Friday, July 12, 2013

A Few Clever Ideas

There are a handful of intelligent things I've come up with over four years of small children.  (I don't claim they're unique, but I did come up with them all by myself.)  Here they are:
  • I gave the babies freeze-dried bananas when they were first learning to feed themselves.  My kids always squashed bananas/ sweet potato/ steamed apple, and then got really mad; also they choked on Cheerios for a long time.  There's also apple, pineapple, strawberry (crumbles to dust), mango, and various veggies.  My kids hated them all except banana.  Then I gave them Ritz crackers, which also disintegrate pretty fast.
  • I give them fortified yogurt rather than milk.  They will not drink milk except from the Mama, and this cow is closed.  That strained nonfat fruity Greek yogurt stuff has 45% of the adult RDA of calcium (at least the Aldi brand does!) and a ton of protein, too.  (Also, our pediatrician is great, and never said "But you have to make them drink milk!" Because that always works, right? Bug will drink soymilk now.  Kids are so weird.)
  • I added nutrition to whatever the kid will eat.
  • I make veggie pancakes for dinner.  Zucchini, spinach, corn, sweet potato, carrot... you name it, I've pureed it into a pancake during that awkward year of age two when my kids wouldn't eat a vegetable for love nor money.
  • I put pre-embroidered appliques on winter hats so the kids will actually wear them.  In our case, dump truck, then fire truck.  (Bug picked them out himself.)
And that's pretty much it.  And you? Tell me how clever you are, dear readers.  (It need not be limited to children.)

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:00 AM

    The freeze-dried is a great idea! We put spinach into anything blended. Anything. Of the greens, it has the most mild taste and can be disguised by any sort of fruit/flavor. Also eggs, I am a mad egg hider.

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  2. Anonymous7:23 PM

    We used men's T-shirts rather than bibs. Took ones that had shrunk too much to be worn, or were stained a bit, and made a bin of them to use during meals. Into the wash with them after, and they were more covering than any bibs...
    :) Neighbor Lady
    ps not earth-shattering but seemed extremely useful at the time

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  3. Can I get that pancake recipe?

    (Also, I think Google/Blogger does it on purpose, but I tried no less that 4 times to post this comment with my wordpress credentials and it kept giving me error messages.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's more a vague guideline than a recipe. Here are a few actual recipes; the last one can be veggified by removing the sugar and putting in grated something else).

      Mine goes something like: take roughly a cup of cooked or grated vegetables. If you want it smooth, puree them with a cup of milk/water/soymilk and an egg or two. Add a little salt, the herb of your choice, and enough flour that it looks like pancake batter. Fry. Warning: spinach makes them bright green (Bug won't eat them). For extra fiber throw in some quick oats for some of the flour.

      Delete

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