Let me introduce myself. My name is Mark Sisson. I’m 63 years young. I live and work in Malibu, California. In a past life I was a professional marathoner and triathlete. Now my life goal is to help 100 million people get healthy. I started this blog in 2006 to empower people to take full responsibility for their own health and enjoyment of life by investigating, discussing, and critically rethinking everything we’ve assumed to be true about health and wellness...
As promised, we?re back with more on healthy ways to feed the seedlings. Depending on where you are on the desperation scale with your kids, some items will be options for tonight?s dinner and some may offer targets for future progress. In any case, here are few ideas for real life meals your kids will at least try.
We don?t sell this as the perfect MDA meal plan, hence the faint of heart warning in last week?s post. If your kids eat what Mark eats, more power to you! For the rest of us, here are some decent compromises that can keep the peace. They might just inspire the parental units of the house as well!
And we can?t help but add our bit of commentary to the veggie controversy floating around out there. We?re all for using familiar foods to get kids on the right track, but as for the latest surreptitious ?trend? of hiding veggies in kid?s food? We have this to say about vegetables: love them, applaud them, and shamelessly flaunt them to your kids and rest of the world while you?re at it. It?s a much more sustainable approach, and (let?s face it) it?s also less work.
Don?t forget to check out our past MDA recipes for options that might pique your children?s interest! ?Hey, Mikey, he likes it!?
Breakfast:
? Fruit and Cheese Plate (Good for light eaters)
? Omelet (Add nitrate/nitrite free ham or bacon, cheese and veggies of choice)
? Huevos Rancheros (Cut out the tortillas altogether if you can manage it. But, especially for those trying to wean kids off of toast or oatmeal, you can reduce the tortillas to one, and exchange the beans for more avocado and veggies.)
? Waldorf Salad (Great as a side dish or as meal with a little turkey or chicken.)
? Apples with Almond Butter (Add a dash of honey for the truly tough customers.)
? Cottage Cheese with Berries
? Cut Veggies with Veggie-Loaded Cream Cheese Whip (Send a few select veggies like carrots and peppers as well as herbs like chive or parsley through the food processor until they?re a chunky ?near-puree,? and add to whipped brick of cream cheese.)
Dinner:
? Meatloaf (Skip the breadcrumbs and add some pureed veggies instead. Serve with veggie sides of choice including glazed carrots made with butter and ginger instead of brown sugar.)
? Veggie-loaded Chili (You can increase the veggies over time.)
? Salad Adventure (See our previous Choose Your Own Salad Adventure post for ideas on setting up your own salad mini-bar.)
This is, thankfully, just the tip of the iceberg. We?d love to hear from you and learn what healthy foods (both familiar and unusual fare) you serve the seedlings in your life.
Love the veggie bird photo, though I would never, ever, take the time to assemble something like that, cute as it is.
I have one of those kids with a constant appetite on “go”. From day one, he has never suffered hunger well. If he is well-fed, he is happy. So that too-late-to-snack time while I am preparing dinner has been challenging at times. If he snacks on nuts, he fills up too much for dinner. Or he starts asking for really inappropriate pre-dinner things, like chocolate, which annoys me.
What has been successful lately is I have been making sure to cut up extra carrots sticks, celery, etc., as a “quick grab” item (either for storage in the fridge or right as I start dinner prep) for when the “seedling” shows up super-hungry while I am preparing dinner. Putting him to work in the kitchen hasn’t taken off yet (I’m still hopeful), but having something sitting there ready to eat (that won’t spoil his appetite) has been very useful. If it is already on the table or in the fridge, he often doesn’t even ask for anything or complain about hunger, he just helps himself and bides the time quietly until dinner. Peace to my ears.
Wow! Vindication! My post-workout snack at work everyday consist of attacking a Fuji with one of those apple wedge slicers and then smearing the pieces with Wild Oats Organic Almond Butter. People look at me like I’m nuts. Wait’ll they see this! 🙂
I’ve become totally addicted to the apple/almond butter combination.. Seriously, don’t even try it- you won’t be able to stop!
And Dave, just make people taste it. They’ll see(taste) the light and stop thinking you’re nuts 😉
DaveC, I can’t believe people think that an apple with almond butter is weird, it’s no different than apples & peanut butter. Which I thought everyone had eaten at some point in their childhood. I do the same thing with cashew butter, it’s so yum!
