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Finding balance with food, movement, and community for my (dairy-free) family.

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Monday, April 18, 2011

State of the Plate: April 2011

My children are attempting to live on bread alone.  It's making me crazy.

Here's where we're at . . .

Sis (nearly 3) and Big Brother (5) are both intolerant of dairy products, so our whole family eats dairy-free.

Grains:  They prefer to eat grain-based foods.  Many of the bread products they eat contain a high percentage of whole grain--but not always.  I have a whole grain sour dough starter, but have not been using it a lot.

Protein:  They do okay with ground meats (sausage and hamburger) and processed meats (ham), chicken is hit and miss.  They struggle with any meat that requires more chewing.  Both like scrambled eggs if they're in the right mood and will eat boiled egg whites, but not the yolk.  Both tend to spit out nuts--as if they require too much chewing.

Fruit:  Hit and miss.  There's not much that they eat regularly.  When Big Brother asks for food, if I offer fruit as an option he says to me, "Mom, I want FOOD, not fruit."  Sis eats Craisins.  Both enjoy berries, but I struggle with effectively incorporating these into daily eating.

Vegetables:  Big Brother is increasingly willing to eat well-cooked vegetables that are incorporated into dinners (in stew, casseroles, etc).  Sis actually seems to do a bit better with raw vegetables--she likes salsa.  I can't even label their vegetable eating as "hit and miss"; it's really just "miss."

It's not that what they ARE eating is bad; it's more that I worry about what they are NOT eating.  Whole categories--important categories--are missing.  I know it's my fault.  I'm the one who buys, prepares, and serves the food.   When I've tried to make changes before, I tend to get discouraged because there is inevitable waste as they reject new foods.  (If only I had chickens or pigs to whom I could feed scraps. )

My Goal
I'd like to introduce baby-step changes to increase their vegetable and fruit consumption, while reducing their reliance on grains.  I'd like the grains they do eat to be whole grain and soaked or made using a sour dough process when possible.

I'd particularly like them to accept snacks that are not grain-based.

We'll see how it goes.  I'd love any suggestions anyone might have to share.

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