Home~Made Pumpkin Soup

This is a totally scrummy recipe that WonderHubby has developed over years of trial and error, with me as the innocent guinea pig.

Now, I am not a fan of pumpkin. I don’t even like it in baked dinners.
But this… oh, this!

And on top of that, it’s extremely healthy.

But please don’t tell my kids that.

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Dog Biscuit Memories

In which I embark on a moving trip down memory lane, sparked by this post about avian home invasions and toddler eating (or not) habits by Trish at My Little Drummer Boys.

Do you remember when milk came in bottles? I do.

I just remembered it, because I just remembered the Luv dog biscuits I used to secretly eat from our two dogs’ bowls and the box that was kept on a shelf in their kennel.

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Eat Your Vegetables!

Since I became a parent, I’ve worried a lot about getting Wren & Mr Bump to eat healthy food.

At one stage when Wren was 3, hubby & I were so desperate for her to eat anything that we gave her bread and butter for dinner. ~ It only lasted for a couple of nights, but it gave us all some breathing space and some time to think up some new attack strategies.
I found that a really big struggle we had was vegetables. We’re supposed to be eating 5 ’serves’ per day (whatever that means), and the kids were more more likely to throw 5 serves a day.

After much experimentation, hubby & I came up with a number of methods that have worked really well and I actually have children who enjoy eating vegetables now!

1. In the Raw.

The biggest obstacle I could see was that kids usually leave what they don’t like until last, by which time cooked veges are yuck. So I cut up some raw carrot, tomato and cucumber for dinner ~ it saved time, too. That went down okay, at least it still tasted alright after half an hour!

2. Frozen peas & corn.

Not surprisingly, the kids think it’s fun to eat undefrosted vegetables. When hubby first suggested it 5 years ago, I thought the idea was plain weird. But really, that suits our children perfectly, and what difference does heating them make anyway?

3. Grow your own to pick and eat off the plant.

My mum did this with me, and I loved it. You don’t need to have a huge vege patch, or even a back yard. You can grow your own tomatoes from seed in a pot. There are heaps of things you can grow this way. Mr Bump has gotten a huge kick out of the whole tomato experience ~ and we haven’t even had fruit from then yet.

4. Cut up a selection for a platter.

I’ve found that the best way to get Wren & Mr Bump eating veges regularly is to cut them up raw and put them on a platter on the dinner table. I try to vary what’s on offer a bit and sometimes add some cheeses so we don’t all get bored.
We serve the main part of the meal (lamb chops or whatever), then I put two or three pieces of each vegetable on their plates. This must be eaten, and almost always is.
If they want more of something, they can have it after finishing what I’ve given them. Sometimes, they’ll ask if they can leave one piece of tomato (for example), and we might bargain with them ~ “you can leave the tomato if you have two pieces of cucumber”.

We’ve found that over time the kids have really begun enjoy eating veges and
actually come back for more.

Hope this has given you some new ideas to run with, in the battle for healthy eating!

How Many Easter Eggs?

Four days after Easter, and we have 19 eggs (of assorted sizes and colours) left here.

To be honest, I have no idea of how many we started out with, but we’ve certainly eaten our way through a fair whack of them.

The Easter Bunny (EB) was very organised this year, with an itemised list and locations ~ I think he must have had a talk with hubby, who manages inventory for a living…

Some years, we’ve had tears because someone got what someone else wanted (I just can’t help throwing a tantrum sometimes). So this year, EB left the big eggs in the kids’ doorways, which worked amazingly well, and there were absolutely no tears or arguments!

Unlike a few parents I know, we usually just let the kids just go for it and eat what they like on special occasions like Easter & Christmas. Maybe I’m a bit cruel, but I’d rather get it all out of the way as soon as possible.

Surprisingly though, neither of the kids have gotten to that bouncy, itchy stage of chocolate overdose this year. (Christmas was a different story, with Mr Bump literally unable to stand still without his left leg twitching at one stage!)

They both seem to have learnt how to self-regulate their intake, although I do realise that I may be speaking too soon here, with 19 ~ no, 18 now ~ eggs still in the house…
How many eggs are left in your home right now, and how long do you think they’ll last?