I know first-hand how challenging it can be to have a picky eater at home. My two year-old rarely touches her meals these days (mostly lunch and supper), because she decides that it's yucky before she's even tasted it. She has a select few foods that she loves and gobbles up happily, but beyond her safe repertoire, she's just not interested. But I'm able to take it in stride and rest easy knowing that it's just a phase (albeit a frustrating one).
Many of us are feeling the pinch when it comes to buying groceries these days. With rising food prices, I'm trying to be more cognizant of how much we spend on food.
Now that my little guy is in kindergarten, I'm always on the lookout for school-safe recipes for snacks that are actually nutritious--the kind that I can feel good about sending, and that my kid will actually enjoy! More importantly though, I need these recipes to be super easy for me to prepare. Having a three-month-old and active toddler doesn't grant me a whole lot of extra time to bake and cook elaborate foods these days. Simple is key.
We've all been there. In the car, in the grocery store or on a playdate, our toddler or young child asks (or whines) for a snack, sometimes only half an hour after a meal. When kids beg or whine for snacks or treats at random times, it may seem easiest to give in and immediately break out the crackers or fruit snacks. I see it all of the time - little ones saying "I'm huuunnggrryyy Mom!
These chewy ginger cookies have been holiday family favourite for a few years now and I’ve been meaning to share the recipe for a while. The original recipe (Chewy Triple Ginger Cookies from the Atco Blue Flame Kitchen) did not call for dark chocolate chunks–my Mom so brilliantly decided to test out this addition and it worked beautifully (which isn’t surprising).
If you spend any time at all reading mommy blogs, scouring Pinterest for kid-friendly recipe ideas, or reading up about how to deal with your picky eater, you've probably noticed that there is lots of buzz around certain feeding trends such as introducing solids via "baby-led weaning," making absolutely everything in a muffin tin, and letting go of some old-school feeding techniques such as the "3 more bites" rule.
It's a week after Christmas and we're still beaming with holiday spirit so things have been a little chaotic around our house. The kids are jacked up on sugar almost all of the time it seems with all the holiday get-togethers and parties, which means that they are bouncing off the walls and not listening very well.
Mac and cheese is one if my all time favourite comfort-foods, especially when it's cold outside. But the health-nut in me is always on the look-out for healthier-yet-still-delicious versions of the classic, so when a friend mentioned that she had tried "butternut squash mac and cheese" I was inpired to create my own squash mac and cheese recipe.
There is a reason why I brace myself before we call the kids to the table every night for dinner. Actually, there are several reasons. Family meals with young kids, for the most part, aren't peaceful or overly enjoyable.
I've just had my third baby, and I have been lucky enough to receive lots of yummy food from friends and family so that I don't have to worry about cooking. Food really is the best gift to give a new mom. Since my supply of baked goods has dwindled now that my son is a month old, I've started making my own muffins and cookies again when my husband's home on the weekends.
Watching your baby taste real food for the first time is one of the most exciting milestones for a new parent to witness. Your baby’s life suddenly becomes more fun and interesting (not to mention messy!), and your daily routine as a parent changes too. But starting solids can also be confusing - especially for first-time parents.
There's no doubt that mealtimes with young kids are chaotic. I often brace myself before we sit down to dinner, knowing that frustrating things will happen - my son might reject some or all of the foods that I've served, veggies might not get eaten, my daughter might throw something off her tray or there might be a spill or two to clean up.
Every child will go through some sort of "picky eating" stage or exhibit picky eating tendencies at some point. For the most part, these behaviours (although frustrating) are completely normal. The trickiest part is learning to handle these stages in a patient, calm, and loving way. The way we react to picky eating as parents can either create bigger, more serious eating issues down the road, or can help a child grow her relationship with food in a healthy way.
Most women know it's important to take a pre-natal multivitamin supplement before and during pregnancy and when breastfeeding, but what many women don't realize is that what is offered in pre-natal supplements and what can be realistically consumed through diet may not be enough.
It's like clockwork- every evening when I start preparing dinner, my kids run into the kitchen hungry and whiny. Requests for snacks are rampant and there are little fingers dabbling in dinner ingredients all over the place. Not only does this make it harder for me to prepare dinner, but it is also a patience tester (big time!).
We've been struggling with mealtime boredom at my house when it comes to dinner - it seems that my go-to list of healthy but easy dinner options has reached its expiry we need some new fun meals. My kids are great eaters, but they too need variety and fun. And I've been feeling the same way.
I've had two completely different experiences with my first two babies. Ben, my eldest, was born in a frenzied panic, with 15+ people in the delivery room, serious talk of an emergency c-section and then ultimately, a vacuum delivery that left me with injuries that took over a year to heal from. Luckily, he was the easiest, most laid back baby, who slept through the night by eight weeks and smiled, laughed, and cooed through his first year.
Feeding from six to 24 months is often referred to as “the honeymoon stage of feeding” because babies and toddlers tend to accept foods well, experimenting with and tasting anything parents put on their trays, or offer by spoon. This is why picky eating rarely occurs during this stage and surfaces in the older-toddler or preschool years instead.
School lunches are tricky because they need to be nut-free and also need to pack and store well for several hours. This is why I look forward to summer lunch-making.
