Pizza sauce is a healthy vegetable????? Thanks Congress???

Catch:  Kids and eating vegetables.  


I had a fun play date the other day and the topic of healthy eating for our kids came up.  It was a nice discussion because there was no competition whatsoever on comparing notes, per se, of whose kids were eating more vegetables.  It was a healthy (excuse the pun) discussion on how to get our kids to eat more veggies.

If you read one of my earlier posts, I fully admit that I do take the easy way out when it comes to feeding my kids super healthy at all times.  I used to not do this, as I was a "baby food making fool freak"!  It's totally a mind over matter debate and I just don't mind right now.  So, I'm having a hard time making it matter.

I also fully admit that I don't even want to eat super healthy all the time.  Sometimes I just want to eat some bad food.  I have food cravings just as bad as anyone else on when I want to hit the drive through.  I'm not even sure it's because I'm lazy.  I don't think it's a "lazy thing", it's more of a "cravings thing".

I've been trying to explain to my daughter that when we do "hit the drive through" it's more as a treat.  OK, it's not always a treat, I just want to.  But, I do try to phrase it this way so she knows we shouldn't be going here all the time.  I also have been telling her we should never order anything extra-large or even large for that matter.  I figure I'd start talking to her about this now since I'm sure it gets harder to explain as she gets older.  I can remember going out to eat with friends in middle school and eating fast food.  I don't ever remember ordering large, but today it seems like the norm.  I remember going to the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet for $5 and thinking "What a deal!!"  I was also influenced by my friends to eat my first Twinkie!!  Can you believe I didn't have a Twinkie until high school?!  Now it just kills me that places fry these things up for a treat!

 I can't even say eating fast food for us is necessarily any worse than eating bad food at home.  Is eating fast food chicken nuggets worse than eating store bought chicken nuggets???  I've seen all the documentaries on how this food is made, but at times I just do not care.  I still do it because I crave it or take the easy way out. We definitely don't do it all the time, but if I put Starbucks on the list of when we hit the drive through, then we do it more than we should.  And now that they have entered the world of the cake pops (cake on a stick) then that's just the Devil knocking on our door.  Either way, they don't serve veggies at these places and then I'm feeling the guilt of how to get my kids to eat more veggies let alone myself.  So, I definitely need to do more of it at home.

My mom used to always say, if she cut it up and stuck it on a plate, in front of our noses, we definitely ate it more.  We did.  It always tastes better when someone else makes your food for you. Or even if someone cuts up fruits and veggies and puts them pretty on a plate.  I'd much rather eat something fruits and veggies that look appetizing than just eat a big 'ol carrot out of the fridge.  Or even take a bite out of a round apple.

My cousins and I used to eat full pickles out of the canning closet in my aunts basement.  Did this count as a veggie???  Probably not, even though it was a cucumber.  I'm thinking these days people might call this a vegetable.  I remember wrapping the pickle up in a paper towel just so the juice wasn't dripping all over us.  This sounds absolutely disgusting now that I'm typing it out.  My husband once found four jars of pickles in our fridge and was absolutely appalled.  I do think I was pregnant at the time, even though I don't believe that pregnant women necessarily crave pickles!   Messy "veggies" aside, our biggest "go-to" fruit is an apple. These are the least messy of the fruits, but I still have to cut them up, which I don't like.  

I hate eating apples like a "big kid"!  I ask my daughter to eat her apple like a "big kid" all the time, just so I don't have to cut it.  She won't. But both kids will eat them by the ton if I cut them up.  Go figure.   So, why do I have such a hard time doing this with veggies???  Note to self.... Cut up more veggies and put them on a pretty plate under our noses!  Counter act dog jumping on the counter with a plate of broccoli!!  

All kidding aside, I've tried all the fancy alternatives to making veggies fun to eat.  Of course the old standby of dipping them in ranch.  My kids hate ranch, so that doesn't work.  We've made "Ants on a log".  My kids enjoy decorating their celery with raisins and then heading off to play.  Not sure why I just wasted X amount of dollars on peanut butter and raisins, to cover a celery stick, when my kids still won't eat it.  They like to pretend they are eating it, but I'm not sure two bites count.

The things that drives me nuts is my kids ate everything as babies.  What changes?  I guess I've heard tastebuds change over time, but is it really that quick???  I doubt it.  It seems more like maybe I lose interest in ensuring we eat enough vegetables.  Maybe?? Who knows??  They like corn.  I'm not sure I ever considered corn a vegetable to begin with.  My grandmother used to tell me it wasn't because that's what cows ate to get fat.  Then once I heard that our digestive system can't even digest a piece of corn and you expel it in it's full form, then what is the point?  Thinking of this makes me wonder how cows get fat on corn???

Anyway!!!

Needless to say I have a hard time getting myself to eat tons of vegetables let alone my family.  I think it's just me needing to JUST DO IT!!  Fruit is no problem.  We actually eat a ridiculous amount of fruit.  Maybe this is why I don't "feel so bad" about us not eating tons and tons of veggies.  I do know we need to do better, though.  I remember spitting my veggies into a napkin when I was little, and now I just hate to see that money go to waste. I suppose the more I put the veggie on their plates the more likely they are to eat it eventually.  They say the more you expose them to the food, they will eventually come to like it.  I don't think this is true as my husband has been fighting the battle with broccoli since the day he was born.  I've tried to sneak it to him and he can smell it a mile away.

So back to fruit... What is up with the apples at the drive through?  I'm not sure these are making me feel better either.  I left an open package of these apples out over night once and the next morning they were still not brown!!!  "Fresh" as can be!  Eeek!!!  What do they put on these things that make them so they do not brown??!!!  Scary!

So this leads me to the title of today's blog...

This US government will officially declare pizza sauce as a vegetable if Congress passes a rule change to re-categorise the pasty mess as a full-fledged vegetable this week.  Say what????  Are we this desperate to ensure we can say that our kids are eating vegetables???  I don't think I'm this desperate enough yet to say yes to this.   I can't say this is how I want my kids to get their full servings of veggies.  Can you????

P.S.  Should we tell Congress that a tomato is a fruit, not a veggie???  ;o)