After watching Fed Up the movie about the impact of sugar on our society I’m fired up.  If you’ve ready my recent facebook posts you get that.  No more sugar coating from me.  If that’s too much for you and you’d rather hide behind your pantry door and pretend it doesn’t effect you or your family – go ahead.  Your loss.  I’ll be here when you wake up and realize that what you eat matters for the health and well being of EVERYONE.  This is where I would normally say I was stepping off my soap box.  But not any more.

When you are trying to prepare healthy meals for you, your spouse, your kids it can be challenging.  But it’s important so do.not.give.up.  Keep trying different recipes, tricks, techniques and you’ll learn what works, at the same time you’ll be winning them over with the real food you’re making.  Start cooking real food meals with one meal a week, then 2 then 3.  Like anything new – it will seem like a lot of work at first, you may stumble and have to throw out a dish or two, but over time you’ll become more comfortable.

I’m not going to give away all my secrets in one post – but a couple to start with.  We eat with our eyes – look for foods that are different colors, shapes, textures to bring some interest to the plate.  Also have a “safety net” on the plate.   A familiar food that your know your family will eat.  That way you don’t have to be a short order cook making different meals for everyone.  Make one meal that contains the safety food, or add it to the plate.  Like this:

Aaron’s plate tonight, had roasted sweet potato threads (semi new), salmon (always a gamble), sauteed kale/peppers/mushrooms (yeah right) but carrots, oranges and apple slices.  Even if he eats one bite, the “No thank you” bite, of each new thing he’s getting a decent meal.  Yes, we do require a “No thank you” bite.  I work hard on the meals, you can not just turn your nose up and say “ewww!”  That is rude and not acceptable at dinner.  You take a bite, even if it’s small and you swallow it.  Honestly 50% of the time they realize with that bite that they like the food and then everyone wins!

Stay tuned – I’ll post more tips and tricks.