Homemade Chicken Nuggets (with an update)

Tonight's main course was chicken nuggets. This is the only meat James will eat and only in this form. He has eaten grilled chicken and a slice of deli turkey that were sneaked into a grilled cheese sandwich by his father and then once by his Nana. He never knew the difference.

I wanted us to cook together and found a kid-friendly recipe on About.com of all places. There is something wonderful and motivating about eating what you yourself have cooked. It's also fun to cook a dish your parents will also eat.

We gathered all the ingredients. Flour, eggs, bread crumbs, olive oil, salt and pepper...and then the recipe called for hot sauce. James didn't like the sound of that AT ALL but I told him to trust me. We were getting our "stations" ready: 1st bowl was the flour seasoned with salt and pepper, the 2nd bowl was the egg wash. The 3rd bowl was the bread crumbs. We had to add 3 dashes of the hot sauce. I demonstrated the first dash and then asked James to add the other two He did great.

James spent his entire time in the kitchen talking. I mean it. He hardly took a breath. He talked about how healthy the chicken was going to taste. He shared with me that he put 18% salt and 80% pepper in the flour for seasoning. He said it was going to taste better than McDonald's chicken nuggets. He told me that he was the Master Chef and that I- well, I was just basic.


James LOVED being the in the kitchen and making a dinner that we, his parents, were going to eat. Having ownership of what will be served was very exciting for him.

But, in the end, you can see in the picture on the right, he looks less than enthused with dinner. He likes being in the kitchen but he is still struggling to enjoy dinner. Even when he makes it. And it's served with a side of one of his favorites, macaroni and cheese.






Update: Since I began writing this post, James has tried more new food. Spaghetti squash has been a good choice. He also ASKED for Angel Hair with Alfredo for dinner. He eats it one piece of pasta at a time. He has also made a kid-friendly salad (no dressing for him): romaine lettuce, red grapes (halved) and pecans. He was able to use a knife for this and didn't want to stop cutting and slicing. He has since requested bread for dinner so he can be in charge of slicing it. I also tried making honey-glazed carrots. Those were a hit! He won't eat raw carrots but if they have been softened up and drizzled with honey and a little brown sugar, well, that is just a totally differently thing!

I am no Foodie

I am just not a foodie. I love food don't get me wrong. I mean, I gotta eat. But I am not one of those people who loves to watch people cook on TV. I don't watch the Food Network. Ever. I don't subscribe to cooking magazines or food magazines. I've never actually bought a cookbook. All the cookbooks I have were given to me as gifts. I do love them. I have tried new recipes because of them. I just can not (or don't) spend a lot of time thinking about food. It used to drive me crazy when my husband would call me from work at 8:30 in the morning and ask, "What's for dinner?"!! Huh?!? I'm thinking, "I haven't had 2 cups of coffee yet! I don't know what I'm eating for breakfast yet! Or when!"

Now, my husband has always been an adventurous eater. I have watched cooking shows because HE watches cooking shows. Gordon Ramsey is a favorite. For him, eating is an occasion to be savored. Always. He will eat anything once. It never fails to surprise me that he will eat the fish soup at any Chinese restaurant. He'll have no idea what's in it but he orders it and eats it all.

I read once that people view food in one of 3 ways. The one I remember is the one that best described my view of food. It's fuel. That's it. I must eat. I must eat so I can run a good race, keep up with James and most importantly, stay alive!!!

I suspect James is like me in that way. We talk about the nutritional facts for any and all foods whether it be vegetables or junk food. We talk about the different types of sugar. The sugar in fruit or milk is much better for you than the sugar in Sour Patch Kids. Tonight, for example, I baked spaghetti squash...for the first time! I can't believe I am 43 and just now discovering spaghetti squash. Well, I looked up the nutritional value of it and shared it with James as it was cooking. Tons of vitamin A and potassium. A fraction of the calories of regular spaghetti from a box. And just as fun!!
                                            

James is clever. I think he realizes that I am more discriminating than his Dad when it comes to food and trying new things. Tonight as we sat to eat said spaghetti squash I reminded James that this was also MY first time eating it. We kept it simple. Salt and butter for flavor.  I didn't say much while I ate but then James said, "I like it because it doesn't taste like anything." I agreed, "Yeah. I think mine needs a little more salt" and reached for the sea salt grinder on the table. He responded with, "I think I want a little more salt too". Chris gave him one turn of the grinder over his squash.

