Two Day of Yummy Goodness Dinners to Share!
We've come across two new "keeper" recipes to add to my THM Keepers Pinterest Board. We've been back on track and The Hubby and I have been trying to shake up the dinners just a bit without being too extreme.
I need to preface this post by saying we have had four kids at home this week. The oldest is one of those kids who will eat just about anything you put in front of her (she doesn't get this from me) and afterward will tell you, "that wasn't my favorite thing," if she didn't like what was served. If she likes it she will gush about it and try to convince the others how good it is. Her sister is the opposite and is suspicious of just about everything you put in front of her, but she will give a solid effort if she's not in a mood. She often needs coaxing, but pretty much always finishes dinner without a major hassle. We have another one her age who is half and half. He may eat without a fuss or he may sit and stare at his dinner plate for an hour or better. He has his likes and dislikes, but usually he's much like his 5 year old counterpart in that he will finish his dinner, he just may need some prodding. I fully expect this to change by the time he's a teen and he will eat anything he can get his hands on, we'll see. Then we have an extremely picky eater. This one will sit and frown at her plate or push things around for hours if we let her. Dinner is often a battle. It doesn't matter what we're serving, unless it is hot dogs, cheeseburgers, pancakes or "real" pizza (not THM), chances are we are in for a battle. Then, every once in a while, she may eat without a fight just to keep us on our toes.
We don't believe in the theory "they will eat when they are hungry" because we have four kids. We are not short order cooks and the kitchen is not open 24 hours a day. We don't give anyone big helpings, just enough of each item to make an effort at trying it. They are starting to understand that if they eat everything and are still hungry, they can ask for seconds or even opt for a greek yogurt or an apple as a filler. Well, some of them are anyway. Needless to say... dinner, well, anything but breakfast really, can be extremely stressful in our house, especially when we have been introducing a lot of new foods to the household. Overall, they've taken the changes quite well. Honestly, we had more problems BEFORE we started eating healthy than we do now with the kids and their eating habits. Funny enough, they are all realizing they like things they would have never considered eating on their own. Examples are cauli-tots (cauliflower), bacon wrapped asparagus, lemon chicken pasta (lemon in pasta??? They were skeptical!) and almost every sugar free, gluten free dessert we've had them try. Who knew this stuff could be tasty?!?
So, when I say that a meal was kid approved, it means that two or more ate it without a fuss. Which brings me to my recipe shares for today. The first one was inspired by a lack of side dishes for our S meals lately. With summer veggie prices skyrocketing, we have to think of new options. Sunday we had a spaghetti squash we needed to use, so I found a pretty quick and easy Spaghetti Squash Au Gratin recipe that I tried out on everyone.
I need to preface this post by saying we have had four kids at home this week. The oldest is one of those kids who will eat just about anything you put in front of her (she doesn't get this from me) and afterward will tell you, "that wasn't my favorite thing," if she didn't like what was served. If she likes it she will gush about it and try to convince the others how good it is. Her sister is the opposite and is suspicious of just about everything you put in front of her, but she will give a solid effort if she's not in a mood. She often needs coaxing, but pretty much always finishes dinner without a major hassle. We have another one her age who is half and half. He may eat without a fuss or he may sit and stare at his dinner plate for an hour or better. He has his likes and dislikes, but usually he's much like his 5 year old counterpart in that he will finish his dinner, he just may need some prodding. I fully expect this to change by the time he's a teen and he will eat anything he can get his hands on, we'll see. Then we have an extremely picky eater. This one will sit and frown at her plate or push things around for hours if we let her. Dinner is often a battle. It doesn't matter what we're serving, unless it is hot dogs, cheeseburgers, pancakes or "real" pizza (not THM), chances are we are in for a battle. Then, every once in a while, she may eat without a fight just to keep us on our toes.
We don't believe in the theory "they will eat when they are hungry" because we have four kids. We are not short order cooks and the kitchen is not open 24 hours a day. We don't give anyone big helpings, just enough of each item to make an effort at trying it. They are starting to understand that if they eat everything and are still hungry, they can ask for seconds or even opt for a greek yogurt or an apple as a filler. Well, some of them are anyway. Needless to say... dinner, well, anything but breakfast really, can be extremely stressful in our house, especially when we have been introducing a lot of new foods to the household. Overall, they've taken the changes quite well. Honestly, we had more problems BEFORE we started eating healthy than we do now with the kids and their eating habits. Funny enough, they are all realizing they like things they would have never considered eating on their own. Examples are cauli-tots (cauliflower), bacon wrapped asparagus, lemon chicken pasta (lemon in pasta??? They were skeptical!) and almost every sugar free, gluten free dessert we've had them try. Who knew this stuff could be tasty?!?
So, when I say that a meal was kid approved, it means that two or more ate it without a fuss. Which brings me to my recipe shares for today. The first one was inspired by a lack of side dishes for our S meals lately. With summer veggie prices skyrocketing, we have to think of new options. Sunday we had a spaghetti squash we needed to use, so I found a pretty quick and easy Spaghetti Squash Au Gratin recipe that I tried out on everyone.
Verdict... The Hubby and I really enjoyed it! Definitely one to use with S meats in the future. It was super easy to make and pretty tasty. The oldest liked it and said it was super yummy. The next one down pushed it around, but she boycots anything that looks like potatoes and ours was a bit more mushed up, so it looked more like mashed potatoes. The next one down struggled with the texture and wasn't a huge fan because of that. The youngest gobbled half of his up before he even touched his burger, so I'll take that as it being ok. So... definitely worth a try! We need to cook our squash just a bit less so it's more spaghetti-ish and we might get a better review on it from The Peanut Gallery.
The other recipe is Chicken Enchiladas. We started with this recipe...
From there I told The Hubby to make the Chicken Enchilada recipe on the side of the can. Yes, the enchilada sauce has sugar in it when it's store bought. I'm not a purist when it comes to THM so some things, like this sauce and spaghetti sauce, I'm just willing to make a compromise with because I don't have time to make my own. We basically used this recipe and just substituted low-carb tortillas and green enchilada sauce. This one got three and a half thumbs up from The Peanut Gallery. The youngest girl wasn't overly impressed, but she ate it without dawdling, so I'll consider it a success. The Hubby and I were quite impressed and gave it two thumbs up and it completely fell under an S Meal qualifications!
I love adding new recipes to our options and while it may be a struggle sometimes with the kids, I know they are all slowly expanding their horizons, so we are doing something right. I love seeing them eat healthy and knowing we're providing that for them. I also love to see their eyes widen when we tell them what they just ate... and they LIKED it! Sneaky skeaky!
Comments
Post a Comment