Lunch, lunch...love it a bunch

I'm running out of titles for lunch posts, obviously! So, what's for lunch today?

Turkey, cheese, and lettuce on a whole wheat sandwich round, cantaloupe, and sugar snap peas...yum!!

Annoying commercial #22

I'll hand it to the folks at Jimmy Dean...these commercials crack me up! And yes, kids certainly need to eat breakfast to do their best at school each day. But is a frozen and microwaved processed breakfast sandwich the best cure for the "morning villians"? It is just as quick and easy (and far healthier) to opt for whole grain cereal, fruit, yogurt, etc. That'll really get your kids ready to face the day at school!

Growing!!

Everything we planted has sprouted! YAY!

More adventures with an adventurous eater

Wonton soup, cucumber rolls, and spring rolls!

While Harper was at piano lessons the other night, I decided to take Grayson out for a sushi date. Ever since he tried California rolls a few weeks ago (and loved them), he has asked to try more kinds of sushi. I ended up letting him sample several kinds of Asian cuisine while we were there. Remember, what is "foreign" food for us is every day food for people in other countries.Keep exposing your kids to new foods...and make it fun!

What are your kids favorite ethnic foods? What do you do to encourage your kids to try "weird" dishes?

New life!

Good morning, cucumber sprouts! My kids are so excited to watch this process, and I am too! This is an amazing yet simple science project, and will produce such wonderful rewards!

Developing an adventurous eater

My kids will literally try anything. I mean anything...things most adults wouldn't touch.

For instance, my son asked me to buy him sardines to try this past weekend. Sardines? Really? OK. After I opened the can, he was a little more hesitant because they "look like real dead fish," but he ate a few bites and so did my daughter. Neither one of them loved the sardines, but they didn't hate them either.

How did we get so lucky? I don't think it was luck. We taught our kids to be good eaters. We defined them as good eaters who will try anything, and it worked. They've always been expected to try one bite of everything given to them, even if they hated it the last time I served it. We never labeled them as picky eaters when they turned their noses up to something or didn't like a certain food. I believe that labels will stick with a person, good or bad...so why not start off with a good one? Grayson is well known as the kid who eats anything, and Harper is not far behind him.


We talk about food...a lot. My kids know what certain types of food do for your body, good and bad. They are involved in making the grocery lists and meal plans. They help me cook. They help me garden. We watch cooking shows together. I believe being involved with your food and educated about it helps a great deal, too.

 Are your kids adventurous eaters? If so, how do you think they got that way?

Getting the garden started

Easy enough for a four year old!

This weekend, we spent some time planting seeds for our garden - cucumber, carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe, corn, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, spinach, squash, and zucchini. In about 6 weeks, they should be ready to plant in the ground - giving us a leg up on our garden!

Sharing this process with your kids is a great way of getting them involved with the preparation of vegetables and fruits. Seeing this project through from seeds to on their plate is quite a learning experience!

I bought everything to grow 88 plants for about $20. Well worth every penny, and then some! Not only will you reap delicious fruits and vegetables, but you get to have a fun and educational project with your kids!

This is the first time I've used one of these mini greenhouse systems, and I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Strawberries are BACK!

This time of year, there are plenty of signals to let us know warmer weather is just around the corner. One of my favorites is seeing strawberries on sale at the grocery store. This week, I found them for $2.00/quart (not organic - that is pretty hard to come by in this area, especially this time of year, unfortunately). My kids can easily go through a quart in a day, but I try to at least stretch one to two days.

Lunch - turkey & cheese on whole wheat, midget dill pickles, and STRAWBERRIES!

Strawberries are full of nutritional goodness. Did you know just one medium-sized strawberry contains 12% of the vitamin C you need in a day? They are easy to serve because all you have to do to prepare them is wash them well and remove the hull.

Now I can't wait to go pick local berries!

Stuff we can learn from the 80s - Part III

February has been a rough month for my family - flu all around, and now I've been suffering from a raging ear infection for the past week. I know the blog has been slack, and I apologize - I'll be back at it in no time! I've got lots of ideas, so stay tuned.

But for now...