4.9: Guinea Pigs & Desserts with Nutritional Value (at least some)

Mmmmm...I'm still savoring delicious homemade donuts at the family birthday party last night.  Can you say awe-sommmmmmeeee?!  So worth cheating for.

Saw this article.  I dare you to try any of these.  I think I'm going to, and I'll even bring you some.  And watch you eat it.  It says crazy delicious...you be the judge.  Satisfy your sweet tooth with something more robust in the health department.


This morning we had pumpkin pancakes, a new favorite love of mine.  They were tender and delicious and almost everyone ate them.  Even though my youngest politely said "could you make just plain pancakes next time?"  Yep.  Well, honey, in case you haven't noticed, my mantra is "life is too short to eat boring food."  The girls regularly refer to themselves as the guinea pigs, as in they are testers and tasters of all foods under the sun.

Which makes me, and them, happy.  They will never go to a place away from home and not be able to eat anything.  I find, however, that they are very interesting studies in healthy relationships with food.  They frequently turn down warm homemade cookies <gasp> because they are not in the mood.  They are sure I'll be making them again soon (they know me so well) and can have one when they feel like it...and I really mean just one.

My oldest skips breakfast <gasp, again> because she's not hungry.  To me this is like breaking one of the 10 Commandments.  "How can you possibly function without breakfast?!" I screech as I try to force a woman-sized teenager to eat two spoonfuls of oatmeal.  But contrary to all reason, she's just fine without.  It is beyond my comprehension.  She eats the lunch I pack for her each day (she likes predictability and things that aren't gross at room temperature).  When she gets home from school she eats her biggest meal snack of the day and it seems that the flood gates are open and the pit is bottomless, and she does her mama proud.  Then dinner comes along and I'm like, "I put all this work in to making a nice healthy dinner and I'll be skunked if you leave the table without eating every. last. bite."  Law.

I find her eating habits confusing and a tad frustrating.  But honestly, it's working for her.  She has energy.  She's growing, she eats healthy food, she's interested in cooking, she can turn down snacks and is comfortable with her body's communications to her about when she is truly hungry and when she's not.  I am very proud, albeit somewhat flabbergasted.

My second is a bit more like me.  She has an insatiable sweet tooth and, like me, enjoys eating for taste.  She can also turn food down when she's not hungry.  Unfortunately that usually means regular food.  We are learning together how to not eat a bag of chocolate Easter eggs with your friend at one sitting.  She's a multiple cookie, grazing, bread-centric eater like me.  My job is to provide healthier snacks that she'll eat, like chopped veggies and fruit, which she also loves.  She too listens to her hunger, it just happens to hit at weird, non-meal, and times when she's interested in delaying something.  Hmmm.  Sounds kiddish.

We've always joked that my youngest was born without a sweet-tooth (a blessed state of being) and she rarely imbibes in dessert, has the longest-lingering holiday candy, and is basically not food-centric.  She is also more like her oldest sister in obeying her hunger signals, but she's the most regular breakfast-eater and even likes oatmeal, thank the heavens.  She is an active calorie-burning machine and needs to stoke her furnace frequently.  She loves savory things, like her dad, and is the one who asks most for crab & steak.

Anyhoo, the point is that by observing these three beautiful, healthy, happy, lights-of-my-life, I can learn from their healthy internal code that, because of mental and physical baggage, I have overwritten in myself.  I can also help them nurture and develop healthy habits, like making healthy substitutions and knowing when to say when.  Combined with their active-play lifestyle, I am comfortable with their eating habits and know that they are, so far, using food as fuel, and occasionally pleasure.

And because they are children I will continually hear griping at dinner time about the amount of broccoli, tough steak, rice that looks like bugs, and squash that is too "creamy" (their least favorite texture).  I know that all these foods are nourishing them and broadening their horizons.  And as I dish up Forbidden Rice and mountains of green and orange veggies, it serves me right that their favorite food is crab.