Eat your greens... and your children will too

Photo taken by wsilver

Lately I've been noticing that my son is eating more vegetables. I think it's because he sees me eat giant salads for lunch and dinner. He even tried raw cauliflower yesterday! He has always loved eating fruit but he only likes a few veggies. I made him a small salad today and he ate the whole thing. I was so happy and proud that my good choices were rubbing off on him.
I feel much more even tempered since I've gone high raw. If my 6 year old ate more raw foods I'm sure it will have the same effect on him. Which would be great since his a bundle of energy ALL the time.

So I think the best way to get children to eat more vegetables is for parents to eat more. Actions speak louder than words.

Getting organized

So far my week has been super busy, so I decided to get organized. When I went shopping yesterday I made sure I had enough fruits and vegetables for five days, to avoid going to the store too frequently. I also started washing my greens for the next day at night, that has really cut down on my lunch prep time.
I made two different types of dressings as well to put on my salads or for dipping veggies. Little things like that are a great help when you come home hungry and tired.

I have also started to keep a food log to make sure I'm eating enough and getting all the proper nutrients. This has helped me a lot with my meal planning. Sometimes small changes can make a big impact.

Get me out of the kitchen

Cooking dinner for my family on the weeknights is NOT my favorite activity. I never know what to make. I always feel like I recycle the same recipes week after week and nobody likes my food. How did this happen to me? There was a time when I loved making dinner. I was once a big foodie.

Then finally I had a very important breakthrough. I went away with my two awesome sisters for the weekend and I shared my lack of enthusiasm in the kitchen with them. Since they are both really good cooks they gave me so many great recipes and ideas. When I got back home I had a new energy and I was ready to try to love cooking dinner again. Somehow when I tried to implement their ideas I still dreaded cooking. What was I doing wrong?

My breakthrough occurred when I realized I had control over this situation. I was making it much more complicated than it had to be. I decided that I would find some delicious raw food recipes that my family and I would simply love and pair them with their meat dishes. I looked for recipes that were simple and full of flavor. I went old school and got some blank index cards and wrote the recipes on the card. If they were too long to write I skipped over them. It made making dinner a pure pleasure again. Somehow writing the recipes down caused me to get excited about food again.

I also realized my sisters loved cooking because they found a way to make simple and delicious recipes. They recited their recipes with so much enthusiasm,they loved food and they loved to cook and it showed. I needed to create that same feeling for myself, and I finally did.

Instead of trying to make two dinners I started to make one dinner that always included raw vegetables plus a cooked dish. Sometimes I ate the cooked dish and sometimes I only ate the raw one.

I also realized that I like to chop fruits and vegetables and make beautiful salads, but I don't like cooking on the stove. I have always been this way even when I was on a primarily cooked diet. I'm glad that making dinner is no longer the huge stress that it once was. It has made my nights so much more enjoyable.