Grace eats better than many adults. She is willing to try most foods and has little to no aversion to vegetables eating bok choy (which is much harder to find in STL than it was in EC), asparagus, and fresh spinach with gusto. She uses a thumbs up ratings system to let us know how much she enjoys different foods. I actually really like this rating scale as it gives you a definition as to if it is good or really good in her mind. She may like vegetables but her caloric downfall is creamy dairy such as sour cream, mayonnaise and ranch. (I know I didn't eat much sour cream or mayo until I was an adult!) She will ask for butter on her pancakes or corn on the cob or whatever, then she will also ask for butter on the side. Grace also likes her protein - one night was complaining as there was no meat in the meal and all she wanted to do was eat an animal - she didn't care what animal it was. Not very PETA like (which overall is fine as long as long as she learns the difference of how to raise animals humanely and where to buy the meat from these sources). She did once tell me she wanted to be a vegetarian as she didn't want to hurt animals - but that lasted a whole day as in her own words - they just taste so good! Like her mother, she really could care less for marshmallows.
Clara doesn't love all vegetables like Grace but she still eats fairly well for a three year old. Her favorite food - Chicken Noodle Soup! She can eat a whole can of Progresso brand soup some days. Spaghetti goes over well and so do french fries (Grace barely touches these). Another one of Clara's favorite foods - Lucky Charms! Of course she picks out the marshmallows and only eats the cereal on days she truly is hungry. Clara also really doesn't know how to differentiate bored vs. hungry. We hear "I'm getting hungry" several, several times a day....Often I have decided she is bored. I try to satiate the hunger with fruits and vegetables as snacks as much as possible as it is hard for me to just refuse food requests. On the way home from Tulsa Oklahoma though we hit a new level of "I'm getting hungry" Clara ate 2 apples, about 15 baby carrots, some cereal, grapes and still ate spaghetti at lunch. Did I mention before we left the hotel she also ate breakfast?!?! I assume she will grow about 2 inches taller soon.
The other odd food choice for kids these girls both love is tomatoes. They eat them like they are candy! Cherry tomatoes are the favorite and can be given as a snack any time. If I get a salad at a restaurant, they always get the cherry tomatoes off of it (I really am not a huge tomato fan). Grace has loved tomatoes since before she was two I think as I remember her eating tons of diced tomatoes at a Mexican restaurant one day. So tomatoes are a healthy snack in front of the TV and so are cold peas. This was something I used to have in my childhood and brought forward to theirs. Cold peas (aka frozen peas) are the best kind of peas to serve them. Sometimes when Jason is travelling I just make up a plate of random foods for them to snack on - such as cold peas, tomatoes, fruit, cheese, lunch meat and let them share the plate. They think this is a great treat to have snacks as supper and it makes my dinner time fairly pain free also.
So for all those out there with picky picky eaters. I am sorry. I lucked out and hopefully these girls will keep being adventurous in their food choices throughout their lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment