How To Deal With Children That Are Fussy Eaters

I constantly receive many emails from desperate mother asking me for advice as they go through so much with children that are fussy eaters.

It can be really frustrating as a mother, as you want the best for your kids, and to see them eat unhealthy stuff or not eating at all could be a challenge for some parents.

So here are a few tips that might help you hide healthy ingredients in their diet. Or even try to change their taste palettes to like fruit and vegetables.

If you are pregnant of have a small baby my straight away advice is:

1. Don't give solids to your baby before 6 months
2. Don't start giving them fruits. Start always with vegetables and use mashed fruits just as a little dessert after their veggie soup. Carrot is always a good start for a first meal. Then you can start to add some potato to the carrot mash, then some greens. This way you will guarantee the love for vegetables for your little ones.

I will soon publish a specific post about first baby meals. In the meantime the advice above can be very useful for success.

Now, If you have toddlers DO NOT give them sugary cereals. I don't think many mothers realise the danger of giving them such high sugars for breakfast to our kids.

When they eat these sugary cereals their sugars level rise straight up, and as they are fast digested, the sugar levels come down straight away, causing more hunger within a few minutes of eating.

When sugar levels are down our bodies crave more carbs (more sugar), so if at this point (in the middle of the morning) you give them some fruit they might refuse it, as their brain is craving something high in sugar, so they will refuse the healthy option and this becomes a cycle. This works the same for adults so the more sugar we eat the more sugar our bodies ask us for.

So the 2 things that are a big no in my house are: sugary cereals and fizzy drinks.

So, for breakfast give them oats. It is the best option. You can even mix them with some mashed carrot or some fruit.

If your kids love nuggets I would advise you to make the nuggets yourself and blend the chicken breast with some veggies. Particularly peas, as it not only will give them a sweet flavour, it will add a lot of nutritional value to them. 

Blend a few slices of whole meal bread and use as breadcrumbs for extra fibre. You can make a batch and freeze them and you can cook from frozen.

Smoothies as you might have heard before are a good option to get them to eat some fruit. If you prepare smoothies, always add some spinach to them. They won't be able to taste the spinach and you are also adding some essential greens into their diet.

Also, smoothies can be frozen in the shape of lollipops, and it's another great way to make them eat them.

My boys love this smoothie: 250ml of milk, 1 green apple, 1 banana and a handful of spinach.

Soups are an amazing option to hide as many vegetables as you can. Also presentation goes a long way. My kids never resist a 'soup rabbit' like the one pictured above.

Meat balls are another option. I always make them with some grated carrot and celery and sometimes I even add chopped spinach. It's a great way to sneak veggies into your kids diet. 

Pasta sauce is an incredible way to hide a lot of vegetables. Here is an amazing recipe: 1 carrot, 1/4 onion, 3 tomatoes, 1/4 red pepper, 1 courgette, 1 celery stick. Sauté all ingredients with oil and then just blend! no need to add water unless the sauce is too thick. Add some stock cube and basil to season them up.

Using the same veggie sauce from the pasta dish you can create pitta pizzas! Most kids love them and they are much more healthier than frozen processed pizzas. Top them with veggies and more likely they will eat those veggies that they usually don't like.

My banana pancakes are an amazing option to swap high sugary breakfast for a healthier nutritional breakfast: Simply blend 1 banana, 1/2 cup of oats, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and a dash of cinnamon and cook as regular pancakes.

Banana ice-cream is great to hide different types of fruits. You can make this by blending frozen bananas and frozen berries. Add some unfrozen bananas to get the blender going. I have added spinach to this and you cannot taste the spinach, and still give greens to your kids.

General Tips:

1. Print food related colouring pages for them to colour and get familiar with different foods. Especially vegetables as you colour with them tell them: "what is this?" "it's called broccoli! it's yummy" and then go to the fridge and show them the broccoli and say: " Look the broccoli like the one you are colouring! oh mammy loves it yummy" etc, etc and this way it might help them to get familiar with certain foods.

2. Make them follow your example. Make them see you constantly eating healthy food and offer them a bite of different foods so they get the taste of it.

3. Give them a middle morning snack and an afternoon snack but don't let them binge too much or else they won't be hungry by the time their main meal comes.

4. Print a rainbow and make a platter full of veggies with all the colours in the rainbow and do an activity about eating the colours on the rainbow.

5. Be patient and be happy with every small success. If you can squeeze 2 vegetables a day in some way or another  it should make you very happy

6. Allow them to participate in the cooking process. This will get them interested in eating what they cooked.

7. Have a positive attitude when they are eating and hide your frustrations on the matter as they will be more likely to refuse foods if they see you stressed as it would stress them as well.

8. Make a reward chart. And every time they eat something healthy they can be rewarded with something that is not food and it is inexpensive. You can make them fill up a jar with beans or dry pasta every time they eat healthy and once is filled they can get a little toy or take them to the park or somewhere fun.

9. Don't give up. No matter what you go through don't give up. Teaching kids about good nutrition, is the best thing you could ever do for your kids.

10. Keep offering diversity of foods. Some kids can refuse certain foods 10 times, until they actual taste them, and then they will start to love them afterwards.

How To Deal With Children That Are Fussy Eaters

I constantly receive many emails from desperate mother asking me for advice as they go through so much with children that are fussy eaters.

It can be really frustrating as a mother, as you want the best for your kids, and to see them eat unhealthy stuff or not eating at all could be a challenge for some parents.

So here are a few tips that might help you hide healthy ingredients in their diet. Or even try to change their taste palettes to like fruit and vegetables.

If you are pregnant of have a small baby my straight away advice is:

1. Don't give solids to your baby before 6 months
2. Don't start giving them fruits. Start always with vegetables and use mashed fruits just as a little dessert after their veggie soup. Carrot is always a good start for a first meal. Then you can start to add some potato to the carrot mash, then some greens. This way you will guarantee the love for vegetables for your little ones.

I will soon publish a specific post about first baby meals. In the meantime the advice above can be very useful for success.

Now, If you have toddlers DO NOT give them sugary cereals. I don't think many mothers realise the danger of giving them such high sugars for breakfast to our kids.

When they eat these sugary cereals their sugars level rise straight up, and as they are fast digested, the sugar levels come down straight away, causing more hunger within a few minutes of eating.

When sugar levels are down our bodies crave more carbs (more sugar), so if at this point (in the middle of the morning) you give them some fruit they might refuse it, as their brain is craving something high in sugar, so they will refuse the healthy option and this becomes a cycle. This works the same for adults so the more sugar we eat the more sugar our bodies ask us for.

So the 2 things that are a big no in my house are: sugary cereals and fizzy drinks.

So, for breakfast give them oats. It is the best option. You can even mix them with some mashed carrot or some fruit.

If your kids love nuggets I would advise you to make the nuggets yourself and blend the chicken breast with some veggies. Particularly peas, as it not only will give them a sweet flavour, it will add a lot of nutritional value to them. 

Blend a few slices of whole meal bread and use as breadcrumbs for extra fibre. You can make a batch and freeze them and you can cook from frozen.

Smoothies as you might have heard before are a good option to get them to eat some fruit. If you prepare smoothies, always add some spinach to them. They won't be able to taste the spinach and you are also adding some essential greens into their diet.

Also, smoothies can be frozen in the shape of lollipops, and it's another great way to make them eat them.

My boys love this smoothie: 250ml of milk, 1 green apple, 1 banana and a handful of spinach.

Soups are an amazing option to hide as many vegetables as you can. Also presentation goes a long way. My kids never resist a 'soup rabbit' like the one pictured above.

Meat balls are another option. I always make them with some grated carrot and celery and sometimes I even add chopped spinach. It's a great way to sneak veggies into your kids diet. 

Pasta sauce is an incredible way to hide a lot of vegetables. Here is an amazing recipe: 1 carrot, 1/4 onion, 3 tomatoes, 1/4 red pepper, 1 courgette, 1 celery stick. Sauté all ingredients with oil and then just blend! no need to add water unless the sauce is too thick. Add some stock cube and basil to season them up.

Using the same veggie sauce from the pasta dish you can create pitta pizzas! Most kids love them and they are much more healthier than frozen processed pizzas. Top them with veggies and more likely they will eat those veggies that they usually don't like.

My banana pancakes are an amazing option to swap high sugary breakfast for a healthier nutritional breakfast: Simply blend 1 banana, 1/2 cup of oats, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and a dash of cinnamon and cook as regular pancakes.

Banana ice-cream is great to hide different types of fruits. You can make this by blending frozen bananas and frozen berries. Add some unfrozen bananas to get the blender going. I have added spinach to this and you cannot taste the spinach, and still give greens to your kids.

General Tips:

1. Print food related colouring pages for them to colour and get familiar with different foods. Especially vegetables as you colour with them tell them: "what is this?" "it's called broccoli! it's yummy" and then go to the fridge and show them the broccoli and say: " Look the broccoli like the one you are colouring! oh mammy loves it yummy" etc, etc and this way it might help them to get familiar with certain foods.

