Easy Taco Salad

 

It should come as no surprise to you that I have a really bad memory. My obsession for documenting things is because I honestly can't remember that one thing we did on that trip that everyone else seems to remember, or that one time we went to that place that I supposedly loved.

So I take pictures, and I write, and every time we move we lug around my huge box of journals.

I always wonder about what my kids will remember. Will they remember that on Sundays, when they walked in the door, famished after church, the house smelled like warm meat falling off the bones? Will Enzo remember how when Maria says a blessing on the food she always starts with "Amen." Will they remember our light-weight chairs so un-sturdy to sit on but perfect to be picked up even by our 3 year old? Will they remember me being mean to them about how distracted they are when they eat and randomly go on the hammock for a swing with food in their mouth?

I wonder what I'll remember when my kids are adults. I bet that when a young mom tells me about how her kids act around the dinner table I'll try to think back and my only memory will be one of my children sitting down and eating their food, never misbehaving. Does that ever happen to you, where you tell someone about your kids and they look at you like you must be crazy because their kids never did that? It happens to me all the time but only with people who have adult kids but no grandkids yet.

I can't wait for them to have grandkids!

In some ways though I want to remember the crazy. I want to remember Enzo cracking up in the middle of a prayer because he thought of a funny passage in the book he's currently reading. I want to remember Maria falling off her chair because, I'm sorry, it is kinda funny. And when Christian and I live in a house free of carpet I want to remember that every night Christian vacuumed the floor under the table, and that every night he would chase the kids around with the vacuum cleaner, and I want to hear their loud, oh so loud, screams of delight.

I want to remember it all.

EASY TACO SALAD

• chips
• cafe rio chicken (1 lbs of chicken tenders in the crock-pot with 1 cup salsa and 1/2 cup brown sugar. Cook on high for 4 hours and then shread it)
• cherry tomatoes cut in half
• lettuce
• cheese
• sour cream
• chopped green onions

Asemble. Serve. Enjoy.

The Picky Eater Conundrum

The question I get asked the most by my readers is, "how do I get my kid to not be picky?" Funny you should ask considering that my kids are far from being easy when it comes to food. However, there have been some things that have worked out well for us.

Feed them when they're hungry.

This seems so obvious right, but it actually took me a while to figure this out. When Enzo wakes up in the morning he is hungry. He'll have pancakes, eggs, bacon, and a bowl of cereal on the side. Or he'll just have 3 big bowls of cereal and some fruit since most mornings I'm not cooking anything. When I wake up in the morning I'm not hungry. I can wait 2-3 hours before I eat breakfast, and by then it's already lunch time. If I have a piece of toast and some tea as a morning snack then I'm good to go. Maria just wants milk. At around 10:00am she'll eat a handful of Cheerios. If I feed Maria when she's hungry she'll eat anything.

On Friday I made a cauliflower, chick pea, curry stew, the kind of food I usually have to trick my kids into eating. Lunch was ready at 2:00pm. By that time Maria was hungry, really hungry, so she just sat down and ate two big bowls without a single complaint. On Saturday I tried to give her the same thing and she wasn't at all interested, she just wasn't hungry.

This gets tricky because if you're trying to feed everyone when they're hungry then you're pretty much cooking and re-heating food all day long, and I have a 3 month old who nurses on demand, plus I work, plus I have a bathroom to clean for goodness sakes. So here is what I do - breakfast and lunch I let them eat when they're hungry, even if it means we're eating at different times. Enzo is in school  during lunch 4 days out of the week and and 2 days out of the week Maria eats at preschool. Plus, I work 30 hours a week. Christian is usually the one who gets lunch together. If I have a minute I'll take a break and eat with him, if not I just eat in front of my computer. 

Dinner is a whole other story. Yes, I want my kids to get healthy food inside their bodies but I also really want them to learn table manners, and learn how to socialize around the dinner table. At dinner time we all sit together and we eat and we talk. I try to push dinner to 6:30 when I know they're hungry but before 7:00 when they start getting tired.

