grazing

We all have heard of the saying, eat 5-6 small meals a day. We all know that we need to eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grain. We all know that we need to exercise regularly. We all desire to live healthy. Healthy living including our food and exercise is fuel for our body, keeps our immune system activated, helps regulate and maintain a good digestive system, gives us energy, and can prevent many chronic illnesses and cancers.

We all know this, but we all do not practice this.

The busyness of everyday life....
rushing kids around, trying to be the best mother, keeping our house clean, teaching our children, working, sports schedules, stress, financial struggles, building our relationship with God, toilet training two year olds, disciplining, keeping our husbands happy, and just life....

all keeps us from taking care of ourselves

I think, as a mother, we forget about how important it is to take care of us. The food we eat today; impacts our life span, our energy, how often we get sick, how our children will eat in the future by our example, and how we feel internally.

I have implemented a new way of how we eat. How my children eat. And I want to share it.

It is called grazing,

Children are busy and hungry. I don't know about you but constantly I get "Mama, snuck!" "Mama, eat!" Hutter is constantly eating which means I am constantly in the kitchen trying to find something for him to snack on. Fruit snack, goldfish, cereal bars, and crackers were taking over my house because it was easy to grab and to satisfy the busy two year old.

We are busy and not always hungry at the same time as our children. Which means then we snack at a different time and are grabbing unhealthy snack choices.

I felt like I was living in the kitchen and constantly cleaning the kitchen.

Which means, we were not getting the daily recommended amounts of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Children love choices, they love ownership, they love food.

Here is my way of encouraging healthy eating for myself and my children.





Every morning while making breakfast I prepare this special tray. Hutter gets super excited about "Hutters spesal tray" I use a muffin pan and fill it with healthy choices to fuel our bodies for the day.



I leave it on the table all morning. He will sit down take a few apple slices, eat his hard boiled egg and then get down and play. About 30-40 minutes later he is back looking to see what he wants to eat next. He grazes and enjoys nourishing himself with healthy choices.



Then during lunch I simply add a sandwich. Place cottage cheese or apple sauce to one of the empty muffin slots and he continue to eat from his "spesal tray." Whenever we are playing outside, leave the house, or during nap time I place the tray in the frig to keep it fresh and cool.

It also saves on dishes. I don't get another plate for lunch or a bowl for his goldfish or have wrappers laying around from his fruit snacks.

I also eat from this tray. Hutter shares with me and we both graze throughout the day. Which makes us eat 5-6 small meals a day.

My children never would eat baby carrots. So, I decided to use my peeler and slice the carrot to make small slivers of carrots.



They would not eat hummus and veggies. But now they do! It is amazing to me.

It saves money too. We actually eat the fruit and vegetables that are in the frig before they go bad and are thrown away.

So, here is a list of items that I place in the tray...

(local farm raised)hard boiled egg
(organic) veggies of all sorts
(organic) fruits of all sorts
sliced almonds or any kind of nut
dried cranberries
raisins
low fat ranch dressing for dipping
hummus
cheese slices
small pieces of lunch meat
sometimes pretzels
sometimes I add chocolate chips to the almonds and nuts

Grazing is amazing! Enjoy!