2. Make them follow your example. Make them see you constantly eating healthy food and offer them a bite of different foods so they get the taste of it.

3. Give them a middle morning snack and an afternoon snack but don't let them binge too much or else they won't be hungry by the time their main meal comes.

4. Print a rainbow and make a platter full of veggies with all the colours in the rainbow and do an activity about eating the colours on the rainbow.

5. Be patient and be happy with every small success. If you can squeeze 2 vegetables a day in some way or another  it should make you very happy

6. Allow them to participate in the cooking process. This will get them interested in eating what they cooked.

7. Have a positive attitude when they are eating and hide your frustrations on the matter as they will be more likely to refuse foods if they see you stressed as it would stress them as well.

8. Make a reward chart. And every time they eat something healthy they can be rewarded with something that is not food and it is inexpensive. You can make them fill up a jar with beans or dry pasta every time they eat healthy and once is filled they can get a little toy or take them to the park or somewhere fun.

9. Don't give up. No matter what you go through don't give up. Teaching kids about good nutrition, is the best thing you could ever do for your kids.

10. Keep offering diversity of foods. Some kids can refuse certain foods 10 times, until they actual taste them, and then they will start to love them afterwards.

My Thoughts On Crossfit

As many of you know, I got invited to attend a crossfit class this week. I have always been curious about crossfit and wanted to try it myself  for a while.

but the reason I had never done it before is because I would look at videos on Facebook and all the girls and guys that do crossfit are lifting crazy weights and is like they got possessed by some crossfit demon so I always felt I was going to go and people was just going to laugh at me for not begin as fit or advanced as them.

So those were my thoughts on it. As I accepted the invitation I started to get so nervous for all the reasons mentioned above.

Anyway I was gonna go to it no matter what so whatever was going to happen I had to leave with it (lol).

So I arrived and the girl who was at the counter (Couch Mary) was super nice and explained me everything very well so I felt at comfort straight away.

Then we passed to this room with is full of bars, step ups, weights and ropes hanging down the ceiling. It was about 10 girls attending the class and 1 guy. All the girls didn't follow certain body shape. They were all different. The reason I mention this is because I use to think that only super strong girls and guys would be in there and is not like that at all. All different body shapes just trying to get better, fitter and stronger.

So the class started by doing a fun and interactive warm up. It consisted on doing "musical chairs" (yes like those ones we played when we were kids). But instead of chairs we had step ups and we were crolling around with legs stretched and when the music stopped you had to jump into a step up. If you lost you had to do certain amount of burpees.

The second part of the class consisted on doing 3 different exercises: 1. climbing the rope, 2. lifting a bar over the shoulders and 3. hanging from a bar. But what I liked is that you are giving 2 options to do these exercises. One for beginners and one for advanced. And is not like the couch tell you are beginner and you advanced. You just do what you choose to do and everyone is in their own working area so nobody notices if you are a beginner or a pro.

The third part of the class is to do 4 sets of again 3  different exercises: 1. jumping into the steps, 2. burpees, 3. squats. (this are the exercises you can see on the video above). Again nobody  notices how advanced you are as everyone is minding their own thing. And the atmosphere is just so relaxed that nearly everyone wants to help you get your form better.

I was very impressed by the girl with the blonde hair on my video. She was incredibly fit and strong. She had an amazing body shape but still strong and fit. She really gave me the inspiration of wanting to push myself more.

The 2 couches that were there ( Mary and Michael) were so helpful and nice. Really ehnthusiastics about showing you and teaching you how to get better.

And finally the last part of the class is just a stretch.

In conclusion I loved it. It really made me realise the following:

1. I don't push myself enough in the gym. I realised I can do more than I think.
2. In the gym you are your own, you don't compare yourself with anybody else and in here you obviously want to be able to do the advanced exercises. So every time you go you will want to push yourself to get better at it
3. In the gym there is nobody to tell you if you are doing wrong form
4. There is crossfit competitions so you can push yourself more by having a goal to compete so you are training for an end goal
5.  They measure your body fat to make sure you are advancing!

I have already paid my membership on my own gym until the end of this year so I will keep going to my own gym and do crossfit once a week until then and if by then I am fully convinced about it, I will fully join it in january and become a crossfit pro and go compete and be the best I can at it.

