Fun and easy meals for the whole family

As I’m sure most of you are aware, getting Hannah to eat (a healthy variety of stuff that is) has been a huge battle. It’s hard enough getting fussy kids to eat, but thinking of things to cook just adds to the stress. Today’s guest post can help with meal ideas:
It can sometimes be a challenge to make meals that everyone in the family will love; one child may prefer vegetarian while another may think vegetables are the worst thing ever. Your partner may be fussy and you may be short on time. Luckily there are plenty of options to make meal times easy, fun and delicious experiences for everyone involved. Sites such as Ziegler and Brown can provide you with recipes AND the equipment to cook on – check out these tips to take the pain out of cooking.

Breakfast

Eggs, bacon, mushrooms, sausages, tomatoes. Add or subtract ingredients as required. Vegetarian? Drop the meat or replace with vegetarian alternatives. Mega carnivore? Throw some quick cooking BBQ steak into the mix or go mad and have some chops. There are endless varieties to be had with the mix and match approach to the first and most important meal of the day.

Lunch

Whether it’s a long lazy lunch with some friends and a bottle of wine, or an indigestion inducing grab, eat and dash speed lunch, regardless of the time that’s available, you’ll want something tasty. If you’re time poor then perhaps opt for some pre-prepared salads, crusty bread and a variety of meats from the local deli but if you’ve got hours to spend, why not prepare a slow-cooked Osso Bucco? If you get it in the oven at the start of the day, by lunch time you’ll be feasting on a delicious meal of tender cooked meats – and once it’s in the oven, you’re free for the rest of the morning.

Dinner

Dinner is quite possibly one of the most traumatic meal-times because everyone’s tired from their busy days. Ease the pain with something simple: pizza. Everyone loves pizza and once the dough has been made and importantly, proofed, it’s the same basic process with only the toppings to vary according to taste. The variations are limitless and the cooking time is short so make your life easy- have a separate bowl for each topping and knock ‘em out.

Snacks

A little bit of deep-fried food never hurt anyone; as the saying goes, after all, everything in moderation. Some deliciously light crumbed calamari drizzled with lemon juice will certainly fill that empty stomach until the next meal comes around. Or maybe some churros are more to your liking? These delicious fried long doughnut-like delights are sure to satisfy cravings for sugary goodness. Remember to exercise restraint though.

Morning/Afternoon Tea

One could easily refer back to our snacks tip for an easy solution but perhaps a simple fruit platter or selection of vegetable crudities would be more up your alley? Get your fruit and/or vegetables, slice them up and serve. Easy. Simple. Healthy.

Are you tempted by any of these suggestions? Or are you outraged that saturated fats have made it on the tips list? What are your go-to meals when you’re short on time and energy? Comment below to share your opinions, ideas and personal experiences.

*This post was in cooperation with Ziegler and Brown.

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson

Chocolate carrot/pumpkin cake

I like chocolate.  And cake.  And cookies.  Pretty much all the things that are nutritionally void, and laden with excess sugar and empty calories.  So, i’ve been trying to find recipes for healthy versions of my favourite treats, but more often, just converting the regular ones.

Last night, Hannah and I made a chocolate pumpkin cake loosely based on this recipe that we modified a whole lot to be way healthier.  I also didn’t have quite enough pumpkin, so I used some carrot too.  The cake turned out to be very delicious, moist, and crowd pleasing at playgroup this morning.  At least people told me they liked it…..

Chocolate carrot/pumpkin cake:

1 1/3 cup wholemeal self raising flour (1 cup of wholemeal flour has 15.8g of dietary fibre, 63% of your daily needs, compared to a measly 3% in white flour, 14.8g of protein, and also contains calcium and potassium

1/2 cup cocoa (100% cocoa powder) (promotes cardiovascular health, reduces LDL cholesterol whilst increasing HDL cholesterol (which is the good kind), and is also an anti-depressant)

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (regulates blood sugar, fights infection, combats menstrual pain, reduces chronic inflammation)

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (fights fatigue and stress, reduces inflammation, relieves indigestion)

1/3 cup milk (full of calcium and protein, reduces symptoms of PMS)

1 TBSP fresh lemon juice (contains antioxidants, vitamin C, aids digestion)

1/2 cup cooked, mashed pumpkin (cooled) (contains lots of beta-carotene, a cancer fighting antioxidant, high in dietary fibre, rich in vitamins A and B, also contains the minerals calcium, potassium, and phosphorus)