Thanks for the great suggestions in this post. I don’t have kids, but they’re good ideas for everyone. I would also add sliced tomatoes with mozzarella & basil, I devoured that stuff when I was little. My mom would pick fresh tomatoes & basil from the garden, and she used the good mozzarella that comes in water, and a flavored olive oil with herbs in it to drizzle over top. I thought it was super fancy.
We do “crunchy apples”. apple slices with almond butter, dusted with ground flax. I’m wondering if I could try dustings of other paleo things!
The rest of this, my kids won’t eat!!!
We have 3 boys and 1 girl, and we homeschool so we eat all meals at home.We do hardboiled eggs A LOT. We try to be dairy free. We eat kipper snacks, boneless skinless sardines, canned tuna, and canned salmon. Apples, carrots, bananas and peanut butter (I know pb not primal) also almond butter and celery. Bananas not for me but are a “treat” to the kids. We use lettuce as our sandwich wrap.
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As promised, we?re back with more on healthy ways to feed the seedlings. Depending on where you are on the desperation scale with your kids, some items will be options for tonight?s dinner and some may offer targets for future progress. In any case, here are few ideas for real life meals your kids will at least try.
Even though these recipes may be tailored for younglings they have my mouth watering. Great recipes, thanks!
Love the veggie bird photo, though I would never, ever, take the time to assemble something like that, cute as it is.
I have one of those kids with a constant appetite on “go”. From day one, he has never suffered hunger well. If he is well-fed, he is happy. So that too-late-to-snack time while I am preparing dinner has been challenging at times. If he snacks on nuts, he fills up too much for dinner. Or he starts asking for really inappropriate pre-dinner things, like chocolate, which annoys me.
What has been successful lately is I have been making sure to cut up extra carrots sticks, celery, etc., as a “quick grab” item (either for storage in the fridge or right as I start dinner prep) for when the “seedling” shows up super-hungry while I am preparing dinner. Putting him to work in the kitchen hasn’t taken off yet (I’m still hopeful), but having something sitting there ready to eat (that won’t spoil his appetite) has been very useful. If it is already on the table or in the fridge, he often doesn’t even ask for anything or complain about hunger, he just helps himself and bides the time quietly until dinner. Peace to my ears.
Thanx for featuring my baked salmon photo!!! =)
Wow! Vindication! My post-workout snack at work everyday consist of attacking a Fuji with one of those apple wedge slicers and then smearing the pieces with Wild Oats Organic Almond Butter. People look at me like I’m nuts. Wait’ll they see this! 🙂
I’ve become totally addicted to the apple/almond butter combination.. Seriously, don’t even try it- you won’t be able to stop!
And Dave, just make people taste it. They’ll see(taste) the light and stop thinking you’re nuts 😉
DaveC, I can’t believe people think that an apple with almond butter is weird, it’s no different than apples & peanut butter. Which I thought everyone had eaten at some point in their childhood. I do the same thing with cashew butter, it’s so yum!
Thanks for the great suggestions in this post. I don’t have kids, but they’re good ideas for everyone. I would also add sliced tomatoes with mozzarella & basil, I devoured that stuff when I was little. My mom would pick fresh tomatoes & basil from the garden, and she used the good mozzarella that comes in water, and a flavored olive oil with herbs in it to drizzle over top. I thought it was super fancy.
my toddler loves the baked omelettes from this month’s recipes-brocollli and all!
We do “crunchy apples”. apple slices with almond butter, dusted with ground flax. I’m wondering if I could try dustings of other paleo things!
The rest of this, my kids won’t eat!!!
We have 3 boys and 1 girl, and we homeschool so we eat all meals at home.We do hardboiled eggs A LOT. We try to be dairy free. We eat kipper snacks, boneless skinless sardines, canned tuna, and canned salmon. Apples, carrots, bananas and peanut butter (I know pb not primal) also almond butter and celery. Bananas not for me but are a “treat” to the kids. We use lettuce as our sandwich wrap.
Thanks for sharing it…. i realy liked it… Always success.. Best regards, Supriadi http://kertasnasi.com