Casseroles

Sometimes I get so excited about trying new things for the boy, that I forget that there are some important “rules” to keep in mind. 

Enter the Hot Dog Cornbread casserole.  The boy LOVES his vegetarian hot dogs.  And the boy really likes cornbread.  The boy will eat actual corn if it is attached to the ear and grilled to perfection (as only my husband can do).  So, when I came across a recipe that included all of these items and a few seasoning ingredients, I thought to myself what a great idea!  Here is where the rule comes into play….the boy does NOT like his food mixed together.  He would have eaten all those items without complaint (except for the corn…I would have had to pull the “mommy card” on that one) had I just prepared them and put them on his plate.  Instead, he stared at the plate for a really long time.  I “encouraged” him to take a bite. I told him of all the yummy goodness that was in that portion on his plate.  He ate his bite.  He was NOT thrilled.  There was not yummy goodness on that plate according to him.  It was food….all mixed together and he was not happy about it.  He did eat what was required of him, but as soon as he completed the number of bites required, he was done. 

So, now as I browse books to find different and nutritious foods for the boy to try, I am going to have to keep in mind that they cannot be in casserole form.  *sigh*  Life with a picky eater can be tough!

Popcorn Shrimp

When a picky eater is involved, and THEY are the one who suggests a new food, certain celebrations are bound to follow.  Take my picky eater….he saw a box of popcorn shrimp.  The name implies fun food.  He has had shrimp before and wants to like it, so he asked if we could get it.  Hey….if the kid wants to try a new food … I am all for it (within reason). 

So, tonight I made some sweet potato chips (baked in the oven with a little olive oil, garlic and a pinch of salt) and cut up a red bell pepper (the boy likes those over the other colors of bell peppers) and made the popcorn shrimp.  He was excited.  He tried one.  Then, he tried one with some barbeque sauce (the boy’s version of ketchup).  He tried one more.  Three popcorn shrimps went into the boy.  He then looked at me and told me, “They don’t taste like I thought that they would.”  Guess what?  That’s OK.  He doesn’t have to like every food.  He just has to be willing to try it.  He was.  He gave them a fair chance.  And I think in the future he will try them again.  I focused on the fact that he tried the food, gave it a fair shake and then admitted that it just wasn’t his thing for the moment.  Who knows what he might try next time.  

Just keep trying!

One of my favorite Pixar characters is Dory, the forgetful fish in “Finding Nemo.”  Dory is the encouraging character that keeps going on even when it seems like quitting is the thing to do.   It is the same here when we try to get the boy to eat his vegetables and other healthy foods.  We just keep trying them and trying them.  And sometimes, we obtain success! 

Sunday was one of those success days.  My husband is usually the weekend cook as he loves to cook and I love his food.  It is a win-win situation.  This past weekend was no different.  On Sunday, he made a delicious pasta sauce with ground turkey along with a side dish of roasted broccoli.  Oh my, was it good!  Now, usually when he makes it, except for the ground turkey in it, the sauce is a smooth texture.  This time, however, he added some crushed tomatoes.  They were small.  But – there were still tomato chunks in there.  The boy gobbled it down.  We did ask him about if he noticed the tomato chunks in there and he said, “yes” but that he was trying not to think about them being in there.  

Yes, he did eat his broccoli.  He wasn’t happy about it, but he ate it.   I did notice that he is more apt to eat his vegetables when he sees me eating mine at the exact same time.  I might have to do an experiment on that.  But, if I tell him to eat his veggies and then start to eat mine at the same time, we have less of an issue about eating them.  Hmmmmm….Something to think about. 

While our success is limited to eating tomato chunks in a sauce is little.  It is a success!  Oh think of the possibilities of what he will eat next!   