1/4 cup cooked, mashed carrot (cooled) (lots of vitamin A and beta-carotene, reduces risk of lung, colon, and breast cancer, reduces risk of stroke)

1 TBSP pure vanilla extract, preferably the real stuff, not imitation (reduces nausea, gives the illusion of sweetness)

3/4 cup organic butter, softened (Don’t let the butter scare you. We need fat in our diets, and butter is full of vitamin A, D, E and K, contains lecithin, which is essential for metabolising cholesterol, contains antioxidants, aids in mineral absorption, it’s fatty acids have antimicrobial, anti-tumour, and anti-cancer properties.  Yes, it’s high in cholesterol, but we also need cholesterol to “produce a variety of steroids that protect against cancer, heart disease, and mental illness.”  Did you know that human breast milk contains around 50% saturated fat, the highest proportion of cholesterol then almost any other food.  The french, who consume a diet very high in saturated fat from butter and cheese, have a very low rate of heart disease.  To read more about butter, click here. I wanted to give you a link to a journal article, but you wouldn’t be able to read it without paying, so I didn’t. I can read it through my university library website.  Student privileges you see….)

3/4 cup raw organic honey (honey should not be consumed by anyone under the age of 1.  That said, raw honey is anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fungal, it contains vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, C, magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium chlorine, sulphur, and phosphate, strengthens the immune system.  Commercial honey has been pasteurised and had all or most of the pollen removed, and does not have all of the benefits listed above)

Stevia to taste (can be liquid, or puree the fresh leaves with your pumpkin and carrot) (Stevia is a natural sweetener that is about 300 times sweeter than sugar.  It does not elevate blood sugar levels, and hardly has any calories.  If you use too much, especially of the raw leaves, it does have a liquorice like after taste, but hey, if you like liquorice, that’s not really a bad thing.  I am growing a stevia plant in a pot outside.  You don’t need much of it, so use sparingly.

3 free range eggs (rich in vitamins, and full of easily digestible protein.  Eggs from free range chickens contain higher levels of vitamins and are more resistant to salmonella)

Method:

1. Combine dry ingredients in medium sized bowl

2. Whisk milk, lemon juice, vanilla, pumpkin, carrot, and stevia together in small bowl

3. Beat honey and softened butter together in large bowl on medium until well combined

4. Add eggs one at a time and beat until incorporated after each addition

5. Pour flour mixture and milk mixture on top of butter mixture and stir together with a wooden spoon until well combined

6. Pour cake mix into baking paper lined 10 inch round baking pan and bake at 180C (350F) for 35 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.  You can use different sized pans, just keep an eye on the baking time (smaller pans will mean the cake is thicker and will need a longer time, bigger will yield a thinner cake and require less time).

7. If you’re really on top of things, cool the cake on a wire rack, but if not, that’s ok too.  I just let mine sit in it’s pan and it was fine.

After sufficiently cool, put cake in the the fridge.  This cake tastes best cold.  Not room temperature, from the fridge cold.  Once cool, it goes all fudgey and delicious.  Of course you shouldn’t consume a large amount of the cake because despite being nutritious, it still has calories.  You can rest assured knowing that your little “treat” wasn’t just empty calories, but is providing you with lots of good nourishment.

Cut into 12 slices and each slice has 166 calories.

Close up. See how fudgey it is? Yummmmmmy….

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Food science

University just got more interesting.  This semester, one of my two classes is Food Science 1.  I like food, and I like science, so goodness me, this is going to be good.

I had my first lecture for food science yesterday and found my entire course of 11 people sitting together in the second row of the lecture theatre, with all the kids from the nutrition and dietician courses scattered everywhere else.  I was sitting there too but didn’t realise they were all in my course until the one person I did know introduced me to everyone.  I just like to sit up front because I’m a nerd like that. I’m rather pleased that they are all nerds like that too.

I’m going to learn a lot about food this semester, supplementing my newfound knowledge, I will be attending workshops every other week in a lab/kitchen.  In the first lab, we will be making fresh orange juice, and then testing it to find out some of it’s nutritional profile.  Things will get interesting when we do the same tests on long life orange juice that you find on the non-refrigerated shelves of supermarkets, as well as bottled juice you find in the cold section.  Now those results will be interesting!!

