Kid Friendly- week's end summary

So... as you may have noticed I got through day 2.  After that I kept forgetting to post anything or take the pictures.  So, I'll give you a summary.

Basically, here's what I learned...

First, we did not stick to our menu.  Thursday turned out to be such a crazy hectic day I ended up buying Sophia pizza at Zoe's track meet and then fixing a few chicken nuggets for Sophia later.  After that, everything just got more and more off-track.

2. Zoe and I did not like the "kid-friendly" meals and so I ended up either not eating well or making two dinners.  With the frozen crock pot meals, that wasn't bad, but if I had to actually make two separate dinners that would be a huge hassle.

3.  Sophia did eat better- well, she ate without all of the argument and mostly ate all of her dinner.  I guess for her it will be better to make things she'll eat because while I hate admitting he's right, Dave is definitely right that it's better that she eat rather than not.

4.  I don't know if this has to do with the kid friendly meals or not, but it seemed like it was far too easy to just not eat together as a family.  Part of that was due to none of us being home for dinner at the same time.  But I think because I was less than enthusiastic to have hot dogs or fish sticks I didn't want to eat, same with Zoe.  So we all ended up eating at different times rather than sitting down at the table together.

5. Kid friendly meals are not time consuming.  They're mostly popping things in the microwave which is nice on the time aspect, but I have to wonder about the nutritional value of food that's so processed it only needs a couple of seconds in the microwave to be edible.

Ultimately, my decision is that I'm going to have to fix two dinners- one for me and Zoe, and one kid friendly meal.  Dave is welcome to eat which ever or continue to fix his own dinners when he gets home.  I still want to find some ways to make the kid friendly food less processed and more nutritional.  I have some ideas and I've found some recipes to try.  We'll see.

I still believe that this is a bad plan in the long run because it encourages not trying different flavors and tastes and limits her experience with food.  I can only hope it's not setting her up for an adulthood of missing out on great foods.  How I could possibly have a child that doesn't love food is beyond me.  I love food so much- too much.  Wish me luck on this adventure!

Day2 eating kid friendly

Yesterday I really just threw together what I had to start our week of kid-friendly meals.  Grilled cheese, applesauce, and pretzels was kind of a no-brainer.  I put ham on my husband's grilled cheese to "man" it up a little.  Sophia did eat most everything.  I can't say if she complained because she ate upstairs with her Daddy and I ate downstairs with the baby.  The true test will be when we're sitting at the table.

Today, I made my menu and grocery list.  I want to compare this week with future weeks that I hopefully start the kid friendly meals in a more healthy, homemade, wholesome way.  It's also important to keep in mind that I also included vegetables that my daughter likes so these meals aren't completely without benefit.  Here's our weekly menu:

Sunday:  Grilled cheese, pretzels, applesauce
Monday:  Chicken nuggets, french fries, peas
Tuesday:  Cheeseburger Hamburger helper, broccoli
Wednesday:  Hot dogs, Mac-n-cheese
Thursday:  Fish sticks, spinach, rice
Friday:  Hamburgers (McDonald's style), cut up apples, black eyed peas
Saturday:  Homemade pizza- ham and pineapple for Sophia, pepperoni for Zoë
Sunday:  Chicken Quesidilla

I didn't go to the store until Monday so everything on my list covers Monday through Sunday.  Also, I accounted for things I already had as well odds and ends I needed for lunches, and snacks.  My total grocery bill was $100.49 with only one $0.75 coupon used.  Here's my grocery list:

Chicken Nuggets
Fish sticks
hot dogs
lunch meat
hamburger helper
hamburger
granola bars
nutrigrain bars
apples/fruit
peas
broccoli
spinach
black eyed peas
pizza stuff:  dough, sauce, toppings
chicken quesidillas: chicken, cheese, tortillas
ginger ale
capris suns

Here's the product of my bounty:


Here's dinner for tonight.  It doesn't look so bad I guess, except who knows what's in those chicken nuggets and I'm not a fan of those frozen fries.  I'm trying to lose post baby weight so I'm having some chicken stew I froze a few months back.

Feeding kids

I've always prided myself that my kids are good eaters.  Both Zoë and Sophia will eat most anything and plenty of things that most kids won't.  Zoë has always eaten just about anything put in front of her, and I've never been one to give much acceptance to turning her nose up at something.  For that I have a 17 year old that is an excellent eater, who loves food, who has (what I consider to be) a healthy relationship with food, and who is willing to try all different kids of foods.

Sophia has always given me a hard time about eating.  Not so much what she's eating, but just getting her to eat.  She's always been distracted.  She wants to talk and play and eating just isn't in her schedule.  My husband says it's because I serve unfriendly kid meals.  (i.e. chicken teriyaki and rice)

So, I have decided to serve a week's worth of kid friendly meals.  I'm taking my meal ideas from kid's menus.  I'm curious to see if it really is the food or if it's just the sitting down to mealtime that is the problem.  We will have chicken nuggets, fish sticks, mini pizzas, hamburgers... just to name a few.  My concern is that most of this is processed foods with lots of sodium and fat.  If it turns out that the problem is the food I'm going to search out healthier homemade versions of the foods rather than the processed stuff.

Here is last night (Sunday)'s dinner:

And, to make me feel better... I decided to have a little "processed" treat for myself, so I made a Betty Crocker cupcake mix with some cream cheese icing.  Yum.  They almost made me forget that I was serving my kids grilled cheese for dinner.  :D

Pinterest has ruined me

After being on Pinterest for a while now I've had the opportunity to browse a lot of blogs. This has lead me to realize two things. First, this blog of mine SUCKS! and I need to spend 2012 improving. This means better organization, more focus per posting, more pictures, a better overall design... Yeah, that about covers it. The second thing Pinterest did was to make my "to do" list and/or wish list a thousand times longer. Now I have too many crafts to try and get great at, too many foods to cook and eat, and too many ideas for my own style. I can do it. I can, I can, I can.