Groceries

Ah. Just got back from grocery shopping with my daughter. Once upon a time, shopping was not something I would come home from and go "ah". It was either a harried event, a lonely trip through the store hoping I would happen upon something the kids would eat, or a disappointing trek with the kids in tow. Disappointing because I would try to get them interested in different foods and keep them engaged with all the old counting, I Spy, and other games. It usually worked for a few minutes, and ended with me pushing onward without losing my patience. Or sometimes I would lose my patience and feel awful afterwards. Added to this was that for about a year, I've been struggling with having my kids not eat their suppers. Not for lack of trying on my husband and my part. We've tried many different tactics. Coincidentally, we also went *mostly* vegetarian last January. We never bought meat and only ate it while out, and even then tended to choose vegetarian when we could. But the kids LOVE meat. Every opportunity they got, they would savor it, while I thought of the different beans and lentils, etc, that I would try to get them to eat. So this added to the stress of the groceries, the kids did not want to eat what I bought. And the bill was starting to go through the roof, left mostly unchecked as we tried in vain to find things that the kids would want to eat.

So we have made two very big changes. The biggest change is that we've added meat back on the menu, I still have the strong feelings against factory farming, and will be shopping as much as I can for local, organic and humanely raised and culled meat.

The second change is that we started "color coded dinners" so on Sunday afternoons, before shopping, we make a "plan" and choose a color for each different day, then we think of foods that are that color to correspond. For example, Pink day was Salmon, with beets, and wild rice, followed by strawberries. Obviously some foods fall into a couple of different colors, and that can really work.

In any event, the kids have sat down every night for 7 days, and ate almost a full plate, sometimes even asking for seconds. The stress level is way down, I know what I'm making from one day to the next, and the kids have helped to pick out what they would like. The color thing has caught on in a major way, every morning they ask "what color is today?" Bottom line, they like what they are eating, it's healthy (taking in so many different colors which translates to more vitamins etc) and another huge bonus is that my grocery bill is going down! It has also eliminated last minute trips to the store for a $5 item that cost $18 by the time I leave the store, and the take out. Win win win.

Bon Appetit!