We get to do the same thing with yogurt (and yes, we get to make our own, which is good because I have made my own before, but it never turns out very well), bread, and sausages.  I’m really looking forward to the bread workshop.  Every single bread available for purchase seems to contain soy, but 93% of the world’s soy is genetically modified (and by genetically modified, I don’t mean a long history of selective breeding, I mean desired genes from a different organism, such as bacteria, are inserted into the DNA of a seed/crop).  Since I don’t particularly want to be a guinea pig for the long term health complications of GM food (Feeding studies of GM crops are generally undertaken by the very company that modified the seeds, and only last a maximum of 90 days.  There has been one independent lifetime feeding study in rats, lasting 2 years, with very scary results.  Although controversial, no one else has attempted a lifetime feeding study, so although GM foods claim to be safe, are they really? Do we really know in the long term?), I would like to avoid eating such things.  I’ve tried making my own bread, sans all the preservatives and soy, but it always comes out almost hard as a rock, and not very tasty.  Needless to say, I’d love to learn how to make it properly, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the nutritional test results.

Tumours on rats who ate GM corn in a lifetime feeding study (image courtesy of The Daily Mail)

This semester is certainly going to be interesting.  I’ll be sure to let you know the results of my orange juice, yogurt, and bread tests.  Hopefully you’re interested, but if not, sorry in advance, I’m going to write about it anyway.  It makes me feel better.

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The Masterchef

Eagerly, I thrust my hand in the air.  Despite there being over 300 people in the room, only a few of us had our hands up, volunteering to be in the next Masterchef challenge.  Two challenges had already played out.  This was my last opportunity to be chosen as a challenge participant.

My church was packed out for The Masterchef event with Kate Bracks

The first challenge was won by the mother of one of the night’s comedic hosts, for her stellar efforts in the art of mashed potato.

“It’s a good thing you’re in politics.” Kate Bracks, winner of Masterchef Australia 2011, told contestant number two, a local politician and wife of this area’s mayor, after tasting her pitiful rendition of mashed potato.

With a giant grin plastered on my face, I walked up to the stage.

“The last challenge is…. A taste test!” The other comedic host told everyone as I was on my way up to the stage.

Part of me wanted to run back to my seat, just in case the taste test involved red meat. Or beans. Or brussel sprouts.  Or brains.  Or many things really.  I’m picky, remember?

But the other part didn’t care.  I love being on stage no matter what horrible challenge I’d be faced with, and no matter how much my legs shake with nerves.

“You’ll be tasting minestroni.”  In true Masterchef style, three contestants, me, the youth minister of the church I attend, and Kate Bracks herself, took it in turns to name the ingredients of the soup, with elimination for an incorrect answer, until there was just one person left.

Uh-oh, I don’t even like soup.  Or beans.  Or whatever questionable meat lurks in that soup.

I walked over to the giant bowl of soup, eyeing it off whilst stirring.

Not tasting the minestroni soup

I could clearly see some of the ingredients of the soup without the need to use taste to discern everything the soup contained.

The three of us took turns a few times until Craig said basil.

“Nope, that’s not on the ingredients list.” One of the hosts said.

“Hmmm…I can definitely taste basil in there.” Kate Bracks told everyone.

“The correct answer was pesto.”

There is definitely basil in pesto, but if pesto as a whole was put in the soup, rather than all the parts, then basil would be incorrect, right? I mean if you put chocolate chips in a desert, you wouldn’t say you put cocoa solids and whatever else is in chocolate chips, you’d just say chocolate chips.  It was definitely a controversial elimination, but that just left Kate Bracks, and little old me.  Did I mention she won Masterchef?

Back and forth we went.  Still, I didn’t taste.  I’ve watched enough Masterchef to know what sort of cheeky ingredients not to forget about.  Salt for example.  And stock.  And pepper.

We got down to the last 4 ingredients.  The hosts gave me a hint.  They gave Kate a hint.  Then back to me. I had no idea what to say.

Trying to figure out what’s in the soup

“A patch where it’s said babies grow.” One of the hosts said for my hint.  Or something to that effect.  I can’t remember the exact phrase.