Get them involved

Ever since Christian started gardening with the kids both Enzo and Maria have been willing to try out all sorts of things. Enzo used to not touch his salad, now he eats it and enjoys it! I like cooking with the kids, but have no interest in gardening. Find some way that you can involve them, as long as this way is also enjoyable for you. One mom told me she likes taking her kids to the store so they can help her pick out produce. I would rather stick a needle in my eye than take my kids shopping. Her idea sounds awesome but I know it's not for me. If cooking is stressful for you than don't cook with your kids, it will just make it more stressful. If you like having your table set then let them help you set the table and fold napkins, tell them how special dinner is when you get to eat on a pretty plate. Find one aspect of food preparation that you enjoy and get your kids involved. If they participate in the process of creating food they are more likely to want to try the food. Also, plan on doing this sometimes not every day. Sure I like cooking with the kids but more often than not I'm rushed and if I have another body in my tiny kitchen it totally throws my momentum off. I try to cook with them once a week max.

When all else fails

If they're being crazy stubborn this is what I do. 

• Dice. If they're being super stubborn and I'm on the verge of yelling at them (which I have done many times) I make them roll a dice. Whatever number they get, that's the number of bites they have to take. If they want to be mad about it they can just be mad at their own luck.
• Books. Maria will eat anything if I'm reading a book to her and distracting her from her food. I don't like doing this, but sometimes I'm in a hurry and it gets the job done. Also, if Enzo is eating by himself I let him listen to an audio book. If we're all having dinner together books are not allowed at the table.
• iPad. I have only done this a handful of times but if baby Eliza needs to nurse at the same time the other two kids need to eat and Christian is gone and my patience is running very thin, I prop the iPad on the table (far away from their food) and I let them watch a show while they eat. 

And then there's the old favorite, just add bacon.

And here is what you do

I asked my Instagram and Facebook followers to share their tips on helping picky eaters and here is what they had to say. And if you like what they had to say click on their name to follow them (some have private accounts).

marlameridith

Cheese. Lots of cheese.

mombraves

Lots of cheese and breadcrumbs too.

babyboybakery

Butter and parm go on most veggies really well!

ginavon

I make a lot of blended soups that hides some of the least popular veggies and then rough cut those they do like for texture.

lisha_bean

I hide some veggies but cooking things a different way and with different seasonings usually does the trick.

sara_stratford

Puréed veggies in stuff like spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, etc. my picky eater is the worst!!

suzana_h

Cheese on top! Also if I let her play with it for a while..smoosh it, smear it, whatever.. she'll make a huge mess but will eventually be too curious to not give it a taste.

weeklybite

Ketchup!!! I know it's pathetic, but it works every time :-)

karistaskitchen

It takes time for little palates to develop. Serving as many whole foods as possible and the least amount of processed foods will help. Sauces, dipping sauces, cheese, cheese sauces, these always got my kids to try foods they didn't think they liked. Of course now they always want a sauce :(

mamakj

Different utensils to eat the food with! Toothpicks are awesome...making kebabs, etc.

bekahtano

I've found that advertising the weeks meals gets them ready to try a new meal.

victoriajordan

For my step-son who is an extremely pick eater. I'm always finding way to add vegetables he wont eat. When i make spaghetti i chop up zucchini, and add it to the sauce. I will use purees like squash, sweet potatoes when I'm baking cookies, banana bread etc...

How do you help your picky eaters try new things? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to leave a comment here or follow me on Instagram to add to the conversation.

In Love

Christian made pink heart pancakes with pink whip cream for breakfast. It was my idea. More often than not I have ideas of things I want to do and then Christian goes and does it. And perfects it. This is love.

