New way of eating

In an effort to support my brother on his new eating regimen, I started looking into healthier eating. I have begun reading lots of books and slowly making changes around here. Some have been well received and others not so much. Brian let me know that quinoa 3 different ways in 3 different nights was still too much quinoa. So we are spacing it out a bit. The kids are willingly trying new things, but not always fully happy and taking to eating lots of apples between meals. Thankfully, I have children who LOVE healthy snacks. I wish I could snack like them. They beg for celery and cucumbers. But I want to make sure they are getting the protein they need as well as a variety of fruits and veggies. So I researched and settled on this version of a bento box.


It presents all the food at once and forces me to serve a variety of foods. The kids think it is a neat presentation and like the variety. I give them smaller quantities of several different foods. Myann and Anders seem to be eating the same amount as before, but Shane is eating much more and without complaint. Every day at lunch used to be a battle of choices and what he did or did not feel like. It has only been 2 weeks, but so far, he has eaten every healthy morsel of every meal I have served in the box for 2 weeks. I am sold. I do not give him a choice for lunch. I make the food and serve it. And he has been eating it. On my creative days and when I have an extra minute, I cut some of the food in cool shapes or serve the sides in cool shaped silicone cups. I use the silicone cups for the leftover foods because they are less enthusiastic about leftovers, but I serve it in a heart shaped cup and tell them it was made with love. They totally bought it. Score for mommy.

So what exactly are we doing different. Eating as little processed food as possible. We have never been fast food people or even restaurant eaters for that matter. I cook 99% of our meals. However, on my worn out days I would make mac and cheese, like I did tonight. But I have not been buying anything new from a box. We have been eating all fresh or frozen fruit, all fresh veggies, and grass fed beef on the few nights we eat beef. Most nights it is chicken, and we are working on the free range chicken part. I am even going to home make the granola bars and try to get us off boxed granola bars, our car ride standby. As I said, the kids mostly snack on carrots, celery, cucumbers, and fruit, so they are pretty easy. I am trying to eat more nuts as snacks and less protein bars. Next we are going to try to get off canned foods as much as possible. Our ultimate goal is to eat less sugar and less foods that might have added chemicals, pesticides, and sweeteners. It is tough and it will be a slow transition.