I didn’t even think.  Immediately, I blurted out “PUMPKIN!” excitedly.  After my verbal diarrhoea, I knew I was wrong.  I should have known better, Cabbage Patch Dolls were my favourite toys growing up.  Why did I say pumpkin?  Oh, that’s right, because every time I go to the plaza, I walk past a shop full of beautiful kids clothes that would look fantastic on my little monkeys.  If I could justify spending $50 on one piece of kids clothing.  Needless to say, we don’t own any of the cute clothes from Pumpkin Patch.  Seems Pumpkin Patch is ingrained in my brain though.  Stupid expensive clothing store!

Kate Bracks was absolutely lovely.  She is such a funny, nice, down to earth, inspiring person, and I’m so glad I had the chance to do a challenge with her.  It was so much fun.

Despite what it may look like, Kate Bracks was not trying to grab my butt

She also gave a cooking demonstration using camp stove on the church stage where she almost lost her eyebrows to a fireball.

I got my Sweet Life cookbook signed, and Kate said she liked my hot pink running shoes.  They are pretty awesome.

Kate Bracks and me

Not only was The Masterchef a fantastic, fun night, but the proceeds are benefitting local charities that feed the needy, and attendees brought grocery items for the needy as well.

A special thank you to Garden Gourmet, who answered my email and supplied recipe cards to the goody bags (Unlike all of the other companies I’ve worked with and emailed, who didn’t bother emailing me back)  Oh yes, attendees got goody bags.  I do like me a goody bag.

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Copyright 2013 Sheri Thomson

A bike for Christmas

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!  I turned over, still half asleep, and looked at the clock with blurry eyes, not recognising what the beeping until a few seconds later.  5am. It was my alarm.

“Merry Christmas Boo! Did you sleep ok?” I asked Aaron.

“Not really.  You?”

“Horribly. Between the wind and the garbage trucks at 3am, I hardly got any sleep.”  Maybe some of that sleeplessness was due to excitement. I couldn’t wait to see the kids’ happy faces when they opened their presents.  But seriously, who allowed the garbage men to collect the bins at 3am? So uncalled for.

Aaron and I wanted to be showered, and have our stockings already opened before the kids woke up. They are too young to sit around watching us open stockings, they want to open their own, and we didn’t want to miss them opening theirs by being distracted with ours.

Daniel and Hannah with their stockings. Daniel was still half asleep and had no idea what was going on.

We were super naughty and ate some of the s’mores Pop Tarts that I got in my stocking. Aaron managed to find all sorts of American goodies for me. I guess it was more of a pre-breakfast snack. We had a proper breakfast with bacon, eggs, toast, and hash browns after church. But you know, it was Christmas, so calories didn’t count. Especially since I went for a 4 kilometer run that evening, which, at the time, was my longest run ever. I’ve since completed a 5K run, after which, I nearly exploded, but that’s another story for another day.

My Christmas evening run. I had to make the most of the cool weather.

We went to Aaron’s Mum (YaYa) and Grandma’s house to open more presents and have lunch. Nothing like the gigantic gathering of relatives my family in the states has, but it was a gathering none the less. Christmas time is always weird for me over here. It just doesn’t seem right having Christmas in the summer.

This year felt a little more normal. The clouds opened and saturated the area with what turned out to be the most rain on Christmas day since 1942, and the coldest in 5 years. A mere 21 degrees (69.8f).  That’s more like a Seattle Christmas. Only far warmer.

Hannah decided she would be the present hander-outer. Which of course was difficult, since she can’t actually read.

“Mommy, who is this one for?”

“That one is for Aunty Jess and Uncle Jim.” I told her.

She skipped off, present in hand and gleefully handed it to Aunty Jess. “That’s not all Aunty Jess, there’s a coffe machine too!” Hannah told her as The Jess opened up a box of chocolates.

Everyone froze for a second, looking at each other wondering what to say, quickly followed by bursts of giggles.

“Well, I guess you can open it now then.” I said, giving The Jess the wrapped coffee machine.

Everyone opened presents all at the same time. There were no turns, there was no order, just chaos as we all got handed presents and opened them at our leisure.  Turn order would have taken hours and the kids would have been over it after 10 minutes.  Maybe when they’re older….

Daniel was running around putting things on his head and trying to steal Hannah’s things until he opened a box full of Dora figurines, his present from Aunty Jess and Uncle Jim. He does love Dora.

