Being a mom is hard. Sometimes we forget that kids are placed on this earth to remind us that things can’t always go our way. They do things like refuse to eat foods that they like, just to irritate us.
For instance, Owen loves vegetables, has always loved vegetables, and until recently, would eat them without a squawk. Now he’s experimenting with control (which I can’t say I’m all that crazy about a four-year-old thinking he can have) and seeing just how few vegetables he can get away with eating on some days.
Enter my mother, Grandmum extraordinaire. While sitting for him one day, she arranged his lunch — veggies included — in the shape of a face, and of course he relished every bite. So maybe kids aren’t given to us to make us miserable, but instead to remind us that we’ll need to tap into our creativity once in a while, especially when it comes to food.
Take a look at these fun ways to make breakfast nutritious — and appealing — to your kids:
1. Make a face. No, not at your uncooperative child, but on his plate! Greenandcleanmom dressed up a pancake with three kinds of berries (antioxidants!), and if you sneak veggies into it, you’ll be home free.
2. Smoothies always seem to work for my son, and the amount of spinach that I sneak into them (along with barley grass powder) is probably playing dirty, but hey, all’s fair, right?
3. Green eggs and ham? Don’t use green food coloring like you’ll see some sites suggest, but make those green scrambled eggs with spinach puree… they’ll never know! I’m not sure what to tell you about serving green ham….
4. Pizza — for breakfast? Try your favorite bread machine pizza dough topped with omelet fillings: scrambled eggs, veggies and cheese.
5. On the go? Don’t settle for a sugary snack bar; make some breakfast trail mix. Toss some dried fruits (cranberries and raisins are winners in our house), nuts and seeds together, and throw in some of your healthiest granola.
6. Banana dogs have got to be a hit — on a whole grain (we like Ezekiel sprouted buns) hot dog bun, spread some nut or seed butter (we like almond butter or sunflower seed butter), a banana in place of a hot dog, and some all-fruit preserves instead of ketchup. Yep, I’m trying this one on Monday.
Kids like lots of breakfast foods — muffins and pancakes in our house — but why not insert a little creativity to inspire complete submission in your children, at least for one meal today.
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Apr 05, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Wow – I love the banana hot dog idea! I’m definitely going to give that a try!
One thing I do occasionally that makes my girls feel like they’re getting a special treat is to stick those decorative little paper umbrellas that they use in tropical drinks into something on their plate and maybe scatter the plate with some of those little plastic animals that I accumulated more years ago than I care to remember drinking more margaritas than I care to remember down in the East Village