Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Mealtess February

Paul and I decided to try an experiment of going meatless for the month of February. We kept dairy and milk, because I don't think we could live without cheese. And, Bisquick needs milk and eggs...! It really wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. We tried a few new recipes that were meatless. We ate a lot more vegetables and fruits. We already eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, I just added spinach to almost everything! Actually, we don't eat red meat to begin with. We have nothing against red meat, we just don't really like it. We use ground turkey for spaghetti, lasagna, and burgers, and chicken for everything else, but we don't eat meat at every meal. Sometimes, we have bacon, but I try to steer Paul towards turkey bacon. He says that it's just wrong to put turkey bacon on a turkey burger. Anyway, it really wasn't that hard, and I had a hard time going back to buying chicken at the grocery store at the first of March. I absolutely hate cutting raw chicken. I buy pre-trimmed chicken, but always have to trim it myself (to my own satisfaction). I really, really don't like doing it. I might go vegetarian just so I don't have to touch raw meat. Blah! We've only had chicken twice and turkey burgers once since we started eating meat again. We really like our turkey burgers. Maybe, we'll go meatless except for once a month when we have turkey burgers...Paul doesn't really like meat anyway. He just requested bacon every once in a while. We'll see if we do a meatless April. I've thought about trying to go Vegan, but it's a struggle to get kids to eat anything new sometimes. There are some really interesting recipes out there that I'd love to try! I think that if we were going to go completely vegetarian, we'd have to do it a little slower to get our kids used to the things that will be on their plate. I read studies in my nutrition classes in college that said that even if you don't "make" them eat the food, having it available will lead them to eventually trying it. I'm sure hoping for that. We try to eat pretty healthfully. We don't eat out very often, and we try not to buy a lot of processed things. I just wish they would try a bite of anything new! Anyone else have issues with their kids not eating? At what age do you have them try it, or they have to go to bed hungry? I really try not to make anything that's gross! Paul likes what I make. Elin and Ewan usually eat it...Maybe I just need to change my expectations...?