After about an hour of present opening (I know, there were way too many presents, Grandma and YaYa always buy the kids way too much stuff and spoil the them rotten), it came to the end. I took Hannah out of the room and when we came back, there was a big thing sitting there, in the middle of the room, covered in sheets.

“Hannah, that’s your present.” We told her.

She excitedly ran up to it and pulled the sheets off, revealing a shiny new pink bike with a basket, tassels, and even a seat in the back for her dolly.  Or in this case, an obnoxious penguin that sings Jingle Bells over and over again. Hannah cuddled that penguin all day.

Hannah on her first bike ride

She was over the moon. Immediately, we took her outside to give it a spin, which we filmed with our new GoPro camera (that Aaron and I got each other for Christmas) mounted on her handle bars.

Hannah got to ride for about 15 minutes before it started pouring down rain.

We stuffed ourselves silly at lunch time, followed by a decadent, choc mud mirror cake that I made from an Adriano Zumbo cake mix. Oh. My. Gosh. Delicious. It was an expensive mix, but totally worth it.

Adriano Zumbo choc mud mirror cake. The one that I made.

And then after the kids went to bed, I went running. On Christmas. As you do. And yes, I am a hypocrite. Earlier that day, I told The Jess she was crazy for wanting to work out on Christmas, and earlier in the week I told another friend the same thing. Oh well….

Hannah doing gymnastics on the handrail

Hannah with one of the sparklers Aunty Jess got her

Grandma’s table decorated for Christmas lunch

The Jess and me with our Christmas earrings

Hannah after eating her small piece of mud cake. We had to take her shirt off because it was covered in cake

The gingerbread house Hannah and I made in November. She finally got to have a piece on Christmas day

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Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

It’s not poop

Aldi often has random things. For those of you who don’t know what Aldi is, it’s supermarket from Germany that mostly sells it’s own brands, and it’s cheaper than your usual supermarkets. It’s kind of like Costco.  If Costco decided to stop taking steroids.

Anyway, the other day they had meatloaf. Already made up, no preservatives, vegetables already inside it, in it’s own disposable baking tray, not very expensive, meatloaf. Awesome. If you recall, I don’t eat beef . I think it tastes vile. Aaron likes it though, but I hardly ever cook it. I want the kids to eat it too and not be a fussy pants like me.

Tempo Meat Loaf Mix, 12-Count Box of 2.75-Ounce Packets

So I bought the meatloaf. Any beef that I don’t have to stick my hands into or actually touch in any way, shape, or form, is great. Yes, I’m one of those weirdos who doesn’t even like to eat food was cooked next to beef. The beef will contaminate it. Duh.

I baked the loaf in the oven, then cut a piece for Daniel and another for Hannah as part of their dinner (in addition to corn on the cob, and some fruit. Don’t forget the meatloaf already had other vegetables in it. Like peas. And carrot).

Daniel, hoover that he is, couldn’t get it in fast enough. He devoured that meatloaf like it was going out of style. The other day, he stole a lamb cutlet from a platter of them and ate it like an ice cream cone. But that’s another story for another day. He’s such a boy….

I put Hannah’s 3-separate-areas, melamine plate in front of her. She looked at it all funny. Her index finger slowly came forward and poked the meatloaf.

“That’s POOP!” She exclaimed.

Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh….

“It’s NOT poop!” I told her, containing my inner fits of laughter, “it’s meatloaf.”

“It’s poop! We don’t eat poop Mommy.” She told me, all matter-of-factly.

Everyone Poops

“It’s not poop Hannah, it’s meatloaf.” The laughter was getting harder and harder to contain. I still wanted my little comedian to try her meatloaf. Or at least believe me that it was not poop.

“No, it’s definitely poop.”

Once Hannah is convinced of something, there is no changing her mind. She is stubborn like that. Sigh.

She got up out of her chair. She no longer sits in one of those booster seats that doesn’t let her escape because of it’s buckles. She says she’s a big girl now and had me take the booster seat off of her chair.

The First Years Disney Princess Simple and Secure Booster

“Sit down Hannah, it’s dinner time. You don’t have to eat your food, but you have to sit at the table during dinner time.”

“I have to go pee-pee.” She’s clever. She goes pee-pee during dinner every. single. night. Sigh. But I can’t really refuse her the use of the potty either.

“Ok, go pee-pee, wash your hands, then come straight back and sit at the table.”

