Feeding Kids Farm Fresh to Table

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Eating healthy. We all know it is what's best for us but it is not an easy task. Eating healthy often takes work and discipline. Why then do we expect our kids, who don't care about healthy, to do it without complaint? I know I get frustrated when my kids won't eat the greens I put on their plates but when I really think about it, I can't blame them for not wanting to eat something that they think is "yucky".

Instead of forcing them to eat food they don't like and in turn dealing with fights, I have decided to help them understand what is good for their bodies and get them excited about doing so. I was going to break this up into numerous posts and give different tips and tricks but the first recipe I thought about sharing pretty much covers all of my tips. So I'm just gonna lay it all out there in one post. Ha!

1. First of all, get them excited about the ingredients. There are a lot of ways to do this. Have a family garden where they can grow their own food, take them to the store with you and let them see all of the options (and maybe let them pick a few)...OR my personal favorite is to have fresh fruits and veggies delivered to your home.

We recently tried this out for the first time and it was seriously like the happiest of happy mail. This mom The kids were so excited to find the boxes on our doorstep and dig in.

We use Farm Fresh to You and L-O-V-E them. We are able to customize our box delivery to fit the size (and picky eating habits) of our family. They offer really flexible delivery...and even let us change or suspend the account to fit our always changing chaotic schedule. Plus, I love that they allow for us to eat local by partnering with farms in our area. I would highly recommend them. Click here to see if they deliver to your area. If they do, you can save $15 off your first box with the promo code WEAVE15. Say what? I love me a good deal!

2. Make the meal look fun. You can go all out with Bento boxes and food scenes on your plates or you can just use a whole lot of bright and fun colors like we did in the recipe that I am sharing today. The more colors on the plate, the more fun it looks. It makes for a more exciting meal time. Tip: if you have a kid that won't eat certain colors, avoid the color. I know, rocket science. You can usually dye the food with other natural ingredients, like beet juice for example.

3. Get them involved in the kitchen. Give the kids jobs when you are cooking a meal. When they are proud of their dish, I have noticed they are more likely to try it. In our house, the kids are usually worried about hurting the other ones feelings and will try anything they make...I wish they would have that kind of courtesy with me too. Ha ha.

With those three things, I am noticing the kids are trying a lot more healthy items that they usually wouldn't touch. They may not always clear the plate but getting them to try the food is the first step, right? 

We used all three of those suggestions the other day while making this yummy frittata. All four kids tried it. Two of the four cleared their plates.

Potato Crusted Frittata Casserole

2 TBSP Coconut oil

2 Medium sized Yellow Finn Potatoes

3 cups Kale

8 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 cup Mixed Medley Cherry Tomatoes (cut in half)

1 Medium Pimiento Pepper (diced)

2 Leaves Fresh Basil

3/4 cups Feta Cheese

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375.

 

Start by dicing your potatoes into small cubes. Heat the coconut oil and add the potatoes. Cook these until they are lightly browned. Add the Kale and cover. Once Kale has started to wilt you can move the mixture into a 9"x 13" casserole dish.

Side note: I like to cut my Kale down into smaller pieces so that there aren't big chunks. It helps distribute it more evenly in a dish. Instead of cutting it myself, I will have the kids tear it into strips.

Whisk together the eggs and milk (or pass the job on to a cute helper).

Have your little ones tear up some basil and take all the stems off of your tomatoes and hand them over for you to cut...or if they are old enough, have them do that as well.

Pour egg mixture over the potatoes and kale. Sprinkle with your salt and pepper. Let the kid throw the tomatoes, peppers, basil and feta all over it. The more the better. 

Pop it in the oven for about 30 minutes and serve with some fresh fruit. This is one of those meals that is really simple but loaded with yummy flavor.

Kid Friendly Smoothie

The past few months we have added Green Smoothies into our diets. Most mornings our breakfast is served in a cup. Honestly, I feel so much more energized on the days that I am drinking them. And a nice little perk, the kids are getting more veggies than ever.

Today I thought I would share the kids favorite smoothies with you all.

 Ingredients:
1.5 cup spinach
1/2 carrot
1/2 banana
1/2 cup frozen berries
1/4 cup frozen peaches, mango or pineapple
1/4 cup old fashioned cracked oats
100% Fruit Orange Juice

Chop Carrots. You don't need to do them to small. Just enough to fit in the blender. I do mine smaller so that it blends more quickly.

Add all of the fruits and veggies into the NutriBullet or Blender and top with oats. The reason we are adding oats is to make the smoothie a little more filling. I notice when drinking them for breakfast I was getting hungry pretty early. This helped. When drinking in the afternoon, I usually substitute the oats with almonds to add protein.

Pour your juice to the max fill line or if using a blender, just enough to get the veggies really mixing. For an even healthier version, try coconut water. The kids prefer juice. I figure as long as their is no sugar added and it is 100% juice, it is worth it to get them to love the smoothie.

Pour and enjoy!

Strollers are Scary

I have a confession. One I am hesitant to admit.

I am scared of having baby number four. I don't hesitate to admit it because it is shameful but because I know so many women who would give anything to be pregnant. I do not mean to offend anyone or hurt anyone as I tease myself about my fear.

That being said. I am scared y'all! Not all the time. Mostly just today.

I had the initial shock fear when we found out we were expecting. This little dude was not planned. Don't take that as he was an accident. We look at it as a surprise little blessing. I have always wanted a big family. Always! I come from a big family and I love it. This just wasn't how we planned it. God is so funny :)

That shock and fear of having four kids four and under (while being called to do foster care) wore off pretty quickly. I grew excited of the idea of the two youngest being GULP 15 months apart. And then today happened.

