I hope you all made it though Halloween and are enjoying the extra hour of sleep you gained! I had a crazy week with my last day of work. But now I have a little more time. And at least some of that time will be spent in the kitchen and blogging.
We are taking family pictures on Monday by the beach, so will be going out to dinner that night. On Tuesday, I’m going to be trying to perfect a meat lasagna for Italian night and it’s minestrone for soup night on Thursday. And who can resist Kale pesto pita pizzas with bacon for a Friday??
As usual, for more meal plan ideas, check out Org Junkie.
What’s Cooking This Week
Monday: Eat out
Tuesday: Lasagna and a salad (inspired by this recipe)
Wednesday: Kids’ Choice
Thursday: Tuscon Minestrone soup with cheesy bread
Friday: Kale Pesto Pizza with Bacon, fruit and salad
Weekend: Slow Cooker Balsamic and Tomato Chicken
More from Cooking Light
How Halloween went down in our house
Halloween kind of snuck up on me this year. What’s interesting is we didn’t really have any parties before the big day. Little D had a dress up day at his preschool on Wednesday and got some candy, but that was about it.
I feel like the kids were much less focused on candy this year. Little D did wake up on Thursday saying he wanted one of his treats, so I packed a fun size Snickers as part of his snack. My mother-in-law said he only ate half of the Snickers and then wanted the rest of what I packed for his snack.
Before our usual trick or treating we stopped by a friend’s place where the kids played some games, trying to eat apples hanging down at the end of a string (my friend made this up instead of bobbing for apples). After that, we drove 5 minutes to my mother-in-law’s where the kids went up and down the street trick or treating.
When we got back to her house, we checked out the loot. Little D tried another Snickers and had the same response and went straight for a Hershey bar and a small Kit Kat. I asked him: “Do you want more or want to save it for tomorrow?” He answered “save it.”
Big A ate a candy bar and few other pieces and just kind of stopped with no declaration. We went home and the next day there wasn’t a peep about candy. I had them pick some pieces for dessert as we were going to a high school football game after dinner.
Saturday came and not a peep about the candy and we were running around so much I didn’t bring it up as an option. Big A is in charge of her stash in her room….there it sits.
On Sunday I gave them the option of ice cream for dessert or some of their candy and they wanted ice cream.
Maybe it’s that both me and my husband are neutral about candy or the kids are getting older or grandma is still doing her job. Either way, I like their carefree attitude towards candy.
FNCE, News and Links
Jill and I were at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Food and Nutrition Conference (FNCE) in Houston a couple of weeks ago promoting Fearless Feeding. We spent Sunday at the product marketplace getting the word out about the book. It was great to meet with so many dietitians, many who didn’t know about the book. We shipped 100 books and all were sold by the end of the day!
As for news, the Chicago Tribune wrote about a new study published in the journal Obesity, finding that certain meal rituals decrease obesity risk in adults and children. These rituals included eating without the TV on and in a designated place like the kitchen table. Having meaningful talks with children during dinner and saying grace were associated with lower BMIs in the adults. It’s refreshing to see research examining these other important aspects of childhood nutrition.
I was very excited to get my original post published on the Huffington Post: 10 Things You Should Never Say to Your Child About Food. I will be contributing regular blog posts so stay tuned.
On WebMD’s real life nutrition, I write about the problem with BMI screenings in schools (aka Fat Letters). The real problem is what parents will do with the information without the right support. Research shows the actions parents take to control their child’s weight often do more harm than good.
On She Knows, I highlight 10 nutritious and tasty foods to serve during the holidays with links to recipes, so check it out.
Because I didn’t have much time to look around at FNCE, I enjoyed reading Janet Helm’s review of the nutrition and trends she spotted.
Well, that’s it for now. Let me know how you are doing in the comments!
I’m excited that you go to go to FNCE. We have a vendor table at PHA’s Healthier Future Summit in DC in March. I”m kind of nervous, but also super excited!
That’s great Amy. Let me know how it goes!
Have to admit, I’m green with envy that your kids are casual about candy. We’ve tried several times to introduce sweets as a regular daily event to make them less exciting and both our kids display more and more obsession over time (we tried for a couple of months at the longest go). Halloween this year was no different. Having sweets daily for only a week or so led to the 4 year old asking about it nonstop. I was careful to stay neutral about it with my words and actions but it didn’t matter. Once the sweets were finally gone (4 year old controlled her own stash) she whined for a half day about when we would have more candy/dessert, but today it’s finally out of sight, out of mind, and I am relieved. We can have dessert once every week or two without incident but more than that doesn’t seem to work. I wish it were different but I really do believe a lot of this is their natural tendency to crave sweets more than other kids might.
ps- congrats on the book doing well!
Hey Megan. While the approach I take can work for many families, I’m glad you were able to recognize it wasn’t working for your kids and change course. If I’ve learned anything since blogging is that there isn’t a once-size fits all approach and parents know their children better than anyone. In time, things may change as your children get older.
Thanks Megan….the book is holding steady. Hopefully it helps parents feel better about the tough job of feeding kids ; )
I’m a new reader and really enjoying your blog. Thank you! I have a 14 month old and a 2.5 year old. Candy this Halloween for our 2.5 year old was a lot like your household. Few pieces for a couple days and then didn’t ask again. I provide daycare for a couple of other children and this year we went around on Halloween day to some of our local businesses and gave them Halloween treats. I wanted to show the kids that it’s not all about the getting. It might have worked because the other day we saw the street crew cleaning up the leaves and my 2.5 year turns to me and says “maybe give them some candy?” We went outside and shared the last remaining pieces with the crew!