Surviving with Children . . . Part 2

I have very, very picky eaters, so we accomodate them more often than not, but a typical week looks like this for us:

Monday night: Quesadillas--sometimes we put pepperoni in them, sometimes chicken or strips of steak. I eat just the quesadilla, but the kids usually eat it with rice (with peas and corn mixed in).
Tuesday: Tacos for the adults, ham sandwiches with fruit for the kids.
Wednesday: Baked chicken with rice and corn/peas
Thursday: Breakfast for dinner--always scrambled eggs and bacon, either with toast or pancakes for the kids.
Friday: Grill night. My daughters (who hate beef) and I usually have a grilled chicken breast, the husband and boys eat burgers. I usually do roasted potatoes with them.
Saturday: It varies, but my favorite is to do a pot roast with rice/potatoes and veggies.
Sunday: This is a non-cook day for me...we either do cereal or sandwiches.

My kids are extremely into healthy eating. My oldest son is harder to make happy- but he will eat pork or chicken. We give them corn, carrots and peas (only frozen not canned). My youngest LOVES all healthy foods- especially salads. He will go in the freezer and eat frozen peas. They are 3 and 5. I am glad we started them young. We use no sugar added jelly and natural peanut butter- they do not know the difference. Turkey bacon. turkey sausage- breakfast for dinner. We also only give them 2 juices a day and we water those down. They are constantly asking if what we are eating is healthy.

Oh and when I work out they like to work out with me too !!!

My kids eat everything. I have gone through great pains to ensure that they will not grow up to be picky eaters. My 1st husband would only eat about 5 meals, and I was not going to raise my kids to eat like that. They are 16, 11, and the little one will be 3 in less than 2 weeks.

We eat a wide variety of veggies. I don't eat pork, and don't care much for fish, so, our menu tends to be beef & chicken heavy. I buy local hormone-free beef, local hormone & antibiotic-free milk, and I buy hormone- and and antibiotic-free chicken and eggs. We have "typical" meals (Southern, I suppose). Sunday night, we had hamburger steaks & gravy, rice, greens, homemade bread (and the kids ATE their greens!). We have spaghetti with whole wheat pasta pretty regularly (LOTS of veggies in spaghetti sauce), we have homemade pizza, we eat lots of soups and roasts. I love making homemade stir-fry and fried rice. Sometimes I "sneak" extra veggies in, eggplant sliced up in spaghetti sauce, things like that. Last week, I tried panko breadcrumbs for the first time. I think that baked panko chicken nuggets are going into our list of "go to" meals. I don't keep much junk around the house. The kids eat whatever fruit is cheap as snacks. This week it was bananas ($.59 / lb) and oranges ($.22 / each). In a few months, we will go to a local strawberry farm and pick a lot of strawberries to freeze. I also keep yogurt, pretzels, graham crackers there as snacks.

The little one hates water, unless it is in my exercise bottle, so, she gets pretty much free-access to my water bottle. The kids only have sodas when we go out to eat, and they are only allowed to have 1 glass, then they go to water. Candy is a treat, not something we keep around the house. They see my husband and I eat and enjoy, and try new things, so they have learned from example. They see me workout, and they want to try it as well. My 11-year old loves Zumba. The little one likes to "weight-lift" with my 2 pound weights, the oldest...well, he is a teen. He will jog, and weight-lift because it is "cool". They are only allowed limited time in front of the television, unless we are taking a lazy, movie day or if they are sick.

Most of these things they learned because that is how it has always been. And, the things that have changed, they paid no attention to. They didn't care when I stopped buying Cheeto's and Lay's and started buying pretzels (most pretzels are fat-free). They had "chips", and didn't care what kind they were.