Trying my graham cracker treat.
Eating homemade popsiclesAs I've been home more this month, I've enjoyed cooking again. Maybe it's the nice weather or maybe it's just all the free time, but either way I know my husband and son enjoy it :) As I start cooking more, I'm paying more attention to really how picky my son has become with what he eats. I realize he is only 2 and that it is totally normal but I had a huge awakening this morning at my MOPS meeting. We had a guest speaker from the K-State extension office who came to talk about fun cooking ideas, how to save time money and get your kids to eat more. Boy was it great and I am just having a grand time discovering new ways to be sneaky!
As stated earlier, Isak has become quite the picky eater. His diet consists of peanut butter and jelly, apples (which is a good fruit), peas, chees triangles (cheese quesadillas cut into triangles), and apple juice. He hasn't ever liked milk since he gave up his bottle and won't really eat any other fruits/veggies. Somedays he will surprise us with what he trys but then he'll revert back. I know some of it is his ability to control something since his little brother was born but I'm finding ways to work around it after this morning.
Below are some of the things I've learned, reciepes to share and web-sites I've found. They will probably be sporatic and a little random so please bare with me. You'll have to let me know how your sneaky habits go. I don't know if it's bad that I get so excited about it but it feels good to know that I'm giving my son what he needs. Now just for the head slap going....why didn't I think of that earlier.
1. So last night I started with homemade popsicles (Thanks Joanna for the recipe).
You take 4-8 oz vanilla yougurt, 3-6 TBSP crushed pineapple, 1 TBSP milk (optional) and honey to sweeten (optional). I poured that into popsicle molds from Target and he loved them! That was the only way I've ever gotten him to eat pineapple. My next goal is to try it with strawberries and other fruit. The possibilites are endless here.....plus I think they taste good too.
2. Since Isak has never liked milk, I got a great suggestion at MOPS this morning. They recommended taking non-fat powdered milk and mixing it into whatever I'm making him that day...brilliant! She said to mix it with peanut butter, put it in casseroles or whatever he will eat to add in the calcium. I'm so trying that this next week.
3. My new adventure started with snack time this afternoon. There is a web-site called http://www.wholesometoddlerfood.com/ also one called http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ On the toddler site, they had a reciepe for energy balls under the snack tab. I amended the recipe a bit as I didn't have wheat germ or carrots (I added grated zucchini instead) but they kind of tasted like no-bake cookies...just healthier. I thought I was doing pretty good but I found out quickly, he doesn't like raisins. Isak is a kid that once he doesn't like something, he won't eat anything else. I was determined to make it work and so I took out the raisins, grabbed some graham crackers and tried spreading the mixture in between that. It worked for about 2 bites and something about the texture just wasn't working for him. So as determiend as I was I thought I'd break it down a little further. I took another graham cracker, spread peanut butter on it then mixed in some zucchini and put another graham cracker on top and smushed it flat so he couldn't see what was in it and...........he ate the whole thing! Now I know it was only a teaspoon or two of zucchini but it was progress.
4. Dinner tonight I was excited to try it again and see what else I could come up with. On a side note..I have a great fruit dip receipe to share (1 sour cream tub, 1 - 6 oz can strawberry/banana yogurt...not fat free, 1 instant french vanilla pudding mix....mix all together)......
I shredded some yellow squash and thought I could add them to his cheese quesadilla triangles. It worked!....almost. It took him a while to even eat the triangles...I reverted to telling him not to eat them which ended up with him eating them. He ate quite a bit of them until he noticed that some texture was different. At least he ate over half of them.
5. Some other great ideas are:
a. Fruit smoothies - 1 small frozen banana, 1/2 c. low-fat yougurt plain, 1/4 c. OJ - blend
- With the smoothies you can always add pureed carrots/juice of a carrot
b. Banana sandwich - hotdog bun, spread with PB, peel a banana for the "hot dog"
c. Puree/Blend any veggie and add it to pizza, sauces, casseroles etc....
d. Add pureed veggies (carrots/zucchini/squash) to pancakes
e. This one is great....add baby food vegetables to anything you are cooking! Baby food is mostly just the vegetable and water so it can be added to anything and no one would know....I'm going to try this with pizza sauce as my son can tell the different textures so this is a great way to be sneaky.
f. Use spaghetti squash for spaghetti noodles
g. Mix in cabbage with lettuce for tacos
h. Mix grated veggies in with ground beef
6. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes with peanut butter/jelly, sandwiches etc... Isak loves when we do this as he gets to pick what shape he is eating, plus I get to use my cookie cutters more often. Our favorites are gingerbread man and stars.
7. Add grated veggies to breads and muffins
So that was probably a little overboard, but I have been so excited all day. It's like a little light bulb went off. I've been thinking...man why I didn't I think of this sooner. It's been like 2 years! Isak used to love to eat all his fruits and veggies and meat and was such a good eater, then we hit 2 and I know Isak will overcome his food pickiness, just in time for William to start his but in the meantime I can make sure he's still getting the nutrients he needs outside of relying on his vitamins. So..hope this gets you excited too! You'll have to let me know if you come up with more arts of being sneaky :) There is a lot of info available on-line. I just have to remind myself...it takes a least 7 times of introducing the same item for a child to try/like the food. Best of luck!
