Case in point.
The boys and I sat down for lunch and ate a lovely raw spread of local produce with hummus and home made bread. We drank tea lightly sweetened with rapadura. Everyone was happy, content, oogling and awing the sweetness of our just picked blueberries. Until......Daddy sat down.
Oddly, the smell of pizza filled the air.
The boys began looking around for the source.
The source was at the table. Sneaking pizza behind his napkin as if none of us would notice.
We all noticed. See for yourself.
Note: He is drinking chocolate milk straight out of the syrup bottle.
2 comments:
Love it! How do you budget when it comes to whole foods? We don't live near many farms that offer CSAs, but I'm trying to move in this direction. How'd you get your boys to eat a different variety of foods? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
Samantha,
one of the most helpful things for us has been joining a food co-op. We are able to buy in bulk the foods that we eat at the same price that stores pay for it. This provides us a lot of savings. IT is more up front, which is the same as buying local chicken or beef, but because you HAVE ON HAND everything that you need it means less trips to the store, and ultimately more money saved. I buy in bulk and I buy simple. You will not find colorful packages of all sorts of ingredients in my panty. Its pretty simple: different types of grains, raw cocoa, honey, rapadura, coconut milk and oil, different types of beans and legums, etc.
The fridge has dairy and produce, with some really basic and mostly homemade condiments. From these simple ingredients we make a huge variety of things! Here is what I have found helpful.
1. Make a list of what your family already likes and begin to make it at home. Make extra, and freeze if you can.
2. Try to join a natural food co-op, it saves you tons! You usually place an order online and then pick up once a month. Check if Country Life Foods or UNFI are in your area.
3. Plan your meals according to what is in season and buy this fresh each week.
4. Remember to savor the cooling and food preparation process. (this will help your son learn to love his veggies!) If he sees you adoring and oogling over a fresh tomato he is going to learn the beauty of it too!
There is a lot more, perhaps I will do an entire post on it. In terms of getting to kids to eat the good stuff here is what I advise:
1. Only serve the good stuff!
2. Include kids in the preparation, let them touch, taste, etc.
3. I am big on asking my kids to be my taste testers. I will give them each a spoon of something they might be resistant too and then ask them to tell me what spices to add. They have all sorts of interesting input. Then, at meal time I announce that the meal was prepared by them.....they eat it because they think they made it. Ha! Its a really helpful trick.
4. I also serve most of our meals with a few dips, like hot sauce, ranch, olive oil, or ketchup. The little dudes love to dip so they eat all sorts of things as long as their is a dip!
Hope this helps some. It is a journey, both fun and frustrating, but life changing. Stay clear of big box stores and head towards people and places that will support you, teach you, and help nourish you and your family. That helps a lot too!
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