Our Family's Food Revolution

We all want better for our kids. I want my kids to know more about supper than fast food, eating out, or eating the same few recipes over and over. The biggest challenge is that as a working mom, it's sometimes just easier to break out the frozen chicken nuggets, frozen pizza, or blue box of macaroni and cheese. Fast, cheap, easy, and no fighting with the kids to eat their food.

It started with me. I began wanting to eat healthier for several reasons. One of those reasons is the main reason so many of us "diet": I want to look good, or at least a heck of a lot better than I do now. I wanted the energy to keep up with my kids. And I want to live long enough to really bug the heck out of 'em. My grandmother has diabetes, and since I had gestational diabetes in my recent pregnancy, I have a 50-50 shot of being diabetic, too, if I don't watch my weight. I had a taste of the diabetic life: finger pricks at least four times a day, insulin shots twice a day, and a strict diet that made me resent my kids for that cupcake that would have physically knocked on my rear end if I so much as licked it. Thankfully, I went back to normal levels immediately after my daughter was born, but it has put the fear of God into me about diabetes. No, thanks!

My older children, however, were not impressed. They protested at every new dish I put in front of them. After watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on tv, I was more determined than ever. I don't want to set my kids up for failure by giving in and giving them processed junk on a regular basis just because it's easy.

One evening, instead of chasing them out of the kitchen so I could whip up supper quickly by myself, I let them help, something they've always wanted to do but I never had the time or patience to let them do, not with a "real" meal anyway. They helped me make the same dish just two weeks earlier led to meltdowns and tears. Yes, it was messy and it took almost an hour longer with two little sets of hands to supervise, but it excited them. They called it their "masterpiece." And they ate every last bite. AND asked for seconds.

Since then, I have let them choose one new food, fruit, or veggie to try. Or just a new recipe with ingredients they've had before. "New" was the keyword. And the meals don't necessarily have to be extra super healthy, but just something different. Our first "new" fruit they tried was a mango. Something simple, but it amazed me when I realized they had never had a fresh mango, only mango-flavored foods, like a strawberry-mango such and such. Starting with baby steps.

This blog is taking it to a new level, documenting the things they try. I hope it gets them excited and makes them look forward to trying new things. They can also look back and feel a sense of accomplishment. And most importantly, it's an adventure we share together.