Eating healthy with a toddler in the house

If my infrequent posts didn't give it away, let me just tell you: I'm the mom of a toddler. A very rambunctious, precocious, and happy little guy named Russ. He was born nearly three years ago, but with a dad who is nearly 6'7" and a mom who is 5'9", you'd think he was born maybe closer to FOUR years ago! 

Moms so easily can put pressure on themselves to have their kid eating all their veggies, only the healthiest stuff, and also to do it on a budget - but life just isn't that simple! I guess I sort of sealed my fate when I got all excited (if not perhaps a little smug) when Russ wolfed down mashed avocado, sweet potatoes, and even spinach salad (!!) in earlier times. Now he has settled into the typical toddler picky patterns that we all know and love. I still think I probably have it easier than a lot of moms do with their little ones' tastes - he still occasionally eats salad, he loves steak, brown rice, and he's a huge fan of dark chocolate. We're talking the good stuff (he's constantly trying to steal my Trader Joe's 76% cocoa dark chocolate).

So how do you eat healthy with a toddler in the house? I'd love to hear your suggestions, readers, but for now - here are mine.

1. Find a cuisine your child likes, and then work from that starting point. For me, this means a lot of italian or mexican dishes, but with a healthy twist. Russ loves Chipotle, so I'll make brown rice at home and add lime juice and cilantro to make it taste more like the brown rice at the chain restaurant. I love to cook chicken in the crock pot with Mojo seasoning, garlic, and olive oil, then shred it up and make chicken enchiladas with it. Throw in some extra veggies (I use spinach and tomatoes), quinoa (which I'm a bit obsessed with right now), a little cream cheese and shredded quesadilla cheese, and use lower-carb/whole wheat tortillas and you're good to go! Heats up nicely for leftovers, too.
2. Try new things - and don't take no for an answer (at least not at first). Okay, this one is touchy. I'll admit, I'm not a mom who coddles her kid all the time. Different strokes for different folks, right? So when I want Russ to try something new, we "barter." In other words, it's "These mashed sweet potatoes are really good, and I want you to try one bite for me or you cannot watch Lion King after dinner." I don't really care what anyone thinks of that approach - it's how my parents raised me, and I think it worked! I have a much more adventurous palette because of it.
3. Get your little ones involved in cooking. Not to say that you want your two year old chopping zucchini here, but there's something to be said for teaching them kitchen skills early on, and also they get so much pride from seeing a dish come together and then enjoying the results as a family. You can even make it extra fun by getting them a few of their "own" cooking supplies, like a tiny apron (adorable), some silicone spatulas, etc. 
4. Teach them about food. Seems obvious, right? I remember being a kid and watching the Sesame Street episodes where they'd tour a farm, or a food production plant, or something like that. Kids need to know that food has a source - and the farm-to-table concept has really brought that idea back to the public consciousness. Maybe take your kids to visit a farm or a dairy (Happy Cow Creamery in Pelzer is local, organic, and absolutely a great place for kids - plus, their milk and butter is about the best tasting I've ever had!). Show them around a Farmer's Market and tell them what each vegetable is called. Teach them about the nutrients certain foods provide. My mom did that for me, and she still jokes about how when I was little, I called sugar "calories," milk "calcium," and my granny's cereal "fiber." I guess I was just a born foodie.

I'll be back Tuesday with some new recipes for you guys (including the enchiladas I was talking about...which is making me sort of crave enchiladas...).