If you are from Tullamore and you would like to attend a class you check them out on: www.evolutiongymtullamore.com

My Thoughts On Crossfit

As many of you know, I got invited to attend a crossfit class this week. I have always been curious about crossfit and wanted to try it myself  for a while.

but the reason I had never done it before is because I would look at videos on Facebook and all the girls and guys that do crossfit are lifting crazy weights and is like they got possessed by some crossfit demon so I always felt I was going to go and people was just going to laugh at me for not begin as fit or advanced as them.

So those were my thoughts on it. As I accepted the invitation I started to get so nervous for all the reasons mentioned above.

Anyway I was gonna go to it no matter what so whatever was going to happen I had to leave with it (lol).

So I arrived and the girl who was at the counter (Couch Mary) was super nice and explained me everything very well so I felt at comfort straight away.

Then we passed to this room with is full of bars, step ups, weights and ropes hanging down the ceiling. It was about 10 girls attending the class and 1 guy. All the girls didn't follow certain body shape. They were all different. The reason I mention this is because I use to think that only super strong girls and guys would be in there and is not like that at all. All different body shapes just trying to get better, fitter and stronger.

So the class started by doing a fun and interactive warm up. It consisted on doing "musical chairs" (yes like those ones we played when we were kids). But instead of chairs we had step ups and we were crolling around with legs stretched and when the music stopped you had to jump into a step up. If you lost you had to do certain amount of burpees.

The second part of the class consisted on doing 3 different exercises: 1. climbing the rope, 2. lifting a bar over the shoulders and 3. hanging from a bar. But what I liked is that you are giving 2 options to do these exercises. One for beginners and one for advanced. And is not like the couch tell you are beginner and you advanced. You just do what you choose to do and everyone is in their own working area so nobody notices if you are a beginner or a pro.

The third part of the class is to do 4 sets of again 3  different exercises: 1. jumping into the steps, 2. burpees, 3. squats. (this are the exercises you can see on the video above). Again nobody  notices how advanced you are as everyone is minding their own thing. And the atmosphere is just so relaxed that nearly everyone wants to help you get your form better.

I was very impressed by the girl with the blonde hair on my video. She was incredibly fit and strong. She had an amazing body shape but still strong and fit. She really gave me the inspiration of wanting to push myself more.

The 2 couches that were there ( Mary and Michael) were so helpful and nice. Really ehnthusiastics about showing you and teaching you how to get better.

And finally the last part of the class is just a stretch.

In conclusion I loved it. It really made me realise the following:

1. I don't push myself enough in the gym. I realised I can do more than I think.
2. In the gym you are your own, you don't compare yourself with anybody else and in here you obviously want to be able to do the advanced exercises. So every time you go you will want to push yourself to get better at it
3. In the gym there is nobody to tell you if you are doing wrong form
4. There is crossfit competitions so you can push yourself more by having a goal to compete so you are training for an end goal
5.  They measure your body fat to make sure you are advancing!

I have already paid my membership on my own gym until the end of this year so I will keep going to my own gym and do crossfit once a week until then and if by then I am fully convinced about it, I will fully join it in january and become a crossfit pro and go compete and be the best I can at it.

If you are from Tullamore and you would like to attend a class you check them out on: www.evolutiongymtullamore.com

Healthy Carrot Cake

So for tonights treat I came up with this delicious recipe to kill the sweet cravings and sit down and enjoy it with a nice cup of tea.

This would come up really well in a cupcake form as well. I made it in a 2lb loaf tin.

Ingredients:

- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup of honey
- 1/4 cup of coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 cup of oat flour
- 1 cup of almond flour or almond ground
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 grated carrot ( I used a big one)
- handful of walnuts (optional)

1. Mix the egg, honey, oil, vanilla and cinnamon in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl mix the flours and the baking powder.
3. Then mix the wet ingredients with the dry
4. Mix in the grated carrots and nuts (you can also add raisins if desired)
5. Place mixture in the cake tin or cupcake moulds
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius

For the icing:

- 1/2 cup of natural greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup of light cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon of orange zest (optional)

Mix ingredients in a bowl and spread over you carrot cake once is cooled down.

Keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Healthy Carrot Cake

So for tonights treat I came up with this delicious recipe to kill the sweet cravings and sit down and enjoy it with a nice cup of tea.

This would come up really well in a cupcake form as well. I made it in a 2lb loaf tin.

