Mom, Can I Have More Brussel Sprouts?

Meet Andrea Kakas, our Mom of the Week! 

Andrea has done a great job feeding her 2 kids a variety of healthy foods. As a result, they love veggies and fruits, including Brussel Sprouts! Andrea has loads of tips to share, check them out.

Mom, Can I Have MoreBrussel Sprouts?

"Mom,can I have more brussel sprouts?” You get that question everyday right?  Believe it or not, I do get that question every time we havebrussel sprouts, but don’t hate me yet. My daughter who loves brussel sprouts, hates broccoli right now.  I am not a perfect parent and I do notpretend to be, but I have to say that my 2 ½ and 4 ½ yr olds eat what I eat,which is pretty much everything.

Iam excited to share some of my tips on feeding kids.   You may not agree with everything I write, buthopefully you pick up a tip or two. I was fortunate to be brought up with extremely healthy eating habitseven though I grew up in Midwest suburbia in the 80’s.  We ate things like 10 grain cereal anddates in the morning, falafel for dinner with brown rice, etc.  Ok, we ate ice cream like it was ourjob when we had access to it, but we did not eat processed foods.  So I have a lot of experience eatinggood food and getting kids to eat it. 

Hereare my 4 “rules” that I hope seem realistic and achievable.  Cater them to your family!

To me the most important thing is that mykids eat what I eat, when I eat! And the earlier you start this habit and STAY CONSISTENT, the easier itis. 

I hear a lot of moms say that their baby used to eateverything but now that they are 2,3, 4, they won’t eat anything!  It is easier to get a 9 mo old to eatpeas than a 2 year old! This is because kids are smart and they formulate evilplans to make parenting even harder….like temper tantrums over mealtime.  

Staying consistent is not easy, but it is so worth it!!  Here is an example: My son always getsa snack before bedtime so that he will not wake up at 5am screaming of hunger.  When he was a little over two, hetried  to outsmart us by eating lessdinner and a bigger snack, which then turned into tantrums and refusal to eatdinner and then huge snacks.  Wecaught on to his evil plan and decided to fight back.  We first let him scream it out and had to listen tosometimes 30 minutes of tantrums until he would finally eat dinner.  We are talking about a fight overspaghetti and meatballs and broccoli, a meal I know he likes.   After a few days of this, I rememberedmy rule for my 4 year old; no tantrums in the kitchen/family room.  She can have a tantrum in her bedroomand come downstairs with the family when she is ready to behave.  So when my son refused to eat, westarted putting him in his crib and we told him that he could no longer screamin the kitchen and that when he was ready to eat, he could call us and we wouldget him.  (He could not climb outof his crib yet.  You can strapyour kid into a highchair/booster seat in another room, you get my point)  This may sound harsh, but I wouldrather have a few days of a screaming kid that learns that mealtime is exactlythat, mealtime, than have the constant, “eat your dinner”, “sit down”, “ comeback here” during dinner.  It isexhausting! 

Maybe you like to feed your kids first and you like to eatdinner later.  That is fine, but mypoint is that they should know what dinner (breakfast, lunch) is.

Ok,but how do you get your child to eat?? Now that they know they cannot throw tantrums over dinner, what else canyou do? 

Makedinner relaxing

Yeahright.  Relaxing and dinner withchildren do not really go together. What I mean is that beside the occasional bouts of power struggle tempertantrums, dinner should be about eating, conversation, etc.  I know it sounds crazy if your kids areyoung but realistically I am talking about a few minutes!  Personally, I think it is hard for kidsto sit for very long, so I make sure we eat together, but they do not have tosit there while I finish eating. They may only sit there for five minutes max and we will have a quickconversation where I ask them what they did at preschool and they say“nothing.”  Really, theconversation is more me recapping the day and saying something nice orfunny  that they did that day.  Is this making your nauseous yet?  We are not the model family, but we tryto set the stonework for when they are older.

Makesure your kids are hungry for mealtime.

Whatif they are truly not hungry for dinner? What are you feeding them at 4pm? Granola bars?  I knew a mom whose kids did not eatmeals and she kept a drawer stocked full of kid food that they could easily getto with granola bars, pretzels, etc. Well that’s fine if that is what you want your kids to eat, but I knowthat if I had that option as a kid, I would have loved to have a drawer full ofjunk food!  My kids do not get bigsnacks after 3:30/4 and we eat dinner around 5:30 so I am not talking aboutstarving your kid!  My kids canhave snacks, but nothing that will spoil their dinner after 3:30.  I frequently give them a small bowl offrozen peas and corn.  Yes,frozen.  It is awesome for teethingbabies to snack on because it is something cold, nutritional and they cannotchoke on it.  I still give my kidsthis.  Or, I have them “help” me makea salad and they can snack on what I am putting in the salad that day.  Sometimes they love what I am puttingin there and sometimes they hate it, but at least they tried it and it will notspoil their dinner.  You know whenyour child is truly hungry and a few crackers will not spoil their dinner vs.when your kid is just begging because crackers are the only thing they willeat.  Use your good judgment.