I thought the kids were going to be thrilled about their special Valentine's Day breakfast but honestly they did not seem impressed. Maria just ate the whip cream and Enzo would of been just as happy with a bowl of cereal. Then right when we got to that critical point of "OMG you're late for school. Again. Hurry. Seriously, hurry!" Enzo looks in the KitchenAid bowl and squeals, "the whip cream is PINK, Maria Aurea look, the whip cream is pink" and he jumps up and down the way he does when he's excited, the way I was expecting him to react 20 minutes earlier. Next time I'll turn on the light when they start eating and not wait for the sun to fully come out before they realize that what they have on their plate is something special.

Sometimes you try really hard as a parent. And you fail. This is still love.

Also, this baby, she is love. I think it has to be her smile. It's so dang sincere it just goes right through my flesh and into my soul. I tell her I love her and I really mean it, even though I've just known her for 3 months. Kindda like when I met Christian for the first time, 10 years ago (tomorrow!) and I fell in love with him. It was fast but very sincere. I loved him right there and then. I loved that he existed. That this cool guy existed and I hoped that he and I would get to know each other more. And then with time I hoped that we would get married and start a family. The best part was that I felt peaceful about the whole thing, like if things didn't work out it would be o.k. I would be o.k. I still loved that he existed even if we weren't going to be together. This feeling was so different from what I experienced with my high-school boyfriend, which was intense, so intense. Lucky for me He fell in love with me too and now we get to grow our love together, adding some little ones in the mix. Some little ones for us to love.

Yesterday Maria said she was the luckiest person alive because she got two lollipops. She asked if I thought she was lucky. I told her I did. She asked if I knew of anyone else in the world that had two lollipops. I told her that I am not sure if anyone I know currently has two lollipops in their possession. I told her that it was possible that someone did. I wasn't sure how she would react, would she all of a sudden feel un-lucky? She smiled and said, "cool, there are two lucky people in the world." Phew! I love when my kids are happy for other people, it's something I try to teach them on a regular basis. With that said if you tell me that you are the luckiest person in the world because your husband/wife/partner/boyfriend/girlfriend is the best, I will believe you. When people tell me about their happy relationships and how much they love their significant other it makes me happy.

And if you don't have a significant other to love, that's cool too. Hopefully one day you will, when you're ready, and when you meet the right person. The type of person you're just happy exists in the world.

Happy Valentine's Day. Hope you have a good day. More importantly I hope you have someone to love today, someone who understands you and cares for you and shares their Valentine's candy stash with you.

xoxo, Da

BLT Salad

And then Christian made a heart shaped bacon and I was reminded, once again, that I am in fact the luckiest girl in the world.

So, there's this thing called baby weight and baby weight and I are not BFFs. Baby weight wants to hang out, like all the time, and I'm like "Enough! You are so 2012." So yeah, I've been eating a lot of salad, with bacon - I know, I'm totally hopeless.

Before we move on to this recipe I must add a few disclaimers.

a) Weight does not a person make. 

b) I think talking about bodies in a positive way is really important. If you don't believe me let me just say that I love talking about bodies in a positive way more than I love bacon, in fact I think bacon and body positive chats go hand in hand. Amy Hackworth shared some great links to some great articles about all of this on her post on Design Mom. 

c) I'm not just eating salad. Thought I should make that clear.

Let me tell you how I made this. Because this is delicious and I think it's a pretty snazzy salad to serve on Valentines Day.

BLT Salad

serves 4

8 slices of thick cut maple glazed bacon

1/2 sour dough baguette sliced into cubes

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 green onion, thinly sliced

1 bunch of romaine-lettuce, chopped

2 tomatoes chopped

Preheat oven to 375*. Arrange bacon on a cookie sheet and shape it like a heart. Bake until crisp (15-20 min). Set aside.

Toss the bread with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and bake until golden brown (15-20 min). Set aside.

In a glass jar mix together the heavy cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, and green onions, Season with salt and pepper. I like making it in a glass jar, that way if I don't use all of the dressing I can easily save it for later.

In a large bowl toss together the lettuce, tomatoes, and croutons. Serve in individual plates. Add two heart shaped bacon slices to each plate. Coat with dressing. 

