This morning as I prepared spinach soup on the left over bone broth from yesterday, I was already seeing in front of me how I would be sitting down in the evening, writing a blogpost on the incredible success this completely milkfree (even coconut milk) dish had caused. I was wrong. Dead wrong. Hubby and I enjoyed the soup tremendously. Kidone ate it under bribery - she'd get some bread afterwards (yes I know, I have completely lost my principles while on vacation...). Kidtwo, well now, let's see.. he cried, shouted, begged for bread. And same rules for him: first soup, then bread. But no, there was no way he was about to eat the soup. He tried twice and spit it out. The lunch ended with Kidone eating her bread and Kidtwo watching. He never had any lunch and by dinner time he was so hungry that he ate all of my mother's fish soup (home made fish bone broth - I congratulate my mother!) - spines included. And as for evening meal? Well, ahum... kids had one "knäckebröd" each (with butter - although Kidtwo is coughing already), and half a loaf of sour dough bread bought tonight at the local market...with salty hams on top... Jeese, you'd think I'd manage to get back on track and avoid the wheat... but no, it is just so comfortable. And I know I will be in trouble when back home and they start nagging for bread...
Just today I read this blogpost on the children's right to eat good food. Well, yes, she is talking about small kids being served sugary donuts and juice at 10 a.m. in the morning at the beach (she's active here on the island where we are right now, wonder what beach that was... it's been raining ALL day today, and yesterday). She goes on saying that this is parental neglect, which is becoming increasingly common despite her being convinced that no parent want to cause harm to their child. I couldn't agree more on this point. And I believe it is easy to agree on this one as the illustration she uses is a sugary donut at 10 a.m. But what about all the rest? When on vacation, how much junk are children allowed to have on a daily basis? An icecream every day? Cookies at the beach? Some juice to sooth the thirst on a hot summer day? I do not think most parents reflect too much on these issues, at least we didn't before I started to implement changes in our eating habits. While on vacation you get a coffee somewhere, and kids get a juice, maybe even a bun. If not daily, at least several times a week. Or why else do we have so many cafés up and running at touristy places?!? They would have gone bankrupt looong ago.
I recognize that my own standards on healthy food are 'somewhat' (understatement) stricter than most parental views. I mean, how many of you out there get a bad concious from feeding your kids bread, normal milk, or anything containing slight amounts of sugar? Still, I am totally exposed to the same nagging effect as everyone else. Hello, how much scream can one parent take? When the bread is there, in the cupboard, and the kid knows about it... how much do you think he really would like to eat that deep green stuff on his plate? Still, I am proud of both hubbby, myself and Kidtwo of how we handled the situation today. Noone lost really. We all held on to our beliefs and that is how it has to be. However, after one year in this game, I am still so overwhelmed by the difficulties of navigating in healthy foods for kids these days. You might have read EVERYTHING you could possibly find on the subject, and have a pretty good idea of what would be the right solution... but there is just so much parents can do. There is society, peer pressure, and all sorts of temptations lurking behind every freaking corner.
We have a new game with Kidone this summer - one new veggie per day. She has to taste at least. And ideally we select the veggie together, in the supermarket. Sadly enough the local grocerystore does not have an abundance on veggies...Anyways, eesterday it was sugar peas (she liked them raw, not cooked) and today we had fennel (which she has tried before but I continue to insist - no luck today either). Kidtwo gets to try as well but he is not completely into the game yet. Let's see what we figure out for tomorrow - and what success factor it'll have. But tomorrow's lunch is the Dinosaur's Bunny Soup (carrots/bone broth) and in the evening another dish from the same book - I'll try to keep the bread out of sight... let's see....
Here's the recipe for the spinach soup - if anyone dares to take on the challenge!
Spinach soup
1 onion
1/2 zucchini
olive oil
1 package of frozen chopped spianch (organic preferred, didn't find it in our small grocery store)
0,5 l chicken bone broth
Chop onion/dice zucchini. Prepare these in some olive oil while heating up broth with spinach. Mix all ingridients together with a mixer. Add spices (nutmeg a good option, or fresh herbs) and salt if needed.
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