized portion, they rarely finished it. However, if I gave them a small portion, they almost always asked for more.  A large plate of food can be intimidating, especially if you're not sure if you're going to like it- a small portion feels much more doable.

Mondays are hectic and my original dinner plan for tonight was foiled when I left the "starter" broth and chicken for chicken soup on the counter overnight.  I therefore, had to come up with a quick plan that I could make in a short period of time. I had also just bought these cute little plates today, so I thought it would be fun to use them for a "small plates," meal.

The bottom portion is fish "nuggets" which I knew they would like, so to save myself time, I gave them a decent portion the first time (they all still had 3 rounds!) If I wasn't sure of their reaction, I may have only started with one or two.

The middle portion was from a frozen microwavable meal, "pumpkin ravioli."  I only gave them one each because I wasn't sure how they'd like them.  My older daughter made a face on the first bite, but then looked at it as if to say, "At least there's only one," and finished it.

Everyone ate everything on their plates- and asked for more. From experience, I'm pretty certain that I would have gotten complaints on the ravioli if I had served them larger portions.

My First "Muffin Tin Monday"

I first saw the idea for Muffin Tin Meals  a year ago and thought it was a great idea.  I wanted to try it, but didn't have any cute muffin tins, muffin tin liners, cookie cutters, or egg molds which I thought were necessary to make a good, "Muffin Tin Meal." I was also intimidated by all of the cute, imaginative meals that I saw on the Muffin Tin Mom site  and worried that I just wasn't up to all of that.

However, after posting about Apple Donuts and thinking about how appearance affects our reactions to food. I thought I would give it a try.  I decided that I would basically serve the same foods as I typically would for lunch, but I would just arrange it in the (old, beat-up, used) tins that I already had.

It didn't take me any longer than usual to prepare, and I have to admit, it looked so much more appetizing than the same elements would have looked on a plate.  The kids were so excited, and my older son just kept saying, "Yum, this is sooo good mom," which is funny since it's pretty much the same thing he would have for lunch on any given day!

Breaking out of the Cereal Rut- Day 1

Photo Credit: Michelle Mieklejohn/freedigitalphotos.net

On Friday I wrote about how I needed to break my family out of the cereal rut.  My plan was to start today, but I did a little experiementation over the weekend and I'm really glad that I did.  On Sunday, I decided to make an overnight pumpkin french toast bake with apples on top. I made it with high fiber bread and very little sugar. As it cooked, it smelled delicious, and I had very high hopes.  It didn't taste quite as good as I had hoped, but everyone ate every last piece on their plate, so it appeared to be a success.

Until... the last bite was swallowed and the first words out of their mouths were, "Can I have a bowl of cereal now?"  My husband looked at me, I sighed in defeat and let them have a bowl of cereal.  But, it still wasn't over. I then left to take my daughter to religious ed., came home an hour later and my son said, "I had a banana and scrambled egss," and my daughter said, "I'm starving, can I please eat something else before we go to church?

Ugh!  Oh well, I hadn't officially started yet, and it's all a learning PROCESS, I can't expect perfection right away (or ever, really.)

Last night, I had a talk, as planned, with the family to get them on board. When I mentioned, "No cereal," the initial reaction was not good. But, after telling them they could have it as an afterschool snack if they wanted, and getting them excited about the "new breakfasts," they were a bit more enthusiastic.

This morning, I served smoothies (made with frozen fruit, a banana, and milk), sweet apple chicken sausage, and half a piece of whole grain toast with butter.

Overall breakfast went well, except for the chicken sausage. I had wanted to find pre-cooked turkey sausage, but could find neither pre-cooked, nor turkey when it came to sausage.  The chicken apple sausage was the best I could find, even though I knew that when my kids tried it before they didn't like it.

My daughter said, "Um... I think I had this before and I didn't really like it... but I'll do my best to eat some."  "My older son ate one bite with no comment, but didn't finish the rest," and the youngest spit it out on his napkin.

When everyone got up from the table, I reminded them that this was it, and if they were still hungry, they needed to eat more.  All of them opted for more smoothie.  No one asked for cereal, or anything else for that matter, so I would consider Day 1 a success!

Breaking Out of the Cereal Rut- Day 2

Breaking Out of the Cereal Rut- Day 3

"Apple Donuts"-Or- How Shape and Appearance Affect Taste

Several months ago, my kids were begging for a snack and my husband said, "How about apple donuts?"  It was the simplest thing. All he did was *core* the apple and then cut the slices so that the apples looked like donuts. The experience of eating an apple is entirely different this way, and also changes based on how thick you cut the slices. Plus, saying, "Here are some apple donuts," sounds so much more exciting than, "Here's an apple."

