I have often read how parents should include children in the preparation of meals, as they are more likely to eat what they’ve helped create. It makes sense to me, but I’ve never really tried it. Sure, I’ve spent many frigid January afternoons in the kitchen with both kids standing on chairs, helping me make chocolate chip cookies. Just yesterday, my 3-year old spread peanut butter and jelly on bread for her lunch.

But when it comes to preparing dinner during that dreaded 5 o’clock hour, I just can’t bring myself to enlist the help of my two young children. By that time of day, they are inevitably tired and wiggly, and seem to have lost the ability to follow simple instructions. So, instead of having them help out in the kitchen, I usually get them going on an art project or encourage them to play animal hospital together while I get out the sharp knives and chop vegetables.

Today, however, I was motivated to prepare dinner while my 3-year old was eating lunch (which seems to take all afternoon). I scrubbed and chopped two pounds of carrots for soup while she chattered on about her toy hedgehog and tried to hide under the counter. Then she reached into the bowl and pulled out a piece of carrot. “I can eat this?” she asked, very sweetly. “Well, it’s for dinner, but I guess you can have one,” I replied.

While I continued chopping, she shyly stole more carrot pieces, feeling like she was doing something sneaky. I was ecstatic — I had never before seen this child voluntarily eat a carrot, even though I often serve them with hummus at lunch. But watching me cut the carrots and not offer her a piece somehow inspired her to try them out.

I’m still not ready to employ my wiggly little ones as assistant chefs, but I have decided to gather up some late-day patience and find ways to help them feel included in the dinner-making process. Even if it means I have to “let” them sneakily eat those healthy ingredients!

Jen McNally moved to Maine from Colorado four years ago, in search of a simpler, more natural lifestyle. Since then, she has planted her first-ever vegetable garden, raised a flock of six hens, and continues to learn about healthy living. She is a stay-at-home mother of two active girls, ages five and three. In her former life, she studied in Germany for two years, traveled to 6 continents and 31 countries, and was the marketing manager for an adventure travel company. Jen contributes regularly to the Guiding Stars blog.

When I faced the prospect of adding first, six chickens and then, a pet bunny to our household, I have to admit that my first thought in each case was: “Great. More things to feed in the morning.”

Little did I know that Sam the bunny and the six Rhode Island Reds would actually end up helping me feed my two human kids.

They say that good role models are key in influencing kids’ eating habits, and since becoming a mom 8 years ago, I’ve certainly been very aware about what messages I send to my kids when it comes to food. I try to keep my own culinary peccadillos hidden from sight (bedtime? Break out those Oreos!), and I’ve always tried to model good habits and provide plenty of healthful fruits and vegetables as choices. It’s not that much of a stretch; despite those surreptitious cookie binges, I love almost all veggies and fruits.

But, even though my son likes some fruits and vegetables, he’d fallen into a rut of baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, berries and apples. That was it. A good start, but I hoped he could do better.

Enter Sam the bunny, a forlorn acquisition picked up for free, cage included, at the feed store. He came to us with the hastily purchased bag of rabbit pellet food, but we realized he needed other chow, too. We knew rabbits liked carrots – at least, based on old Bugs Bunny cartoons, we were pretty sure they did – but it was time for some research.

Carrots, it turned out, were good. “I like carrots, too,” Andrew declared proudly. Ditto on the broccoli.

Sam’s tastes, though, were more far-ranging than Andrew’s. Leafy greens were another big player on the recommended list. And after watching Sam happily chomp down on kale, somehow, magically, my Quinoa with Sweet Potatoes and Kale recipe suddenly became something Andrew might try – and like. Whew.

Sam likes spinach and orange peels. Andrew rediscovered that he once did like raw spinach, and now could be persuaded to help me eat an orange – after all, we were doing it so Sam could have the peel.

Plus, it turns out that balance is crucial to a rabbit’s diet. If Sam were to eat nothing but his commercial pellets, he’d be at risk for obesity and health issues. It’s prompted some real conversations with my son about variety and moderation – lessons he seems to be absorbing as he thinks about his own eating habits.