She did. Only she didn’t sit in her chair, she went and sat in Aaron’s chair (he was still at work. He doesn’t get home in time for the kids’ dinner).

“That’s not your chair Hannah, that’s Daddy’s spot.”

“I don’t want to sit next to the poop!”

I couldn’t contain my laughter any longer. I know I shouldn’t have laughed but how could I not?

“It’s not poop Hannah. Look, Daniel ate all of his meatloaf. He loves it. He wouldn’t eat it if it was poop.”

So she got down out of Daddy’s chair, picked the meatloaf up with her fork, carried it over to Daniel’s booster seat tray, and shook the fork until the meatloaf fell off.

“Here Daniel, you can have my poop since you like it so much.”

If you want to win a book pack containing What to Expect When You’re Expecting, What to Expect The First Year, AND What to Expect The Second Year (great for presents if you aren’t pregnant or have little kids yourself), go here to my reviews blog to enter.

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Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

An afternoon at home

“Mommy, I want to do craft!” Hannah told me.

“Hmmmm…Ok, if you sit up at the dining table, you can do some drawing.” I told her.

“I want to paste.” Sigh. There certainly won’t be any pasting at the table. I’d end up with a bunch of random, torn pieces of paper all stuck to the table.

“No sweetie, not at the table.”

“How about at my desk?” Cheeky little monkey, she always has a solution. But I can’t let her paste at her desk because Daniel is awake and he likes to eat everything he is not supposed to. Paper. Paste. Pens. Crayons. Stickers. Pencils. The list goes on. And Hannah’s desk is within his chubby little reach. Plus he stands at her desk, swiping all of her things while she’s trying to make stuff, and if I don’t let him swipe her things, he holds on to the desk, rocks himself back and forth like a madman, and makes obnoxious tantrum/whingey noises. Sometimes to the point of whacking his face on the desk. Or bathtub. Or whatever it is he may be tantruming on. Sigh.

I feel bad because I used to do craft with Hannah all the time. Before Daniel. Now it’s a bit hard.

I set her up at the table with her art supplies. Out of Daniel’s reach. She gets out her paint pens and gets her art on. Daniel is happily pushing a car around the living room floor on his hands and knees.

Painting at the table

I take the opportunity to make dinner. It’s hard to get time for that, without one whinging and the other attempting to climb up my leg whist whinging. Did I mention whinging?

Stir. Check on the kids. Chop some stuff. Check on the kids. Add to the pot. Check on the kids. Repeat.

Where’s Daniel? He isn’t pushing his car around. He isn’t getting into the drawer.

I look over towards the table. Hannah’s paint tubes are everywhere. Her hands look like half a dozen paint tubes vomited all over them. Paint tubes are all over the floor. And there is Daniel, sitting under the table eating a tube of paint. Cheeky boy.

His mouth is an interesting shade of blue. And sparkley. Luckily it’s non-toxic.

I get up to get some wipes.

As I kneel back down, he puts something questionable in his mouth. As I shove my fingers in his mouth in a vain attempt to retrieve the questionalbe item, he swallows it.  An old pea maybe? Lucky I vacuumed the day before. Can’t have been too old. I try to pick up all the food that falls on the floor when they eat, but the carpet is brown. It’s like camouflage.

I clean Daniel up and take Hannah to the bathroom to wash her hands.

Daniel follows us in, lightning fast, and shoves his hands in Hannah’s potty. He has an obsession with it. He leans over and to give it a chew. Ick. I leave Hannah standing on her monkey stool washing her hands while I pick Daniel up to avoid a probable e-coli infection.

I clean him up again.

Dinner time.

“I don’t want it.” Hannah says without trying it. She won’t even get in her chair. Like merely going near her wholegrain macaroni pasta bake with spinach, chicken, peas, corn, and carrots would give her leprosy (Aaron and I had it for dinner too. It was delicious by the way).

Daniel likes the pasta. He eats quite a lot. And then decides that he needs to sweep his tray clean with his arms. He puts his forearms on his tray and flaps them back and forth like windshield wipers on red cordial, knocking the rest of his food to the floor in an instant. Sigh.

He takes a drink of water from his sippy cup and then spits half of it back out. Just like he always does. Sigh.

I get a wipe and attempt to remove the food from all over his face.