This is also a great way to get kids used to eating apple skin. If you cut the slices thin, you barely notice it.

Sometimes it is just this simple.

How have you used appearance to make the ordinary into a special treat? I'd love to hear your ideas!

*Note: We don't own an apple corer, when we did in the past, I always "missed," the sweet spot and therefore just didn't find it helpful.  After mangling several apples trying to core them with a knife, I finally asked my husband how he got the nice round hole in the middle.  It turns out he used a pumpkin carving knife!  (Incidentally, the apples in this picture demonstrate my first attempt with the pumpkin carving knife. My husband's look much better :)

Fall Food Adventures

Today's family activity was a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins...

As we rode back on the wagon, "Farmer Jim," mentioned that they had some late season sweet corn that was especially good.  We decided to take his word for it and get some for dinner. As we picked out corn, we started looking at the rest of the market's offerings and decided that we would pick out some other veggies, get a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, and have a "fall festival" for dinner.

We got a little carried away and came home with, corn, spaghetti squash, acorn squash, beets, sweet potatoes, turnips, apples and cabbage. It was nearly 2:00 and I still had to plan recipes and get to the grocery store, so we decided to cut back the "fall festival" a bit and spread the spoils over a few different meals.

Tonight's dinner ended up being rotisserie chicken, sweet corn (which was just as good as advertised!!), and spaghetti squash. We had a late start on the squash and had to resort to microwaving it. After rejecting several methods that involved cooking with plastic wrap, I found this method on About.com.  It worked out really well, although I cooked it twice as long as was suggested (20 minutes.) A year ago, I made spaghetti squash for the family and it was just ok... I realize now that I didn't cook it long enough. The softer the better as far as I'm concerned.  For the family, I dumped some tomato sauce on top. Since I can't eat tomatoes, I added some cottage cheese and surprisingly, it was a good fit.

As for the rest of our farmer's market purchases, we'll be working them in to meals over the next few days.  I've never cooked a turnip before and and planning on roasting them with some of the beets and sweet potatoes, but I'd be open for suggestions... 

Have you ever made turnips before?  What's the best way to cook them?

Breaking out of the Cereal Rut

My kids love cereal, and I must admit, I do too. It's a quick and easy breakfast, and my kids can (almost) get it themselves. Despite the fact that I know that eating a good breakfast is important, I don't tend to have much of an appetite in the morning, so it's hard enough to figure out what I want to eat, let alone figure out what to serve everyone else. So, when they wake up starving and ask for cereal, I'm more than happy to let them have it.

The problem is, it's not really that simple.  As soon as my kids finish the cereal, they ask for something else.  They're not full, they're not satisfied and they end up eating multiple breakfasts, plus snacks all morning long.  I need a new plan for breakfast. I need filling meals- high in protein and fiber, low in sugar. I need to stop the all morning breakfast buffet.

I've been saying this for a while, but the time has finally come. I just found out that I have gestational diabetes. I will need to make sure that I am eating a high protein, low sugar breakfast and while I'm making changes myself, I might as well finally tackle the "cereal rut."

My kids are not fans of surprises and would not react well if I suddenly told them, "No cereal," so I've come up with a plan:

1.  Discuss the problem with the family. I plan to sit down with the kids this weekend and discuss the problem. They eat cereal for breakfast, but are never satisfied. They are still hungry.  We need to find some foods we can eat for breakfast that help us to feel full, and provide us with energy throughout the morning.

2.  Plan 5 meals for next week that are high protein, high fiber, and low sugar.  Shop for all ingredients and prepare as much as possible ahead of time so that my children aren't, "starving," while they wait for me to make breakfast.  Typically, if I make breakfast, they whine the whole time about how hungry they are and beg to have something (cereal) "while they wait."

3.  Build excitement about the new meals that we are going to try. Let the kids help with preparation, talk about the meals, let them decide what to have first, and post a list of the upcoming meals.

4.  Allow the kids to have cereal as an after school treat. This way, they can still have their favorite treat, but we will avoid the problems that arise from having it first thing in the morning.

5. Allow the kids to give feedback on the new breakfasts regarding taste and whether or not they felt full after eating. 

I'm excited to see how this goes and will be sure to share the results of the experiment over the next week.

Do you have any great breakfast ideas?  If so, I'd love it if you would share them in the comments!