We have been shopping around for strollers. The stroller I really want is this one:

Valco with Accessories

A Valco double stroller with a Joey seat for baby and a hitchhiker for my four year old. No big deal. Remove the attachments when they aren't needed. Add them back on as we get more foster kiddos. Bam. Handled.

Then I put it in a shopping cart. And holy cuss word!

So the shopping continued. And we quickly realized something more like a Foundations quad would be more in the budget. Great stroller, not my first pick but it's awesome with good reviews. I can deal with a 50-70lb (before kids seated) stroller. That's not the scary part.

Foundations

Want to know what's scary? Every one of those seats will be filled. Every. Single. One.

I (semi)-jokingly asked my friend Stefani, if she would raise one for me. I'd even give her one of the boys to counter-balance her 3 girls. She quickly reminded me that we were the crazies, not her. And I was snapped back to reality.

All y'all having 4 kids spread out over the years are the crazy ones not me. Within 5 years of eachother every one of my kids will be moving on out while yours are watching you age. Haha.

My future

But seriously, if I have to push this thing around, send me to the looney bin.

Harvest

I have gotten so behind on posting here. I have so many fun things I want to share. A few tutorials, a recipe I whipped up and most of all, I have a ton of posts about the fun we have been having over here.

The most recent was our churches Harvest Fest. So let's start there.

As always, our church put on an amazing event. When it comes to our kids ministries, our church does not mess around. We have an amazing children's pastor and his team is phenomenal. If you are local and need a church, one where you're kids love to attend, email me. Seriously.

Now that I have shamelessly plugged my church :) Let's look at all the fun we had.

 Rhi's Merida costume was amazing. So many compliments on how cute she was and she just loved being her favorite princess. Sadly, my little swat guy wouldn't hold still for pictures. He was so stinkin' cute though, trust me.

 I just read something on Pinterest saying how being a mom makes you feel like a kid again. So true. I love playing games with them. Getting on the floor and in the action.

The kids loved all of the carnival style games. They even brought home goldfish. Yay! Sadly, Merida the fish only lasted a few days and we had to teach Rhi about Toilet Side funerals.

There are so many other pictures that I would love to share with you but we have our little man in them. It was such a fun night with the kids and our friends.

I'm hoping to get a recap of Rhiannon's party up this week. We will see. Just be prepared for some Princess Painting cuteness.

Crafting it Up

With Easter right around the corner, the kids and I have been working hard to cutesy up the house. One of the projects we have done, is a cute Easter egg banner.

She is intense.

 We started up by ripping up lots and lots and lots of colored paper.

Once the paper was all torn up, we pasted it to sheets colored paper. Try and cover the whole page, if you can't it's ok since you are using a pretty color background.

Once our paper was all covered and dried, I drew a few eggs on the back and then cut out our egg shapes.

I had Rhiannon help me put them in an order that was most appealing to her little eyes. We punched holes in the tops and then threaded yarn through the holes. Which is also a great project for fine motor skills.

Sorry, no pictures of those steps. I promise you will figure it out though :)

We hung our banner on our fire place for all to enjoy. This was a fun project and a great way for us all to do something crafty together.

Check back tomorrow for a fun recipe to prepare the kids for Easter.


P.S. I am linking up at Made with Love Monday

Sunday FUN-day

Living in Orange County, we have lots of options as to how we can entertain our kids. We love to get out and have fun as a family. We have hit up all the parks and beaches. We do Disneyland and even some museums but when it comes to a fun and educational trip, nothing has compared to Pretend City.

We took Rhi last year and I was amazed by everything that was there. Pretend Play is a HUGE part of development in kids, so this trip was perfect for us.
Within Pretend City, Rhiannon was able toddle through all of the things you would imagine being in one of our cities (just her size). Her favorites were the doctors office and the fishing docks but there were so many other things to explore. Instead of telling you all about it, I want to invite you all to join us.


Join us? You heard me right. I am inviting you to come with us. Actually Pretend City has invited you.

This Sunday, the 28th of August, it is PBS SoCal Day with Martha Speaks. Pretend City has been so generous and they are offering all Rock-A-Bow readers a 2 for 1 entry coupon! If you want to know more about the event, go here and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Here is your coupon. Click the image to enlarge. Oh and if you come PLEASE find me and say hello. I'll be tweeting while there so let me know if you are looking for us.

Inspiration Workshop #3

Earlier this week, I stumbled upon Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop. I say I stumbled upon it because I have been crazy busy lately and the fact that I was able to squeeze in some blog reading was nothing short of a miracle. What a fab idea, this inspiration workshop. For more info on it, look here.

I've decided to take on the "challenge" of this workshop. So starting this week, I will be linking up. This week's prompt was green. Green is a very broad topic. I wish I was prompted to be inspired by something fabulous like the outdoors or some handmade wonder. BUT being a mommy of a two year old girl, all I could think of was this little pixie...


Rhiannon, is obsessed with all things girly. Princess and pixies are the common theme in our home, so it makes sense that Tinkerbell would be the first thing to pop into my head when the color green is mentioned.

Since I couldn't get Tink out of my head, I decided to run with the inspiration. I searched high and low for something, anything Tinkerbell that would inspire me. You see, I am not a big character fan. I don't like them as themes or on my kids clothing. I don't know why, I just don't. We often joke that Rhiannon's love of Disney characters is a cruel cruel joke. Ha!

Anyhow, after searching high and low, I found it. A tutorial for a tinkerbell halloween costume. And to sweeten the pot, there is a Peter Pan one as well. How cute would my kids be roaming our church's Harvest Fest in these:

Tutorials and Costume Source- Makeit-loveit

Adorable, right? I think I just may go for it.