Healthy Family Hangout

During our visit with the dietician this week we talked about how its been more difficult as of late to get Christian to eat his veggies.  She gave me a handout with suggestions to help.  I decided to type it in here to keep on hand and to share with others...

Tips to help your Kids to eat Vegetable (and develop good eating habits):

Kids love dip: serve raw vegetables at supper with a salad dressingOffer a new vegetable with your child's favorite foodsMake a soup with lots of vebetablesAllow small amounts of margarine, ketchup, cherry sauce, gravy, etc for taste testingServe vegetables as a snack instead of during a meal, have them as a first course, save familiar foods for the second or main mealLet kids help out with meal preparationEat meals at the kitche/dining room table, not in front of the TVDon't use food as a reward (id Don't use  dessert as a bribe)Offer 2 vegetable choices at a mealPuree vegetables and add to spaghetti sauces, burgers, meatloaf, muffins, soup, et…

Holding true to our plan Christian had a smoothie for breakfast this morning served with toast with raspberry preserves.  I was determined to serve him a healthy breakfast, but getting up and jumping into a new routine that didn't involve a bowl and boxed cereal isn't as easy as it sounds.  I am so not a morning person so I needed to get my game on.  My little trick was to set the blender, measuring cup and banana on the kitchen counter last night before bedtime so that it was all at my finger tips this morning.  All I had to grab was the milk from the fridge & raspberries from the freezer.

The recipe was adapted from a recipe that I had gotten from my friend, Marlene.  It was very simple and although it was early in the morning Christian was eager to jump right in and work the controls on the blender.  :) 

 Banana Raspberry Smoothie
4 fl oz Milk 1/4 medium banana 1/4 cup frozen raspberries
Place all ingredient into a blender and blend until smooth.
(After our 1st try we real…

We are always looking for new ideas for adding more veggies in our diet.  Tonight Millard made "Shrimp Spring Rolls Wrapped in Rice Paper".   There was no real recipe.  He just cut up some carrots and celery.  He fried chopped nappa cabbage (with no butter or oil)   He mixed it all together then added one scrambled egg, shrimp and a very tiny bit of Chinese Five Spice. Before putting the spring rolls together he soaked the rice paper in hot water for approximately 10 seconds so that they were easy to handle.  Then he spooned portions onto the rice paper and rolled.  Christian really like them!

It's a new year and we are firing the blog back up again!  Over the past months we've continued on our healthy eating quest and Christian's BMI continues to improve. It is not always easy though!  Staying on top of the game takes a lot of discipline, planning and creativity

We have fallen back into the breakfast cereal routine.  Between me having strep throat in Nov/Dec, the flu this month and then just simply being out of the routine... it's been hard to find energy in the morning to pull together a healthy breakfast.  No more excuses though!  Christian's acid reflux has been giving him issues again so it's time to get back in the saddle again.  Our Dietician, Leah, suggested we try fruit smoothies for breakfast.  So that's just what we are going to do.  We bought some frozen strawberries and raspberries and are all ready to go!

Lunches have gotten a little boring lately too.  They have gotten plain and very predictable with sandwiches being the main attra…