Good Food...Healthy Kids

I'm very mindful of what our family eats these days...who isn't, right?
And while I know a lot about what is good, what is right, what is healthy...
I'm not so good at putting it into practice.
I always was better at theory than practical :(
I have two kids.
My eight year old boy won't eat meat, apart from bacon and sausages.
Fortunately he will eat a wider variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, cheeses and milk.
He's one of those kids who will not try new things. Nothing on his plate can touch anything else.
He is extremely fussy (understatement of the year!).
My five year old girl loves meat! Lamb chops are her favourite.
She will try almost anything and loves to eat.
But she does not like vegetables...not even mashed potato...neither does my boy.
I don't get that. I loved mashed potato as a kid!

The problem is I'm not very adventurous in the kitchen.

I don't like to cook or bake.

I know, I'm a bad mum.

I have Jessica Seinfeld's Book and a lot of it sounds and looks fabulous,

and also too much bother.

So what I'm really asking for here are some really easy...I'm talking basic...recipes.

Do you have any tried and tested, fail safe ideas or recipes that your kids love?

If you do would you please link them up below or leave a link in the comments?

Pretty please......

I'll be eternally grateful.

Could This Be A Winner?

Hold the phone people, I think I'm onto something!

I've battled, I've struggled, I've pretty much given up on getting my 6 year old boy to try new food.
He pretty much eats the same thing every day...for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
And I'm pretty much sick.of.it!

But, what can you do?
I've read loads of books, blogs, and advice on getting children to eat healthily.
I have Jessica Seinfeld's book for Christ's sake!
I don't use it, but I have it.

Anyhow, any of you who know anything about my boy will know he gets hooked on things.
Last year it was the solar system, the year before that it was numbers, before that it was Cars...you get the idea.

His thing-of-the-moment is the world.
The globe, world maps, countries, population, languages, and any facts and figures that pertain.

So, here's the brain wave.
I happened to pick up a packet of Asian rice snacks in the supermarket.
You know...like these...

...but there was no way he was going to try them...

until

I told him they were Japanese.
You should have seen his eyes light up.
He tried them.
He liked them!
And now he thinks he might even give sushi a go...
because of course I told him that is Japanese, too.

This is a major breakthrough, people!

I'm excited.

Now I'm looking up food from around the world like it's an assignment worth 100%!

Wish me luck and suggestions are most welcome.

Body Food

This came into my email recently.
It was one of those that have been doing the rounds for ages and you're supposed to pass it on.
I don't usually pass them on, but I found this one really interesting and wanted to share it.
I have no idea whether any of it is true or not, but if the only message we take from it is to eat more natural, whole foods and less processed foods, that can only be a good thing. Right?
So here it is...it makes me want to eat avocados and oranges immediately!

        It's been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish... All before making a human. He made and provided what we'd need before we were born. These are best & more powerful when eaten raw. We're such slow learners...
God left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body!
God's Pharmacy! Amazing! 

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... And YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food. 

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function. 

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

 

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocados, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them). 

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

 
Sweet potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

 
Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

Eeyewww...That's Disgusting!

This is a favourite phrase of my children.
Pretty much whenever they are presented with a new food.
And as maddening as it is, I know they have a point because I remember saying the exact same thing when I was a kid.
We were a farming family.
We had pretty basic food.
Fortunately my taste matured and developed and I love a lot of foods that I thought were disgusting right up until my 20s or 30s even.
Like...


smoked salmon



mussels

 

asparagus



brie cheese



blue cheese

 

olives



capers



anchovies


 

chilli



sushi



There are some foods that I still think of as disgusting. Foods that I have tried or am not particularly eager to try any time soon.
Like...

pate

kidney



brains!

 There are probably loads more but I'm starting to feel....icky in the tummy.

What are your 'disgusting' foods?
Do you have any?

Yes, I am a Short Order Cook!

I'm jealous of mums who have kids who will eat anything, or most things, or even some sort of variety of things.

Comments like...

I don't cook different dinners for my kids, I'm not a short order cook...

If you introduce new foods early, they'll eat anything...

I don't let my kids leave the table until they've eaten everything on their plate...

My kids eat what I tell them or they get nothing...

just make me feel like a bad mum.

And having my mother-in-law say to me, "What does he eat? You must tear your hair out," doesn't help either.

No, I don't tear my hair out.
No, I don't turn dinner time into a battle.
No, I don't make eating a major issue.

But I do see other mum's blogs with lovely dinner ideas and wish....if only my kids would eat that.
I do get sick of cooking the same thing for the kids...every.night.of.the.week.

I have one child that will attempt new foods, and is a pretty 'good' eater.
And I have one who won't. 
You can give me any advice or ideas under the sun, it's not going to change the fact that you cannot force a child to eat what they do not want to eat.

I've read a lot of books on this topic.
I've spoken to a lot of other mums.
I'm not a good cook, I'm not a foodie, so I'm not coming up with new ideas every day.
To be honest, I don't think it matters as much as some people do.

I don't fill our house with junk food.
We very, very rarely eat take-away.
My children are both in the healthy weight range for their ages.

It would be really nice if they did eat anything.
But it would be nicer if other people didn't put so much pressure on the whole eating issue.
They eat if they're hungry.
They eat healthily enough.
That's good enough for me.
I can live with the boredom of cooking the same thing for them every night, and something else for us,
because the one thing this parenting gig has taught me is that...

'this too will pass.'