Enjoy!

PS- If you're looking for more salad recipes last year I did 31 days of salad with the help of some of my favorite bloggers. You can also find all of the recipes from that event on this Pinterest board.

Sugar Free Valentine

Are you excited about Valentine's Day?
I am! I am!

On February 15th Christian and I will be celebrating 10 years since the day we met, at a Valentine's Dance called The Last Chance. It's fun celebrating our Valentine's Day on the 15th, it makes it a lot easier to go out to eat where we want to without having to fight the crowds. It's also really fun celebrating Valentine's Day with the kids, they get so into it.

I've been looking for some fun ways to say "I {heart} you" with the kids without involving empty calories so that I can stick with our New Year's resolution to do sugar just once a week.

I'm pretty excited about these goodies
// how to make play-doh with Kool-Aid
// my heart pops for you free printable
// photo garland
// paper doily envelope

What are your plans for Valentine's Day?

Check Out Friday

This is //
FOCO 100% Pure Coconut Water with a Splash of Tropical Fruit Flavors

Why I like it //
Ever since I had my c-section and lost a lot of blood, I've been on a green smoothie kick  with coconut water.  After living in Bahia Brazil and drinking fresh coconut water every day I can barely stand the boxed up kind. I put it in my smoothie because I know it's good for me but I hate the taste. I don't know how FOCO does but their coconut water is different from the other ones I have tried, FOCO tastes fresh. The tropical flavors help sweeten my green smoothie, and bonus - it's sugar free!

I would change //
I would love to have an Açai flavored FOCO. Yum!

Where can you get it //
Right now you can only purchase unflavored FOCO coconut water, starting in March you'll be able to get the flavored kind. Make sure you try the lychee and the pink guava. Those two were my favorite. To check if your local supermarket carries FOCO go here.

This is //
Nature Box, a subscription service where you get a box with 5 healthy snacks delivered to you for  $19.95 a month.

Why I like it //
If you like carrot chips, country ranch peas, and chipotle maple almonds, this subscription service is for you. I like how diverse the snacks are. I like how all of the ingredients are natural, with no trans fats, no artificial sweeteners, no artificial flavors or colors. These are the kinds of snacks I like feeding my kids.

I would change //
The price. I don't think $19.95 is necessarily a bad deal, but it feels like a luxury to spend almost twenty bucks on snacks when you have a family of 5. On that note, I could see this as a treat my kids would enjoy, specially the surprise aspect of it. If I told them every month we would get a new surprise box with snacks inside they would be all over it. Less money going towards goldfish crackers and more money going towards dried pears - it could happen.

Where can you get it //
You can subscribe online here.  You can also give a subscription to someone as a gift. Shipping is free.

This is //
FarFaria, an iPad app with over 300 stories, 5 new stories added weekly, and all with the read-to-me feature for $3.99 a month.

Why I like it //
I don't like it, I love it! Since we don't have a TV we let the kids use the iPad for entertainment. Enzo and Maria each get 30 minutes a day to play or watch something on the iPad. Normally they go straight to Netflix and watch an episode of My Little Pony. These days they've been going straight to FarFaria. The app is beautifully illustrated and very intuitive. The read-to-me feature is great for little Maria who is still learning how to read. Also, there are some super cute foodie stories, my fave!

I would change //
I would love to see some stories in Spanish.

Where can you get it //
Get a subscription here. If you'd like to give it as a Valentine's gift go here.

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Some other fun things to check out

// Instagram for Chrome, my new favorite way to check out my Instagram feed.
// Superbowl recipes with the Foodie app.
// This great interview with Mrs. Patmore from Downton Abbey about life in that TV kitchen.
// This super cute blog and this super cute blog too.

Have a great weekend. We're off to Santa Barbara to celebrate our nieces first birthday. We're excited to be with family again.

xoxo, Da

ps- Some of the products mentioned in this post were sent to me for reviewing purposes. I was not compensated to write this post. Opinions expressed on my blog are always my own.