Veggie Meats

The boy has been trying and really liking vegetarian “meats.”  He tasted a sausage patty at a grocery store and really liked it.  My husband told him that it was a veggie sausage and he was fine with it.  We did worry that maybe once he ate them again, he wouldn’t be so thrilled.  I will tell you….he LOVES his veggie sausage.  Plus, I don’t feel bad about letting him have sausage every morning at breakfast because he is getting a full serving of veggies to start his day.

The veggie sausage was going really well and so I thought that I would try something else along the vegetarian line.  The boy WANTS to like hot dogs.  He has friends that eat hot dogs and he really wants to be a part of the crowd.  He doesn’t because of what he was told that they contain.  In fact, unless it was a turkey hot dog cooked only on the grill, he refused to eat it.  Well, while shopping in the grocery store today, I came across vegetarian hot dogs.  They looked just like the real deal.  I was a little concerned when I took it out of the package because I could see that it didn’t quite look like a real hot dog.  I told him, before I served it to him, that it was a healthy version of a hot dog.  He was setting the table and took his plate over to the table.  He said that his mouth was watering because his food looked so good.  He ate every bite.  I told him that it was a veggie hot dog and he looked at me and shrugged his shoulders and said, “OK.”  Sometimes eating healthy means making switches from the food you used to eat (like sausage) or foods you want to eat (like hot dogs) to healthier versions.  Let’s hope I continue to have such great success with yummy and nutritious foods.     

Hidden Sugar

I came across this article yesterday written by Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD for WebMD.  The article can be found here.  I have to admit that while I have known that there are some foods that have sweetness to them, that there can be a LOT of added sugar added to things to appeal to our need for a sweet taste.  It can be so deceiving on how much sugar is added. 

I took a popular brand of cereal that has an excellent reputation for their healthiness factor.  This particular brand has a regular flavor and ten other flavors including a multigrain version and several other tasty versions.  All over the front of these cereal boxes it is stated that these cereals contain whole grains and are approved by the American Heart Association.  However, in order for these cereals to all appear to be the same in calories the serving size is changed.  Out of the eleven varieties that are available, only 2 are a serving size of a full cup.  The other nine are a serving size of ¾ cup.  The regular flavor and the multigrain flavor have the lowest amount of sugar in that they have 1 gram and 6 grams of sugar respectively.  However, the multigrain version has added sugar and brown sugar syrup.  There is one of the varieties that have 5 different forms of sugar added to it including brown sugar, sugar, corn syrup, brown sugar syrup and dried corn syrup.  That’s a lot of sugar, folks.  And this is the healthier choice in the cereal aisle.  I didn’t even begin to look up what the “sugar-coated” cereals have going for them. 

What can I do about it?  The first thing I have started doing is making my son aware of what he is eating.  We read the white box on the product.  My husband and I have taught him to look at serving size, calories and fat content.  Now, in our teaching process, we are teaching him to look at the sugar amount contained in the product.  I am not saying that I am going to cut out all sugar from my son’s diet, I am just making him aware of what is going into his mouth and body.  And what do they say about knowledge?  KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!  

Magic Act!

A good magician uses sleight of hand and distractions to pull off the perfect magic trick.  A good mom can do the same thing with dinner.  For one of our dinners that we had this week, we made fish tacos.  We use frozen fish fillets (tortilla lime crusted tilapia is one of our favorites) and cook them according to the instructions.   We then wrap them either in corn tortillas (for the adults) or a flour tortilla (which right now is the only kind the boy likes). We like to add different things to our tacos.  My husband and I like salsa and cheese and some avocados.  The boy likes….cheese.  But, not too much cheese.  He does NOT like it when a little of the cheese grease drips out of the sides of his taco. 