Possiblyyour child eats a big breakfast, small lunch and is not very hungry fordinner.  That is ok too!  When my daughter was 18 mo old she justate more and was more open to variety of foods during lunch so that is when Ibrought out the veggies!  It is agood time to use up leftovers from last nights dinner and expose your kids towhat you eat.  If you work fulltimeand do not have lunch during the week with your child, make the weekends a funtime to eat together!  Again, catermy suggestions to fit your lifestyle.

Sonow that your kids know what mealtime is, dinner is relaxing, ha ha, and theyare hungry, what do you feed them?

Make good food

Isay “make good food” because good food prepared well is so much better than badfood prepared poorly and kids are so much more likely to eat it.  So maybe you don’t love to cook.  I love to cook, but it does become achore when you are constantly feeding hungry kids!  You all know what you should do.  Plan meals, make a shopping list, grocery shop, put  food away, prepare food, clean up…I amexhausted just thinking about it.

Hereis one example on how to spend very little time and money making good food foryour family.  I could give you manyexamples, but this is very simple and basic.  You do not need to be a top chef to do this.  I have cooked like this for years whileworking, being a stay at home mom and a working mom and it all works.

Ifind that roasting things in the oven is so easy and brings out the flavor somuch more and my kids love the food…simple and delicious.  You do not have to tend to something onthe stove or worry about kids getting close to the stove.

Buya whole chicken or whole cut up chicken with skin and bones on (it just takesbetter).  Buy a bag of sweetpotatoes or potatoes, broccoli or some other veggie and ingredients for asalad. 

 If you are home 1.5 - 2 hours beforedinner, put olive oil, salt and pepper on chicken and put it in a pan.  Cut up potatoes or sweet potatoes (ornot ), put  on cookie sheet coveredwith foil (or without foil if you are environmentally conscious and don’t mindcleaning the pan) and put olive oil and salt on potatoes.   Don’t peel the sweetpotatoes.  You will be surprisedhow good the peel is roasted and it is so good for you and your kids!

Putchicken and potatoes in 400 degree oven for 1.5 hours for cut up chicken, 2hours for whole chicken.   Ifyou are not home 2 hours before dinner, put potatoes and frozen chicken in ovenand turn “time bake” on for the oven to start cooking before you get home.  Cook veggies and make salad rightbefore eating.

Youcan make this meal many different ways adding things like lemon zest , rosemaryand garlic to chicken.  Make it aMexican meal and add garlic, cumin and cilantro to the chicken, make brown riceinstead of potatoes and use leftovers for burritos, etc.  (If you work you can make the brownrice the night before and reheat…I do this a lot)  If you are more kitchen savvy, use the chicken bones to makechicken stock for soup.

Mypoint is that you do not have to use a recipe, lots of ingredients, expensiveingredients.  Just do a little workin the morning or the night before and make enough for TWO meals so you don’thave to do this every day.  I haveeven tripled recipes and frozen a portion for another day.   Vegetarian?  There are many vegetarian meals you canmake this way too.

Ialso hear that it is expensive to eat healthy.  I have to disagree! Yes a bag of apples is $3-$5 but have you ever heard anyone say “I ateone apple last night and couldn’t stop and I ate the whole bag” Nope, neverheard that.  Prepared healthy foodand out of season food is expensive, yes. However, healthy food that is not prepared and packaged with fancylabels on it, like beans, brown rice, in season fruits and veggies, are notvery expensive, fills you and your kids up, and you eat less of it! 

To Recap:

Eatwith your kids and be consistent with their diet.   You do not necessarily have to be consistent to thepoint of skipping a happy meal, but that is up to you!

Besidesthe occasional power struggles, try to prevent dinner from being the constantbattleground.  You and your kidswill dread mealtime if it is stressful!

Snacksare important for kids.  They gethungry!  But try to monitor theirsnacks before mealtime. 

Makegood food.  You don’t have to be aseasoned chef to make decent food. Keep it simple if cooking is not your thing!

Some pointers on consistency

Yourchild will not.  I repeat, WILL NOTstarve themselves.  I am amazed atthe power struggle sometimes and I just ignore my kids when they are throwingtantrums and say that I can help them when they calm down.  I am not talking about food that theyhave never tasted or is very spicy or requires an adult palate, etc.  But if a child knows that if theyscream over spaghetti they will get a bowl of cereal, they will scream! 

Iam sure you have heard that some kids need to taste something 14 times to likeit.  I believe it.  Offer foods frequently and do not makea big deal about it as to make it seem like torture to eat it.  This may seem contrary to letting themscream over spaghetti.  I amreferring to new/newer foods or foods that have a stronger flavor.  For example, my kids used to not likecilantro, but now they love it. 

Eatingshould be a family affair.  Mostpeople don’t have time to sit down with their kids 3 times a day to eat (ifthey are not at school), but what I mean is feed your kids what you eat, sitdown and eat…but make sure you are eating well too!  I heard a kid say that “mom’s don’t eat lunch”  Seriously?  Actions speak louder than words.