I don't know the outcome of dinner at this point. He got sent to his room right before I had to run out the door to go to work. He was burping on purpose and slurping his milk. He would not even let the crab cakes I made sit on his plate. I am OK with that. He has been extremely consistent about not eating meat (except chicken nuggets). That is going to take some time.  He also turned up his nose at the green beans. So! Spaghetti squash for dinner!

Baby steps. Healthy attitude towards food. Those are my goals.

No More Short Order Cook.

I decided that James will eat whatever we eat for dinner. It's time. No more cooking a dang grilled cheese every single night. So last night I made baked chicken and broccoli over pasta. James cried like I slapped him when I put his plate in front of him. My husband got crafty tonight after I left for work. He cut up the chicken into shreds, melted some cheese over it and put on pita bread. James ate 3 bites. And afterwards:

Chris: "Thanks for trying it James."

James: "Thanks for making me eat it."

What?!?! That's right. He thanked his Dad for making him eat something he has heretofore refused to even let sit on his plate.

Tonight, as I went downstairs to start dinner, James asked to help. He wanted to know what we were having. Salad and kale ravioli with marinara sauce. He wanted to know what kale tasted like and I told him we had some in the frig. Next thing I know, he is in there searching for kale! He wants to take a bite of it. Taste it. He did it twice! He seemed even a little eager to try the ravioli. I told him it had cheese and kale inside and it's made with wheat pasta on the outside. He says, "Whole wheat pasta?!? I like that!". Now you tell me!

Here is James with his plate presented to him. See how apprehensive he is? All he has on the plate are carrots, cucumber slices and ONE ravioli. Marinara on the side. Water to drink. (If I give him milk, he will chug it and be full.)

We talked for a bit about the food on his plate and he is smiling and excited. What if he ate the whole entire ravioli??? He says, "I could have brownies for dessert!" I told him, "If you ate the whole thing, Daddy would totally take you to the DQ." I was dead serious and he knew it. His sweet face lit up like the twelfth of July (that's his birthday). He took one GOOD bite and chewed. It was not his favorite but he drank some water and took another bite. He would not try the marina. I tried to tell him it would make it taste even better. He was having no part of it. (honestly, he never liked the pasta with tomato sauce in baby food either) He is not a dipper. Won't even put gloriously delicious real maple syrup on his pancakes. What the world? 

In the end, he ate 5 bites of the ravioli and ate all his vegetables. That was the deal. And let me tell you, he is a negotiator. He negotiated until it was time for me to go to work. 30 minutes. He can wear you down if you aren't mentally prepared for it. He is a strong-willed child. I will love that later. I didn't love it today.

It has just occurred to me that James has been a PILL these last 2 days because he knows he will have to eat something new at dinner. So the rest of the day he has been defiant and contrary...about every little thing! It has not been fun. It was so bad yesterday that I cancelled an outing for today. And grounded him from the computer. He got sent to his room at least 5 times today for being disrespectful and defiant. 

I love him so much. One day he will understand it better. He will see it with his adult eyes. Sometimes we play a game called "What was the worst part of your day? What was the best part of your day?". Yesterday we read his entire book of mythological monsters. That was the best part. That happened at 8:30 in the morning. Today? Watching him take little steps to becoming a Big Kid. I had the chance to give him praise today. To tell him that I am SUPER SUPER proud of him for trying new food. There is a part of me that thinks he wants me to push him to this...because he won't do it by himself. He knows I care about him and his future. I don't want him to be some 60-year-old dude who only eats grilled cheeses for lunch and dinner. No way. If he does become that guy, it won't be for lack of having tried new food. And he'll still be expected to eat what I cook when he comes to visit!