I have been reading a lot about pureeing veggies and adding (hiding) them in food.  I have done it once successfully with the cauliflower in the mac and cheese, but the question here was could I make it fly past the boy’s radar once again?  So, for his fish taco, I mixed together a ¼ cup of pureed butternut squash with a ¼ cup of shredded cheddar cheese.  Then, my husband put it in the flour tortilla and put the fish on top of it.  The boy likes barbeque sauce, so he added a bit of barbeque sauce in and then folded it up burrito style and heated it in the pan…until the cheese melted.  The boy came to dinner hungry and ate a couple of carrots out of the bowl that was sitting on the table as he was setting the table.  (That act almost caused me to faint right there!)  The boy appeared to be slightly suspicious about what we might be pulling over his eyes…and he looked at his food very carefully.  He took a bite and another and another and before we knew it, he had devoured the whole thing!  He finally started to relax thinking that we hadn’t added anything strange to his meal.  He ate it all.  And he ate a serving of carrots.  Two veggies in one meal!  Yes, it was a team effort and I could not have done it without my lovely assistant (my husband).  I do see many more hidden magical treats in the boy’s future!

Making Food Changes

When it comes to getting the boy to eat “different” foods, it can take quite a while for it to happen.  It can be the little changes in the beginning that lead to the bigger changes down the road.  My friend, Barb, makes her son’s grilled cheese with wheat bread.  He doesn’t complain because he doesn’t recognize the change.  Grilled white bread and grilled wheat bread are both brown.  We got the boy to eat wheat bread several years ago because we told him that wheat bread had a sweeter taste to it (and it does) and we started him on it by making his peanut butter toast  in the morning with it.  Once he realizes that he has been eating something for a while, he is ok with the change becoming permanent.   

Another item that we have been able to switch out is our pasta.  We are a pasta loving family.  So, in order for all of us to eat a healthier version, we started using whole wheat pasta.  We started by adding quite a bit more sauce to his pasta.  As we have dialed back on the sauce, and he realized we had been eating wheat pasta all along, he is fine with the change.  We are now in the process of trying to switch from white rice to introducing brown rice. It is a slow process!

Now, this isn’t saying that all of the changes are going to be easy.  The foods that we have switched out have had the same texture.  There is no way I have been able to get the boy to eat multigrain bread over his wheat bread.   Those bits and pieces of grains just turn him off. 

For picky eaters, taking the time to slowly introduce things is the best route that we have found.  Especially the stubborn picky eater!  I guess my advice is to keep trying.  There was a time when the boy would only eat a small number of things.  Now, he is (most of the time) up for trying new things …as long as there aren’t any chunky vegetables in it!  J

Cauliflower!

When I first started talking to other moms on how they got their kids to eat vegetables, one of the mothers told me to puree the vegetable and put it in regular food.  I thought that there was NO WAY this would ever work.  I had tried hiding veggies in the boy’s food before, and he has always found it.  I had never considered pureeing it and adding it.  So, tonight was the big test night.  Could I get him to eat cauliflower? 

I took some store made (we have an organic food store here that also makes food) macaroni and cheese.  I took some frozen cauliflower and cooked it.  I pureed the cauliflower until almost smooth.  I would have done it more, but the boy was just in the next room and I didn’t want him to come in and find out what I was doing.  It could have been a disaster because there were tiny (kosher salt sized) bits of cauliflower in the mac and cheese that I could see and the boy has the amazing ability to find even the tiniest bits in anything.  I mixed a little more than a ½ cup of cauliflower into the 2 cups of mac and cheese.  We sat down to dinner.  The boy scooped up a bite and “mmmmm” were his words.  I held my breath.  The boy scooped up another bite.  He then proceeded to eat the whole serving.  There was some mac and cheese left over and I asked him if he would like me to pack it in his thermos tomorrow so that he can take it to school in his lunch.  He said…..”SURE!” 

HE ATE IT!  He ate the cauliflower and never suspected a thing.  I am so very excited as to what other veggies I can do this with and serve incognito.  This is definitely a way to get him to eat this.  I will try with other veggies.  AND so that he doesn’t suspect anything, I will also keep serving an additional veggie with dinner.  At least I will know that he will be getting one serving.  YAY for little victories!