Update:  See what I served and how the kids reacted- Breaking Out of the Cereal Rut- Day 1, Breaking Out of the Cereal Rut- Day 2, Breaking Out of the Cereal Rut- Day 3, Breaking Out of the Cereal Rut - Day 4, Breaking Out of the Cereal Rut- Day 5, List of Cereal Alternatives

Good Eaters vs. Healthy Eaters

I have purposely chosen to use the term, "good eater," rather than, "healthy eater," in my blog for a number of reasons.

1.  First of all, the definition of, "healthy" changes over time. This summer, I read, In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan, and it was fascinating to read about how our definitions of what's defined as "healthy," have changed over the past hundred years.

2.  The word, "healthy," reeks of judgement and pressure.  When I read books or blogs about "healthy foods" and "healthy eating," I just end up feeling like a failure. I think that sometimes, "healthy" sounds a little too much like perfection and I just can't live up to that.  (Can you imagine if I called my blog "Teaching Healthy Eaters," and then you passed me in the McDonalds drive through?!)

3. My kids are willing to try and willing to eat healthy food, but we also eat foods that are not considered healthy.

4. Eating "good food," is about more than nutrition. It's about enjoyment.  I come from a family that enjoys food.  We enjoy cooking a meal and eating it together and we enjoy going to restaurants and trying new things. I want my kids to be a part of that. I want my kids to enjoy these experiences along with the rest of us.

5. Trying to only feed your kids healthy food, is a little like going on a diet. It's hard to stick to it, and once you "fall off the wagon," you're likely to quit. But teaching your kids to be willing to eat healthy foods, to be willing to try different things, and to believe that what makes you feel good, also can taste good, is something that is a little easier to continue.

Still not clear about what I mean when I say, "Good Eater?" Check out my first post: So What is a Good Eater?

Starting Small- How to Teach Babies to Eat - From Baby Food to Finger Food

After a miserable first year as a teacher, I read the book, The First Days of School, by Harry Wong.  In the book he talks about how the way in which you handle the first days of school is extremely important and will dictate the way the rest of your year will go. Looking back at my first year, I knew that he was right and so before my second school year started, I set my mind to carefully planning my first day and first week.  The difference was amazing. I had set the tone, set the expectations, and set up the environment in a way that allowed me to be much more successful as a teacher throughout the year.

In many ways, our homes are like schools, and our children are like students.  If we want to be successful "teachers" to our children, it is best if we "start from the very beginning."

"Good eating," like any other positive habit that we wish for our children to have, is a habit and a skill that we need to "teach." And there is no better time to teach this, than from the start.

Here are my tips for teaching good eating habits from the beginning: 

1. Unless you have a good reason, don't start baby food until 6 months.  Many people start feeding their babies rice cereal at around 4 months for a variety of reasons.  Unfortunately, since it's not recommended to start many other foods until later, babies spend several months eating, and aquiring a taste for, very bland foods.  If you start feeding your baby baby food at 6 months, regularly introducing new foods, your baby will acquire a taste for a variety of foods.

2.  Feed more veggies than fruit and limit the rice cereal.  Again, we want to help the babies learn to enjoy different flavors.  Use fruits to sweeten the vegetables, if necessary, and gradually cut back on the fruit so that the baby tastes the vegetables more fully.  Likewise, try not to cut the taste of the foods by mixing with rice cereal. Save the rice cereal until after the baby has eaten the vegetables, or use the rice cereal to cut the sweetness of fruits. Again, this should help  to "teach" your baby to taste the food and enjoy different tastes.

3. Introduce new foods as often as your doctor advises and continue to rotate foods so that babies don't get "stuck" on one flavor.

4. Don't force baby food.  Starting baby food is all about "learning," and your babies main source of nourishment is still breastmilk or formula.  Unless your doctor has concerns about your baby's growth, don't worry about how much he or she is eating. Just continue to try each day. Don't stress about how much he or she is eating and just have fun!

5. Encourage finger foods as soon as your doctor says it's ok.  My first daughter did not like baby food.  More to the point, she was independent and did not like being "fed."  At 8 months she completely refused to be fed anything and I had to resort to finger foods. I believe that this is one of the keys to why she is such a good eater.  At 8 months, she started eating "real" food and she has never stopped since! Some of my favorite finger foods were: ripe avacado, fruits cut into very small pieces (particularly cantelope, honeydew, kiwi, pears, and grapes) cooked cut up carrots, boiled chicken or turkey cut and shredded into very tiny pieces, and beans (black beans have been a favorite of all 3 of my kids.)

