To eat or not to eat...

    One of the toughest parts of being a parent is feeding your children.  No one ever said how hard it was going to be.  It wasn't until Cayden was on solids that I realized I had no idea what to feed him.  Since my college days I've always been an easy quesadilla for dinner girl, but now I have to come up with balanced healthy meals and I suck!  My kids would rather have chicken nuggets and mac and cheese, but because I know those things are bad for you, at least on a daily basis, I make dinner almost every night.  Did I mention that I suck at cooking.  If I were to win the lotto having a cook is pretty much at the top of my list of must haves.  The only meal that I can do pretty well is breakfast, which incidentally is the one meal I think it gross and usually have a sandwich instead. 
     I'm one of those freaky moms who likes to make a big breakfast and will make just about anything you want for breakfast because I firmly believe it's the most important meal of the day.  This is of course why my boys would rather have cereal.  I am convinced that if I never cooked pancakes or homemade waffles they would want them.  I try to get them to eat better than cereal at least 2 times a week and even on cereal days we add bananas to have a heavier impact.  After lunch I am a waste.  Since I'm not a great cook and my husband is not far behind me I struggle everyday to come up with meals that my kids won't totally gag on. 
    On a daily basis I can hear this from my pickiest eater, Cam, "Mommy! This is not what I ordered!"  Yes, that's right apparently I have become a drive thru window for my children.  One thing I have learned is that I will not make a couple of different meals for my kids.  It's hard enough coming up with something to make them that will result in the least amount of groans and without making multiple meals.  I try to always include a vegetable, protein and starch, but I don't always stick to that because it's damn hard.  The rule in our house is if you don't eat it the only thing you can have for the rest of the night is an apple.  I know a lot of parents (mine included) say no food if you don't eat your dinner.  I remember going to bed hungry and all it did was make me feel awful, and I didn't change my attitude to that particular food, so instead we let them have an apple.
    There is one good thing about my kids and their picky habits. They LOVE LOVE LOVE fruit and vegetables.  On a weekly basis we go through 3 to 4 bunches of bananas, 2 bags of apples, 1 bag of grapes and 1/2 a bag of pears.  My boys also love broccoli, carrots (cooked or raw), cauliflower and peas.  I think their love of the healthy is my reward for the constant asking for snack foods.
     My oldest, Cayden, will eat anything and that old adage about boys eating you out of house and home applies to him.  I'm hoping he's just going through a growth spurt, because the amount of food he eats is crazy.  The best part about Cade is that he will literally eat anything, so if he complains about being hungry I tell him to eat an apple and he will.  Kellen is a lot like Cade, but he doesn't like veggies so getting him to eat them is hard.  Luckily he's a big fruit lover.  Camden is the exact opposite of Cade.
    Cam is super picky.  He likes to snack and if it's remotely healthy he doesn't want it.  The only stuff he really likes is bananas and broccoli, so we tend to have that a lot.  He's also really into yogurt and cheese, so I'm lucky that he can get his vitamins in with the chips, granola bars and cheese and crackers that he's always asking to eat. 
   I certainly miss the days when it was just myself I had to look out for food wise.  A quick quesadilla would make life so much easier.  I am told that kids grow out of this stage of pickyness and I can't wait for that to happen.  In the meantime when Cade turns 6 in January we are going to have him start making a meal once a week.  Obviously I will be helping, but I think it will be good for him to start cooking and getting creative, plus one night easier on me.