He cries, turns his head from side to side remarkably fast, and grabs at the cloth with both hands. Apparently he likes having a face full of food.

Time for a bath.

Sassy Bathtime Pals Squirt and Float Toys

I get some wash cloths and turn the water on in the tub. I get Daniel in the bath and have to call for Hannah a million times before she comes.

Daniel thinks it’s great fun to shove his face in the water and eat bubbles. And drink the water. He coughs. Apparently it didn’t go down so well. But he does it repeatedly anyway. He finds it hilarious. I don’t, I sit there hoping he doesn’t actually inhale any of the water and drown, dreading every second.

After a while he gets a little too rambunctious and tries to stand up on the side of the slippery bath. I have a non-slip bath mat in there, but it doesn’t go right up the sides of the bath. Once (probably more than once), he hit his head on the side of the bath. He’s a bit wild like that. I sit him down, but he just gets back up again, shoves his face in the water, giggles, and then tries to climb the bath again. Time to get out….

Hannah refuses to dress herself even though she can. Instead she stands next to the change table and cries/whinges as I attempt to dry, moisturise, and nappy Daniel. Daniel is crying too. He hates getting dressed. He’s screaming and flailing and doing butt lifts, making it nearly impossible for me to get his nappy on.

I take him off the change table and try to put his clothes on. He turns into a giant pretzel, making it super hard to get his sleepy suit on. Hannah still refuses to clothe herself and is whinging in my ear the whole time.

When I finally get his clothes on, it’s Hannah’s turn.

I put her on the change table to put a nappy on for night time. Daniel pulls himself up on my pant leg, nearly pulling my pants down, looks at me with those big brown pick-me-up-please-mommy, googley eyes and cries when I don’t.

I get Hannah down from the change table and sit her on my lap to put her feet in her pant legs. Daniel thinks we’re having some sort of awesome fun piggy pile. He crawls over and excitedly stands up next to me, pulling Hannah’s hair and giggling whilst trying to get in my lap.

“NO DANIEL!” Hannah yells. Sigh.

Just a typical afternoon in the Thomson house.

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Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

The sneaky meat

I’m sure you’re all aware that Hannah refuses to eat anything that remotely resembles meat.  Or fish.  Or eggs.  Anything protein really.  I’ve tried different tactics, some of which have worked for a little bit, some that have failed miserably.

Yesterday, I had a brainwave (what, someone with baby brain can have brainwaves?).  Hannah LOVES those little kids yogurts that come in squeezey packs.  But what if I gave her a squeezey pack that contained not yogurt, but meat.  Of course there are other things in there too, like vegetables, but what ever, there’s meat in there!  Usually when I slave over the stove, making her healthy wonderful home made food, she takes one look at it, turns her nose up and says “Done!”  Or, to add more insult to injury, she looks at it, refuses to sit in her chair, flaps her arms and legs, makes like a wiggle worm, and starts yelling “NO!!” as if I’m about to put her in a pool full of sharks.

I couldn't find a photo of the meat ones, but this is a squeezey pack. Photo courtesy of Rafferty's Garden

So what if she can’t see the meaty goop she is about to ingest?  Sure those wonderful, foul smelling squeezey packs of baby food are for babies from 6 months old (due to being pureed…), and not really for toddlers, but who cares, they contain MEAT!  She could actually get some protein into her diet.

As I arrived in the baby aisle at Coles, I found that the meaty squeezey packs were on sale.  Score!  I grabbed 4 different packs (beef and something, chicken and apricot, chicken and something else, and tuna and something.  Seriously, you can’t expect me to remember all of them, I have baby brain).  Hannah, cheeky monkey that she is, saw me put her beloved squeezey packs in the trolley (cart) and yelled “yogurt, yogurt!”

Ok, what the heck, I gave her one then and there.  She seemed to want it more than anything else in the entire world at that moment in time, so why not go for it?  When I handed her the opened squeezey pack of wonder, she started making her over-excited giggle noise that pretty much sounds like a nanny goat and is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

She went at that squeezey pack with vigor, squeezing and sucking its guts out.  She didn’t take a sip and then pull that this-is-the-most-disgusting-thing-i’ve-ever-had face and say done, or no.  Quite the contrary, she had some, made the nanny goat noise, then had some more.  She ate nearly the entire pack.  She probably would have eaten all of it if she hadn’t had breakfast (with seconds, she loves breakfast.  This morning, she had Special K for breakfast) only 2 hours earlier.

