Day 1: The blog experiment begins

...with a so-so day.

Breakfast

The meal:

Baked Oatmeal (slightly adapted by me; see notes below)

Fresh clementines

Chobani Greek Yogurt- Strawberry flavor

What they ate:

Little A ate two small servings of the oatmeal, half a clementine (I cut these into bite-sized pieces for him), and about 1/4 cup of the yogurt.

Big R ate two servings of the oatmeal topped with some chopped walnuts, dried cranberries and a drizzle of real maple syrup, 1 1/2 clementines, and about 1/2 cup yogurt.

My notes:  The baked oatmeal was a big hit, and I'm pleased with it as a hot breakfast option.  The recipe calls for nuts and raisins baked in, but because of the choking hazard for Little A, I opted to leave them out and just sprinkle them on top for Big R.  I also reduced the sugar and added some cinnamon, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.  Delicious and so easy to throw together!  We all ate some and there is enough for a few more generous servings tomorrow.

Lunch

The meal:  Peanut butter and banana sandwich on whole grain bread (one sandwich: 2/3 for Big R, 1/3 for Little A); turkey deli meat roll-ups; fresh pear (I sliced up one pear.  About two-thirds went on Big R's plate, and then I peeled and diced the remaining third for Little A); milk.

What they ate:   

Little A ate all of the pear and drank his milk.  He took the banana slices out of the sandwich and ate those, plus ate about one bite out of each small piece of bread.  He also ate a tortilla chip, begged from me as I stood in the kitchen dipping a few in some salsa.  I should know better.  He recognizes the rustling of the chip bag!

Big R ate everything except the sandwich crusts (he's pretty adept at eating all the way to the very edge), drank the milk, and also had a tortilla chip.

My notes:  Sandwiches are sometimes devoured by Little A, and sometimes the exact same sandwich will be left virtually untouched.  He loves cooked chicken breast, but deli meat seems to hold no appeal for him.  Not a big lunch for him.

Dinner

The meal: Butternut squash risotto; spinach salad with sliced apples and cashews; green peas; applesauce; milk.

What they ate:   

Little A's risotto was untouched.  He ate all of the peas, a few bites of applesauce, and several pieces of shaved parmesan cheese.  He drank a bit of the milk.

Big R ate a large serving of the salad, all of his applesauce, one bite of risotto, and no peas.  Drank all of his milk.

My notes: A disappointing performance by the risotto, but not unexpected.  It's a perfect example of how I try to make dinner more "grownup-oriented."  Sometimes I score with this strategy, sometimes not.  I figure at least they're being exposed to different dishes even if they don't eat them!  It always cracks me up that, unlike most kids, Ryan rejects most of the starchy veggies- no peas, no carrots unless raw, and no potatoes unless they're fried form.  He loves most other veggies, though!

Snacks:  At home, Little A ate a Nutrigrain bar.  At school, Big R had pretzels and apple juice.  They each had one Ginger Shortbread Cookie.

Thoughts on the day:   

• I so wish they wouldn't offer juice at the preschool.  But we don't serve juice at home and Big R drinks reasonable amounts of milk and plenty of water, so I don't stress about it too much.  
• I need to come up with better snack options for home- too much sugar and other stuff in those Nutrigrain bars. 
• I have a goal of switching to plain unsweetened yogurt that I jazz up with fresh fruit, to cut down on added sugars.  I need to work on that.   There are 19g of sugar in a single-serve container of the Chobani flavored yogurt, which is about 5 teaspoons.  So that's about 3 tsp. for Ryan and 2 tsp. for Aiden right there- too much!