As for the chickens, we watched them grow from balls of fluffy down into real hens. Then we waited and waited – and finally, after six months, we had our first egg.

The boy who thought he didn’t like eggs was persuaded to try one for breakfast, seduced by the novelty of it having come from our backyard.

It was fresh, with an impossibly golden yolk. He gobbled it. The toddler daughter, who will eat whatever her big brother approves of, quickly followed suit.

Talk about a lesson in local eating.

So now I find myself with children who love eggs, and a son who seriously ponders the balance issues in his rabbit’s diet and takes pride in sharing some of the same vegetarian tastes.

Having a few more mouths to get fed every morning has turned out to be a small price to pay, indeed.

Mom guilt is the worst. It really is. What makes it so bad is the guilt is built upon phantom insecurities conjured up by a reckless mind. Trivial on the verge of ridiculous. My mornings generally begin with Food Guilt as I stare into my 5 year old’s empty lunch box. What to prepare and pack? Or better yet, what NOT to. I surely don’t want to risk being perceived as the average, lackluster mom. You know the ones – they send a classic PBJ every single day with some sort of sliced fruit (usually of the apple variety) and ziplock baggie of Goldfish crackers to round it off.

The spread appears compact, tidy and historically satisfies the uncomplicated whims of the under-ten-palate. It’s so very boring, right? Forget that your kid might actually enjoy these eats I fear that such a lunch is all so cliché and I want to BE better, DO better! I mastermind a perfect lunch under the guise I am establishing the foundation of a lifetime of exotic and adventurous eating habits based on thinking outside the average lunchbox. And besides, I reason, kid’s talk.

They come home and report on who got in trouble and you know they are definitely keeping tabs on what their lunch buddy brings to school because you hear about it. So-and-so “gets to” bring multi colored pudding tubs with peel off foil tops or chewy granola bars. And secretly you judge such choices. But what qualifies as a judgment-free, better lunch? What is better? Is it a lovely slice of pink salmon roasted with a touch of lemon with a side of curried jasmine rice left over from last night’s dinner? Or some tofu Pad Thai noodles with edamame. How about a cup of pomegranate seeds – the super fruit! – lovingly extracted from their fleshy pockets or some deep green baby spinach crowned with cucumber slices sprinkled with feta and walnuts? Healthy, refined and sure to impress! Such ponderings begs the question, “who exactly am I dressing for anyway?”

I am caught in an internal banter of healthy Vs image Vs reality? Naturally I really do want to be that phenomenal “mom’s mom” who provides their impressionable little ones with meals that are sure to grandstand while packing a nutritional punch. I really really want to be her. If I can achieve that then my kids will be those kids, the ones with a refined palette, an eagerness to explore, thoughtfully presented with a dose of nutritional supremacy between 11:00 am and 11:20 am, Monday-Friday during the academic year. Most notably everyone will notice.

The truth of the matter is I am not a “mom’s mom” and never will be although along the way I have surely half heartedly tried. It’s hard to achieve the status of a term that has no definition based on reality. She’s elusive and shady at best. My kids have figured this out long before I have and perhaps maybe this is what feeds and fuels us both? Besides I don’t think the lunch lady is looking anyway. Now excuse me, I’m off to prepare some ants-on-a log. Bon Appetit!

In our house, there seems to be a continuous battle between ‘meals’ and ‘snacks’. For some reason, my 2 boys (ages 2 and 7) seem to far prefer snacking to sitting down for a healthy, formal, around the dining-room-table-meal. “What kid doesn’t?” you might ask. However, it isn’t about them wanting to eat snack-type foods vs. their foods at meal time. It’s all about the format. My kids are grazers. Given an informal smorgasbord full of appetizers on our bar in the middle of our kitchen and they flock like fruit flies. Having them sit down to a family dinner in the dining room around the table seems to take much more skill and effort, just to keep them interested.

