One of the things that I have been searching pinterest for is easy (but delicious of course) recipes! I found one the other day called Easy Garlic Chicken and tried it last week. None of my meals are gourmet because it seems the fancier it is, the more my children complain about it, and this one is about as basic as you get. Ingredients: 4 boneless chicken breasts, 4 garlic cloves- minced, 4 T brown sugar, and 3 t olive oil.
Preheat oven to 500 and grease a baking dish. Saute garlic with oil til tender. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar. Place chicken breasts in prepared dish and cover with garlic and brown sugar mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bake 15 - 30 minutes.
Several of you asked for recipes your children will actually eat. Here are a few principles I live by in my home where there are 3 children ages 7, 5 and 2. (In full disclosure these were not the same principles when we had 1 child.)
1. Don't make a separate meal for them. Put a little of everything on their plate.
2. Don't allow complaining about the food. Make it a house rule. They don't have to eat it, but they aren't allowed to complain about it either. If they need to step away from the table until they are ready to stop complaining then do that.
3. Give them the choice of whether they want to eat it. In our house, if they don't eat it, they don't get dessert (offer an easy dessert that they really like - in my house one likes popsicles and the other M&Ms), but no biggy if they choose not to eat the food. So important to create a positive experience around food, and let them have as much control as possible as it makes sense.
4. Have meals that they really like often. We have tacos every week. It is one night I really look forward to because everyone is happy, there is no frowning, and everyone gets dessert. Happy!!
5. Find sides that they tend to like and have it often. A favorite in our house is chopped up, peeled, russet potatoes sauteed in just a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil with a little salt mixed in. (A 10 pound bag is 3 dollars and it lasts for at least 6 meals!) It takes about 45 minutes to get them nice and brown, but I just do a bunch of other things while they are cooking. The kids get extremely excited when they see this on their plate.
6. Be consistent and persistent, but not overly aggressive about what you are asking them to eat. My 7 year old wouldn't eat anything up to about 3 or 4, and now will pretty much eat anything, even if he doesn't like it. There is hope!
7. Don't stress too much over getting them their veggies, fruits, etc. One of the best pieces of advice my mother-in-law gave me was just that. She never ate veggies growing up because she didn't like them, and didn't make her kids eat them either. Today everyone is totally healthy. There is only so much you can do!
8. Keep the meals as basic as possible. I don't eat dairy so we don't do casseroles or things with lots of ingredients. We usually have a meat (tons of variations for preparing stand alone meant so we don't get bored). Then I usually add a stand alone fruit to the plate - like grapes, apples, raspberries, etc. There is some side with it that is easy, like rice or potatoes or risotto or black beans. I keep these sides on hand so they are always accessible. Finally we will have a veggie - usually corn or green beans since they are the most likely to be eaten.
9. Finally, don't feed them later when they are hungry because they didn't eat their food. This will teach them that it's fine not to eat because they will just get something else later.
I hope this is helpful! Our menu for this week: Monday - leftover superbowl food with risotto; Tuesday - Chicken tacos and black beans; Wednesday - breakfast - YAY; Thursday - meatloaf with broiled cauliflour (is that how you spell that?), salad and potatoes. I don't plan for Friday through Sunday because we are usually out and about.
No comments:
Post a Comment