Ingredients:

- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup of honey
- 1/4 cup of coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 cup of oat flour
- 1 cup of almond flour or almond ground
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 grated carrot ( I used a big one)
- handful of walnuts (optional)

1. Mix the egg, honey, oil, vanilla and cinnamon in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl mix the flours and the baking powder.
3. Then mix the wet ingredients with the dry
4. Mix in the grated carrots and nuts (you can also add raisins if desired)
5. Place mixture in the cake tin or cupcake moulds
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius

For the icing:

- 1/2 cup of natural greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup of light cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon of orange zest (optional)

Mix ingredients in a bowl and spread over you carrot cake once is cooled down.

Keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

The Meeting House Brunch Review

The Meeting House Review

Hi guys as many of you know I was invited to a unique burmese brunch in 'The Meeting House' restaurant, in Dublin. The Meeting House is located on Sycamore Street in Temple Bar, and here is a little review of my experience.

I arrived with my friend and we were welcomed straight away. I loved this as I hate going into a restaurant when there is no-one to welcome you at reception, and you are standing there all lost not knowing if you can sit anywhere, or if you should just sit wherever. So I loved that.

Straight away we were served a deliciously refreshing non-alcoholic cocktail, which was made with ginger, raspberries and orange juice. I literally cannot describe how delicious that combo was! Honestly, I have to try to make that at home. I was very impressed by it.
             
Then, we were served a fruit salad which was full of different types of fruits, with a touch of coconut, really amazing and healthy!

This picture above was the main dish, which was a slow cooked beef, with vegetables and coriander. OMG! I cannot explain how much I loved this dish! Just to think about it makes my mouth go all watery! This is going to be a problem because every time I go to Dublin I will definitely go in just to eat this!

They also served a smoked pork belly with poached duck egg topped with hollandaise sauce. This was unreal, the egg was perfectly poached, I really need to get my poached egg game on!

The cocktails are also incredible tasty, with so many different combinations that you would never imagine, like, whiskey, pineapple smoothie cocktail was pretty amazing! It was such a pleasant experience.

Also, I loved the fact they offered options for vegetarian and celiacs, as not every restaurant is able to to offer this option on their menu. What I didn't like is that they brought the vegetarian option way before we were all served. Although my vegetarian friend said it is like that in every restaurant, as they have to prepare vegetarian meals separately. But, I would have liked if we were all served at the same time. Apart from that I will give it a 10 of of 10.

The meeting house is a unique place which offers you a whole experience of cocktails, good food and also good music. If you live in Dublin you should definitely go in a Saturday or a Sunday brunch for a well deserved homemade cheat meal. All dishes are 9.99 euros.

Please let me know if you go, I would love to hear your thoughts.

The Meeting House Brunch Review

The Meeting House Review

Hi guys as many of you know I was invited to a unique burmese brunch in 'The Meeting House' restaurant, in Dublin. The Meeting House is located on Sycamore Street in Temple Bar, and here is a little review of my experience.

I arrived with my friend and we were welcomed straight away. I loved this as I hate going into a restaurant when there is no-one to welcome you at reception, and you are standing there all lost not knowing if you can sit anywhere, or if you should just sit wherever. So I loved that.

Straight away we were served a deliciously refreshing non-alcoholic cocktail, which was made with ginger, raspberries and orange juice. I literally cannot describe how delicious that combo was! Honestly, I have to try to make that at home. I was very impressed by it.
             
Then, we were served a fruit salad which was full of different types of fruits, with a touch of coconut, really amazing and healthy!

This picture above was the main dish, which was a slow cooked beef, with vegetables and coriander. OMG! I cannot explain how much I loved this dish! Just to think about it makes my mouth go all watery! This is going to be a problem because every time I go to Dublin I will definitely go in just to eat this!

They also served a smoked pork belly with poached duck egg topped with hollandaise sauce. This was unreal, the egg was perfectly poached, I really need to get my poached egg game on!

The cocktails are also incredible tasty, with so many different combinations that you would never imagine, like, whiskey, pineapple smoothie cocktail was pretty amazing! It was such a pleasant experience.

Also, I loved the fact they offered options for vegetarian and celiacs, as not every restaurant is able to to offer this option on their menu. What I didn't like is that they brought the vegetarian option way before we were all served. Although my vegetarian friend said it is like that in every restaurant, as they have to prepare vegetarian meals separately. But, I would have liked if we were all served at the same time. Apart from that I will give it a 10 of of 10.

The meeting house is a unique place which offers you a whole experience of cocktails, good food and also good music. If you live in Dublin you should definitely go in a Saturday or a Sunday brunch for a well deserved homemade cheat meal. All dishes are 9.99 euros.

Please let me know if you go, I would love to hear your thoughts.