A compromise that we have made in our house is this: we have become big fans of the appetizer. No matter what time I, or my husband, tend to start pulling together the makings for dinner, my kids seem to think it’s time to eat. It’s that moment when the ingredients are just hitting the counter tops, not when the food is actually prepared. So I’ve learned to have easy finger foods at the ready. Some popular choices in our kitchen are cucumbers, apples with peanut butter, and fresh orange slices: things that we can quickly cut up and put in a bowl on the counter. As we’re searing the steaks, or sautéing the vegetables for dinner, the kids will chow through that first offering. Sometimes, my 7 year old will belly up to the bar & help me make a cheese platter.

We also splurge on cheeses. Broken down by dollar per snack bite, cheese actually is quite a value, especially considering the nutritional factor for little eaters. Even my 2 year old has a taste for all types: Gouda, goat cheese, sharp stinky cheddars & brie. The kids both love getting involved in the slicing & presenting of the cheese. I give my older boy a cutting board & supervise while he creates a really attractive hor d’oevres masterpiece. We even play with garnishing the ‘cheese platter’ and experimenting with taste combinations adding almonds, jellies, honeys and even dates. Yes, my kids enjoy dates. And they feast away.

I’m sure like many of you, I was raised with the conventional wisdom that there was ‘No eating before dinner…’ or ‘You’ll ruin your appetite’. I look at it this way: these starters are a part of dinner. They’re just presented a bit differently, the kids are involved & dinner then starts early. After watching my oldest spend much of his early toddler years, battling me over every bite at the dinner table, we got creative. The family dinner is still very important time to us. It’s a time to sit & listen to each other, talk about our days, hear my son’s adventures at school. However, I find that with our grazing technique, I can enjoy my meals knowing that my boys have already had some nutritious things even before sitting down. If they eat what is on their dinner plates, that is even better and it’s still highly encouraged. But if they do not, I know that they’ve had their nutritional needs met because of the quality foods they’ve already eaten during the appetizer phase of our meal.

I work as a freelance writer and I am a mother of two. My husband owns his own business and works long hours. In an ideal world, I would love to make all my meals strictly with whole foods but with the time constraints of our busy household, this is not always the case. I may use instant rice versus slower cooking rice or thaw frozen veggies versus preparing fresh. At times I feel guilty, but for me, finding a balance between whole foods versus prepared is probably the best for my time and my sanity.

How have I found that balance? Well, if I am going to use instant rice, I read the label and make sure that it is not too high in sodium. Most “quick” prepared foods tend to be so I double-check the ingredients. The American Heart Association recommends that adults who are healthy take in no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day.

I also make sure to check for grams of saturated fat. And, don’t be fooled, it’s amazing the things that are labeled “healthy” or “low fat” but actually aren’t. Now, I’m not saying that I read labels every time I shop and lord knows none of us have time to be standing in the aisle for five minutes per item… but once I’ve compared items, I know next time which brand I prefer.

And yes, the children bring in a whole other dynamic. As we all know, kids don’t always prefer the healthiest products. I once bought my daughter an organic peanut butter but she could not stand the texture. So, I buy her a more mainstream brand and make sure she consumes it in moderation. IMO (In My Opinion) trying to find a healthy balance between whole and prepared foods is easier for my lifestyle and easier on my conscience.

During my girls’ quiet time yesterday, I took advantage of a sunny moment and hacked at some weeds in our vegetable garden (a wonderful way to vent frustration!). When 3-year-old Tess ventured outside, walking carefully in her favorite purple rain boots, I invited her to join me amidst the zucchini, corn and basil.

She walked right up to the ‘sungold’ cherry tomatoes, and I knew instantly that my plans for a beautiful dinner salad were ruined. You see, my 3-year old loves tomatoes. She has loved them ever since she first tasted one — freshly picked from our garden — soon after her first birthday. Little Tess figured that out right away that there is something special about a tomato fresh from the vine.

So, yesterday she spotted five beautiful, perfectly ripened tomatoes in our garden. She excitedly asked if she could pick them, and then she stood there and ate them, one by one. She was thrilled. It made me happy that those tomatoes made her so happy, and that she recognized the value of fresh, natural goodness. After all, that’s why we have our own vegetable garden. But I really missed having tomatoes in my salad last night.

I guess next year I’ll have to plant more tomatoes.

Tomato