Grocery Store Nutrition

Whenever I do my grocery shopping, James is most often with me. It is a great opportunity to talk about food and what's in it.  It all started with buying cereal. If you have a kid, and they are with you and you need to buy cereal then you need to have a game plan BEFORE you arrive. My plan was this: James could pick any cereal he wanted as long as it contained less than 10 grams of sugar per serving. James started looking at each box for the "sugars". Now you know a young boy is looking for cereal that is exciting! colorful! has a cool mascot or character! And then reality hits. Despite reality, James has had a plethora of cereals to choose from. They all haven't been MY favorite but if they have "less than 10 sugars" then its acceptable. Here's a sample of a favorite cereal:



Nowadays, food makers put all the pertinent information on the front of the box so it's easy to see. James now knows where to find that information. It has also lead him to read the other information there. As he sits and eats his cereal, he reads the box. He will make an announcement about how proteins are in it. And he'll tell me about the saturated fats and carbohydrates too. He equates too many sugars with "bad" and proteins with "good". He knows that his yogurt has a lot of protein especially if it's Greek yogurt. That is good.

Today we had a very productive discovery about real sugars and fake sugars. I was picking out the Capri-Sun Super V juice pouches when we both noticed these really cool-looking new bigger juice pouches that are resealable, also made by Capri-Sun. James wanted it. Bad. I picked one up and looked at the ingredients. The second ingredient was high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). I said no. He wanted to know why of course so we did a quick comparison. His Capri-Sun Super V does not contain HFCS. So Super V wins. I told James that HFCS is not real sugar. It's fake. It's made from corn and that is certainly not sugar. Then we moved over to the aisle with all the colorful water flavorings. He wanted the Kool-Aid liquid water enhancers. Sooooo, we looked at the ingredients. There we found sucralose. If we are going to get something with sugar, it has to be the real thing. Most of those water enhancers contain sucralose. We couldn't find one in that store but I know they exist.

Ingredients: Water, Grape, Apple and Sweet

                                                     Potato Juice Concentrates, Soluable corn fiber,

                                   Carrot Juice concentrate, citric acid,

                                                         cherry juice concentrate, ascorbic acid (vitamin c),

                                                                        natural flavor, vitamin e acetate, beta-carotene.

And these little conversations amount to a lot. James now has a clear understanding about how I make decisions about what foods I will and will not buy. I'm not just being a mean Mommy by saying no without a good reason. He also understands that if we ARE going to eat something sugary, we will buy (or make it) with real sugar. And we will eat full-fat foods. No "fat-free" foods in our house. So if I buy salad dressing, for example, I buy the full-fat kind. Because fat-free means "full of chemicals to make it taste good since there's no fat in it anymore". We talked about acceptable sugars like pure sugar, honey and stevia today. And we talked about good fats like olive oil.

We haven't talked much about food dyes much. But lately it keeps coming up in conversations with other moms so I am listening  and paying close attention. We needed good wholesome snack foods so I let James pick out some Goldfish (they are very low in "sugars"). I thought he was going to grab a bag of the Goldfish Colors and told him No before he thought to touch the bag. Then I decided to read the ingredients. Lo and behold,  the colors made with real food like beets and watermelon and turmeric. No Red 30 or whatever. None of that.

We also buy a lot of local food through Carolina Grown. We started doing that when James was about 2. He loved the milk the most. I had to buy milk from the grocery store once because I ran out and when he tasted it he said, "This not good mommy.". Wow. A two-year-old could taste the difference. I get 95% of our meats locally. Grass-fed beef. Free-range chicken. Eggs too. All sorts of vegetables and fruits. Salsa and pickles. Goat cheese. Even soap and dog treats. And goodies like chocolate chip cookies. You better believe it has real butter and real sugar in them. James helps me order online sometimes. He does it to make sure I order the cookies.

One caveat here, I do buy candy for James. But it's not meant to be healthy so I relax my rules. It's called junk food for a reason. But healthy food HAS to be healthy; the food we eat for nutrients has to be good.