When we got home and she found the other squeezey packs of wonder in the shopping bags, she wanted more.  Hopefully this trend will continue, and she will eat whatever I give her out of a squeezey pack.  In a week or so, when she is used to the taste of the meat, I will try putting the contents of a squeezey pack on some pasta, or some rice.  If she eats that, I will put some little chunks of meat on it too.  If she eats that, I will make everything from scratch again, in hope that she will be used to the taste, smell, texture, and whatnot of the meat, and actually devour it happily.

This is the plan.  Wish me luck.

When blueberries backfire

I have been taking the patient approach in getting Hannah to eat her dinner; putting it in front of her and if she wants it, she eats, if she says “done” and tries to get down, I put her down.  Without dinner.  She does get milk before bed time though.  I don’t want to force her to eat because, well, let’s face it, you can’t actually force someone to eat something unless you shove a tube down their throat and then throw the food in, I don’t want her to develop a bad relationship to food, or use food to gain control (or think she is in control), and I don’t want her to dread meal time.  I read a book that said toddlers will never starve themselves, usually they are eating a lot more than we realise as they are constant grazers, and they don’t need as much food as they did before because they grow a lot less.  Fair enough.

The other day, Hannah wanted me to put together the wooden train set she got for Christmas.  “Train!” she told me.  I, on the other hand, was trying to get her to put her pants on.

“Put your pants on, and then I’ll make the train for you.”  I told her.

“NO!”  “Train!”

“No train until you put your pants on.”  I calmly told her.

“No!”

This went around a few times and then something amazing happened:  She came over to me, sat in my lap and stuck her foot in the air so I could put a pant leg on it.  Just like that, she let me put her pants on.  Then I put the train track together.  Everyone was happy.

And I got an idea….

I made Hannah hokkien noodles with vegetables, egg, and a little bit of honey soy sauce for dinner (which is delicious by the way, thanks Romana for the idea).  I put it in front of her.

“Done!”  She exclaimed while trying to get out of her high chair, without so much as smelling the delicious dinner I slaved over the stove to make for her.

“Do you want a blueberry?”  I asked her.

“Blueberry!”

“Ok, I’ll give you a blueberry if you eat one bite of dinner.”

“NO!”

“Do you want a blueberry?”  I asked her again.

Photo courtesy of bewellbuzz.com

“Please.” She said with her cute little face.

“First eat one bite of food, then you can have a blueberry.”

She opened her mouth, and ate a bite of dinner.  I gave her a blueberry.  I gave her another bite of food, then a blueberry.  Soon, she had eaten her entire dinner.  I was ecstatic.  I’m pretty sure she was too, blueberries are her favourite.  That was the first time in her entire life that she has actually eaten egg.  She doesn’t like egg.  She doesn’t like chicken.  Or beef, or fish.  She pretty much doesn’t like any sort of protein unless it’s hidden in pancakes in the form of wheat germ.

We did the same thing the next night, and she ate all of her dinner.  I’m really onto something.

Or so I thought.

I tried to give her something other than the noodles the night after that.  I made her some Vietnamese rice paper rolls with a tiny bit of  teriyaki chicken, grated carrot, grated cucumber, some sort of little noodle that looks like glass, and avocado.  She took a bite, then promptly spit it out while making a face that conveyed grossness.  She wouldn’t eat it anymore.  I wouldn’t give her a blueberry.  She got really upset.  I made her some more noodles like she had eaten the previous 2 nights.  Nope, didn’t want that either.  Wouldn’t eat anything (except for blueberries, which I wasn’t going to give her if she didn’t first take a bite of dinner).  Stalemate.  She got down with no dinner.

Sigh.  Now I’ll have to think of another way to get her to eat her food.  Any ideas?  Or maybe she will go back to bribery as long as it’s something she doesn’t hate.  At least she drinks V8 juice (watered down of course).

What do you want for lunch?

Me: “What do you want for lunch Sweet Pea?”

Hannah: “Bubba.”

Me: “Ok, you stay here with Daddy and I’ll go make you a bubba for lunch.”

Did she eat it?  Nope.  Not a bite.  Ok, that’s not true, she took a bite of the carrot, pretended to gag and then wanted to get down.  Humph.