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 Amy Bader makes a pie with Quinn, 7, and Jordan, 15 |
Meals Kids Might Eat:
Food and Meal Tips from a Mother of Five
by Jyotsna “Jo” Sreenivasan, from the September 2006 newsletter
When I first found out that my friend Amy Bader has five children, I was floored. I could barely manage my two – how was she managing five? I was even more amazed when I found out that she home-schooled most of them. I decided to interview her for this column to find out how she encourages healthy eating in her household. Amy’s children range from age 7 to age 16, so she has experience feeding kids of all ages.
JS: What are your goals in terms of feeding your children?
AB: From our very first child, we wanted children who would eat a wide variety
of foods. We have friends from a lot of different cultures and we wanted
our kids to be able to go to their homes and eat without complaining. So
we introduced ethnic foods really early. When my first child, Sarah, was
10 months old, she was eating spicy Chinese food that even our guests couldn’t
eat!
We also feel that sitting down to meals together is really important. We eat
breakfast and dinner together. Sarah and Jordan, our two teenagers, make breakfast
for the family most weekday mornings. We have a rule that there should be no
distractions at the table – no reading or watching TV. As the kids have
gotten older, it’s become more difficult to juggle dinnertime around
sports practices and so forth, but we eat dinner early if necessary to get
it done before a child has to go out.
JS: Do you have a way of organizing your meal-planning?
AB: We have a menu list with 40 different main dishes. Every month I sit down
with the list and choose 30 items for dinners for that month. For the sake
of variety, we generally have Indian food on Mondays, Mexican on Tuesdays,
American on Wednesdays, Chinese on Thursdays, a sandwich menu on Fridays,
and so forth. On days that we have evening activities, I plan a quick meal
that is easy to clean up. Every week, I write down the menus for the week
on a white board in our kitchen, so the kids know what’s for dinner.
About once a month or so we try new recipes, and incorporate the ones we
like into our list. I shop once a month for staples, and about once a week
for produce.
JS: What are some challenges you’ve faced in terms of feeding
your children?
AB: The biggest challenge we faced was when our second child, Jordan, was born.
He was premature and caught meningitis right away. He was on major antibiotics.
He just never seemed to get well. He had asthma, breathing problems, allergies,
and constant ear infections. I was waking up in the middle of the night to
give him breathing treatments. When he was 18 months old, I took him to one
of the best child immunologists in the country. The doctor told me that Jordan
had no immune system and that there was nothing we could do about it – he’d
just keep being sick.
I left the doctor’s office determined to do something. I’d been
reading a lot about good nutrition, so I took Jordan off all his medications
and started the whole family on a diet with no sugar, meat or dairy. We ate
only 100% whole-grain items. I just wanted to feed Jordan only things that
would really nourish him. By the time Jordan was 3, he was completely well.
Now he’s 15 and he can eat anything. Even though our diet is not so strict
anymore, that experience taught us a lot about eating well. We realized that
we could eat beans and be happy!
JS: Wow. That’s a really frightening, but inspiring, story.
What about more minor challenges, like picky eating?
AB: Each one of the kids has gone through a picky season. I try to be patient
with them. We’ve discovered that you can learn to like almost anything
if you’re patient. We let them choose two menus that they absolutely
can’t stand. On the days when those items are served, they can make themselves
a bowl of cereal or a sandwich.
We have also had to deal with allergies. A few months ago we found out that
Sarah is allergic to milk and dairy products. That’s been really hard
for her. We went to the Co-op and experimented with the different non-dairy
drinks. She discovered that she likes almond milk. We use oat milk for baking,
and keep a non-dairy dessert at home for Sarah, in case she can’t eat
the dessert that’s served.
JS: Have you changed over the years in terms of how you deal with
meals and nutrition?
AB: I’m less stringent now than I used to be. At first we were very concerned
with every gram of sugar. Now we’ve gotten more relaxed about it. I didn’t
want to create a family habit of being obsessive about food and having a lot
of rules around food.
JS: Now that a few of your kids are teenagers, how are they doing
in terms of making their own food choices?
AB: They make good choices. Sarah doesn’t drink pop. Jordan checks the
sugar content of items. When you grow up eating healthy, it becomes a habit
for you.
One challenge with older kids is that they’re on the go so much, and
I want them to have nutritious snacks that they can take with them. I try to
have cut-up vegetables in the fridge, and trail mix or protein drinks. I cook
and season beans and freeze them in little cups. Sarah can grab a cup of beans
and some cooked rice and go. She also likes cups of pureed fruit and soy cream
that are sold near the yogurt section at the Co-op – the brand is CremSo.
A Bader family favorite recipe:
Five-Minute Blender Waffles
Makes five servings
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups buttermilk, fruit juice or water
1 egg (optional)
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil (optional)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup brown basmati rice, uncooked
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
Spray waffle iron with vegetable spray. Preheat waffle iron to highest temperature.
Place into blender: buttermilk (or juice or water), egg, oil, vanilla, rice
and oats. Blend at high speed for 3-5 minutes or until smooth. Just before
baking, blend in the baking soda and baking powder briefly. Pour into
hot waffle iron. Bake three to four minutes.
(Note: you can substitute 1 1/2 cups of any grain combination instead of the
rice and oats. Amy suggests light millet, whole dry corn, kamut, spelt, hulled
barley, kasha, wheat. Do not use more than 1/2 cup of oats.)
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