6. Lay off the carbs.  When babies start self feeding, it can be easy to fall into the bread and cereal trap.  Breads and cereals are easy to grab and always ready, but also help teach kids to seek out bland foods.  Think outside the box when deciding what to feed your baby (as long as it's safe!) Once we were eating at Saladworks and I forgot to bring food for the baby. I was tempted to hand him a piece of bread, but instead handed him a piece of spinnach. To my surprise- he ate it!!

7. Never assume that your child won't eat something.  When my daughter was 9 months old, my husband got take out from a local restaurant.  Watching my husband eat, my daughter reached for his food. The main dish was fish, so he gave her some of that first, and she gobbled it up. Then he gave her some tomato, she liked that too.  The meal also included Kalamata olives.  I don't even like olives myself and never would have thought to give a piece of one to my baby, but my husband is an adverturous eater and it never occurred to him that she wouldn't like it. Sure enough, she ate that too- and begged for more!!

8. Once your baby has been introduced to most foods and you know that he or she doesn't have allergies, feed your baby what your family is having for dinner (or a variation of the family meal.)  There are many recipes out there for baby and toddler meals, but I never found the need to make separate meals for my children (and quite honestly, I was too lazy to do so!)  Sometimes I made variations based on texture. For example, if we were having sweet potato fries,  I would boil some of the sweet potatos and
mash them or chop them.  If we were having turkey burgers, I would simply cut it into small pieces and give it to the baby without a bun.

9. Don't be afraid of flavor!  Spice it up!  The more flavors your baby is introduced to, the more he or she will develop a taste for a variety of foods.

Starting from the very beginning, is, in my opinion, the best way to teach your child to be a good eater.  However, I know that, just like me in my first year of teaching, sometimes, you miss that window at the beginning. In future posts, I'll give you some of my tips for helping toddlers and older children learn good eating habits.

What tips do you have for helping babies become good eaters? What were some of your favorite "baby foods?"

Zucchini.... Yum!

A week ago, I planned to make pumpkin muffins as a snack for my son's preschool class. I woke up early, started gathering my "supplies" and noticed that I didn't have any pumpkin!  Uh oh. I scrambled to come up with another idea... banana muffins? Nope. Only one banana.  I did have some zucchini that I had planned to use in another meal, but, I worried, how would a bunch of four year olds react to zucchini muffins?

After a quick internet search, I found this recipe for Zucchini Muffins on Simply Recipes.  I had all of the supplies (except the nuts and cranberries which I didn't plan to use anyways.) I did make one change to the recipe. I usually cook with whole wheat flour.  For my family, I would probably substitute all whole wheat flour, but they are used to the taste of whole wheat. Therefore, I used some white flour for this batch.  The recipe calls for 3 cups of flour.  I mixed 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat with 1/2 cup of white, but the muffins started to get really thick, so I didn't put in all of the flour.  The next time, I would probably use just 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour, or 1 1/4 of whole wheat and 1/2 cup of white.

My children hovered around the oven as they cooked and asked, "What kind of muffins are they?"  When I told them that they were zucchini muffins, I saw a shadow of doubt cross their faces. Uh oh... my kids like zucchini and will try just about anything, if they were hesitant, what about the likely vegiphobes in my son's class??

Never fear!  The first judges, my kids, loved them. So did two of our neighbors who walk to the bus stop with us every morning.  When I dropped my son off at school I told him that maybe he should just call them "muffins," because some kids may not eat them if they know they have zucchini.

All of the kids ate them and liked them!  The next week, I made them for the two year old class and again, they were a hit!  One of the teachers even told me that it was the first time that SHE had tried zucchini!

I LOVE zucchini, and if I have it around, I'll often chop it up and throw it into recipes.  One of my favorite zucchini dishes is "Sausage Soup." My friend Mary shared it with me and it has been a family favorite ever since.

1 roll of Bob Evans Italian Sausage
1 small yellow onion chopped
1 can of canellini beans
2 cans of beef broth
1 can diced tomatos (I can't eat tomatos so I make half of it without tomatos and find it just as good!)
1/2 cup cooked ditalini pasta (cook it first or it will soak up all of your broth)
1 zucchini cut into small cubes (the recipe calls for a small zucchini but I usually go for a big one!)

Cook the sausage (chopping it as it cooks) and the onion.  Once the sausage is cooked and the onion is translucent, add all other ingredients.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes.  Make sure that the zucchini is tender before serving.

Do your kids like zucchini? If not, try these recipes and let me know how it goes!