moody eaters

When my boys were babies and on baby food, I thought I was so lucky, the didn't seem too picky. And now they aren't so much picky, as they are moody eaters. One day they will love something, the next time I make it, they act like they're being served prison food. Sometimes they like hot dogs, sometimes they hate them. Sometimes they won't touch any meat at all, sometimes they love meat. So, as a mom, it's tough to make sure everyone is eating well. I decided to share some tricks to get my moody eaters to eat just about anything.

1. Put ketchup on it. My kids used refuse eggs, until we put ketchup on them. If they don't eat their veggies, we put ketchup on it. I personally, think ketchup is gross anyway, so getting them to eat this way is not my favorite, but if it gets them eating, I can deal with gross.

2. Re-invent the recipe. Last night I made sloppy joes, total kid food, right? Well, they didn't touch them. I wasn't going to make anything else, it was a long, rough day. So, they got crackers, cheese, lunch meat.. But today, I had leftover sloppy joe, so I boiled up some pasta for lunch and heated and mixed in the leftover sloppy joe. They actually LIKED it!

3. Let them help make food. When they are being especially moody, I let them help in the kitchen. If we're making something that isn't really safe for them to help with (something involving lots of cutting and hot stoves/ovens) I fill the sink with soapy water, give them cups and spoons OR I give them bowls and spoons and let them pretend to cook.

4. If all else fails, go to their all time favorite. My kids love spaghetti or any kind of Italian food. We eat a lot of spaghetti and ravioli around here. I've started expanding on the Italian foods I make, and so far, they love all of it. A new household favorite, which I was surprised the kids loved so much, is Eggplant Parmesan.

Do you have picky/moody eaters? What do you do to get your kids to eat?

Let's get organized!

I have been in a cleaning,organizing, and dust-busting mood lately! I have re-organized my kitchen, freed up a ton of counter space, and de-cluttered the cupboards. The next day I cleaned and re-organized the bathroom. So I was extremely pleased when I read that this month's Project Marriage was to change something in the bedroom. Either something big or small. Well, the timing of this challenge couldn't be better with my "Let's whip this place into tip top shape" mood and all. I have SO many ideas for the bedroom. We have two closets in the house. One in the boys' room and one in the unfinished basement. So, not having a closet in our bedroom means that our room gets pretty cluttered at times. We have a dresser and a clothes rack type thing in there. We actually have two dressers, but one is filled with junk. SO one idea I had for the room is to buy my husband an inexpensive, yet functional filing cabinet for his office, and all the papers from the junk dresser can be filed away. Then we can sort through the rest of the junk and either put it in storage, or sell it or find some functional use for it, and open up the dresser for actual clothes. Replace the flimsy little clothes rack thing with either a sturdier rack and get some sort or canopy or curtain to put around it so it has more of a closet-y feel, or fashion some sort of wardrobe to hang clothes in. I've also told my husband that the little chair in our room has got to go, either up to his office, or to a yard sale.
We also have a hand-me-down headboard. One with a mirror in it. I don't really love the mirror headboard, and I'm having a lot of trouble convincing to let me make changes to the headboard. I want to take the mirror out, and make a chalkboard to put in there instead. Not that we need a chalkboard in our headboard any more than we need a mirror, but I think it would be cute. And the final change I'm planning on making is pulling out the sewing machine and making some fun accent pillows, and maybe new curtains. But if all I get accomplished is creating more functional space and finding a tidy way to store clothes with having no closet then I shall be pleased.