Category Archives: Eating

Chomp it up.

Flotsam / Jetsam, menu plan Monday

She’s also singing ‘Bootylicious.’ Parenting fail.

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We ended up following my dad to my brother’s house, where we spent the weekend. It was a nice, unexpected visit, and Poppy came home with a new set of songs from “Glee.” She spent a good part of this morning singing “Halo / Walking On Sunshine” and doing a very Martha Graham dance to “Alone.”

What does this have to do with this week’s menu plan? Nothing. How’s that for a segue? (Oh! Speaking of segues, I saw a guy riding around on a Segway at the science museum on Saturday. Apropos of nothing, again, but it made me laugh.)

menubuttonMonday: Grilled cheese sandwiches & tomato soup.
Half of this equation is a known winner with Poppy. Someday, she’ll discover the joy of dipping the sandwich into the soup. I’m holding out that hope, anyway.
Tuesday: Shredded beef tacos
Wednesday: Vegetables korma
I’m trying to cut our meat consumption back to two or three meals a week, so when I saw that Amazon was offering a year-long subscription to Vegetarian Times for $5, I signed up. This will be our first effort from the magazine.
Thursday: Fish sticks with mac & cheese.
I’m not especially looking forward to this one, but it’s Make What You’ve Got week. So this is what we’re having. The kids, at least, will be thrilled.
Friday: Festival of appetizers.
I’m going to make some bite-size sausage biscuits, chicken salad in phyllo cups (both from Paula Deen) and a veggie tray so our sitting in front of the TV and watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics will be all festive-like.

Eating

Fixing a hole where no nutrients get in, or How the Beatles helped my daughter eat fruit

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Works-for-Me Wednesday

It is a well–documented fact that we’ve had a hard time getting Poppy to eat fruits and vegetables. Here are a few things we’ve tried:

  • Putting a veggie on her place 15 times in a row. She refused to eat it 15 times in a row.
  • Sneaking in the veggies. She detected the pureed cauliflower in her mac ‘n’ cheese immediately.
  • Making her sit at the table until she’s taken a bite. She put herself to sleep. On several occasions.
  • Throwing a pea at her in frustration. (Yes, really. I did that. I am not proud, and surprisingly enough, it didn’t work.)
  • Smearing peanut butter on an apple. She licked off the peanut butter, took one tiny bite of the apple, gagged and spit it out.

    • That last one was yesterday, the day after we’d come to a Bad Place, digestively speaking. So now I’m trying to appeal to her intellectual side rather than to her taste buds. I printed off the Level One lesson plans and a large, colorful copy of the food pyramid from the USDA’s no-defunct food pyramid site. (The new food site is Choose My Plate.”) We talked about the food groups yesterday, and we started filling out what’s basically a little food journal for kids, so she can see that she’s eating nothing but peanut butter.

    I think part of Poppy’s problem — aside from stubbornness — is sensory. She’s always had a problem dealing with loud noises, and I’ve wondered whether it’s the textures that she can’t get past. With that in mind, last night I bought a few jars of baby food. This morning I made her an apple-blueberry smoothie with it. We called it the “Blue Meanie” milkshake; tomorrow, we’ll try a peach “Yellow Submarine.” (I’m sure she’d reject the tiny seeds in the “Strawberry Fields,” and she doesn’t know the song anyway.)

    And here’s the thing: She drank it with zero fuss.

    Obviously, I still haven’t figured out just works for us in this department. But my 4-year-old is ingesting fruit this morning. I’ll take it.

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    Eating, Music, Reading, Screen time

    And these are a few of my favorite things

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    I’ve spent a good bit of this week trying to go deeply into denial over the van, which we have learned is quite messed up and in need of expensive repairs.* So far I’ve been rearranging our bedroom furniture and making giant sandwiches for Rockford and reorganizing what was once the Closet of Doom and is now the Closet of Slight Chaos That Will/Might Be Lovely Once I Have It Completely Unloaded and Reloaded Again For The Third Time.

    And now, while “Sesame Street” is still occupying the children, I will try to cobble together my list of Favorite Things, because some of you seem interested. And everything I do, I do it for you.**

    OK then.

    Continue reading And these are a few of my favorite things →