My Boys' Favorite Energy Booster

Having grown up in the wonderful Midwest, home of the 8-month Winter, I not-so-fondly remember spending countless school days stuck inside because we just couldn’t get outdoors for recess without risking frostbite, hail or snowball ambushes.

Raising my boys in Southern California is a different story, however. We are fortunate to live in a place where they can get outside in the fresh air 300+ days per year, including the great majority of their school days. But simply being able to get out and play is not enough. Providing them with the resources to thrive, and the energy to do so, is a critical mission that I take very seriously.

One of the things that still surprises me, as a parent, is how hungry my boys seem to be ALL DAY LONG.

Just woke up à They’re famished

Back home after school? I can hear their tummies rumbling like mini garbage disposals waiting to be filled.

And of course when the clock strikes 5:00pm I know that they’ll either soon turn into pumpkins or start swiping sneak previews from the counter of the dinner I’m always just a few minutes behind on preparing.

But there’s truly only one thing that I know will satiate them no matter the time of day. And no, it’s not gummy bears.

Good old-fashioned milk. California’s finest.

I know that I can steal those last five minutes of dinner prep, (which is really usually 10. OK, 15) needed to prepare their requisite evening noms with a quick glass of milk.  Sure, those gummy bears might take less effort, but they’re worth it and it’s a great appetizer. Plus, I‘m fortunate that the Junior Dudes think receiving that tall, cool glass is a treat, even though they usually have it multiple times daily.

My older son, the 5 ½ year old Little Dude, can be a picky eater. And by “can be”, I mean has been every day of his life. We are fortunate to know that while he will likely enter Kindergarten without ever having tried pizza (entirely of his own volition), we never have to twist any arms for him to enjoy an apple, grapes or myriad other fruits.

As parents it’s important to appreciate winning the little battles even if the larger wars are lost more often than we’d prefer. I can admit that it took me a while to get used to the Little Dude’s preferred daily lunch of yogurt, fruit and rice cakes, which is certainly not the most exciting lunch option available to him. But I know now that I’m giving him the energy to refill his tank so he can get back outside to enjoy the sunshine while hiking, biking or just chasing his brother down the block.

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I’m happy to share with you that I’m partnering up with the California Milk Advisory Board to tell you about their Fuel Up to Play 60 (FUTP 60) initiative, in association with the NFL. FUTP 60 is all about ensuring that kids get their full servings of nutrients the old school way: via dairy, fruits, grains and veggies while getting at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. Also, to ensure that kids are getting exercise at school, they are offering schools grants up to $4,000 for the upcoming school year to support their health and wellness programs, featuring plays from the Fuel Up to Play 60 Playbook.  To apply for a spring grant, visit fueluptoplay60.com for more info and to get your school involved. Grant deadline is June 16.

I was compensated by the California MilkAdvisory Board for this post, though unfortunately not in bricks of cheese or vats of sour cream. All opinions expressed within are my own, for better or worse.

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I'm a Super MilkMan!

There was a period of time in the early 2000s when I wore black rimmed glasses and people often called me Clark, as in Clark Kent. My black frames and hair, not to mention my chiseled physique, were somehow reminiscent of Dean Cain who played Clark on some TV show I’ve long since forgotten. Though I can’t leap buildings in a single bound, or even three bounds, like the Man of Steel I have finally become another type of superhero: Super MilkMan.

When the great Dudes from Life of Dad asked me to participate in a contest they were hosting for the National Milk Board, I leapt at the opportunity, which is about the only thing I can surpass in a single bound. What’s the grand prize of this contest, you say? Um, just a trip to meet The Rock, yo. You know the badass former pro wrestler who has starred in a ton of shoot 'em up action movies. And as The Tooth Fairy.  He drinks milk, so I have to believe that if I do as well, I will turn out to be as big and buff as him. So I rarely skip a day of enjoying milk with my cereal for breakfast, and the Junior Dudes never miss a chance to snicker at my Milk Mustache.

My biceps are just a tad smaller. Guess I need more milk. 

But seriously, milk is a great source of vitamins, nutrients and protein. I have to admit, I knew about the first two of those, but was surprised to learn that just one glass of milk has 8 grams of protein. That was great news to me, because as the father of a super picky toddler I often struggle finding ways for him to get his protein. But one thing I never have to convince him is to drink his daily glass of milk. I have to believe that his regular consumption, along with inheriting my superhero-esque resemblance, have contributed to his off-the-charts growth every time he goes to the doctor. I bet he can smell what The Rock was cookin’, or at least drinkin’: Milk.

Here’s my entry into the #SuperMilkMan contest. If you don’t already follow me on Instagram, here’s your chance.

For more info, be sure to check out http://thebreakfastproject.com/ and follow @MilkMustache on Twitter. They’re good people.

DISCLAIMER: I was compensated by Life of Dad, LLC to be an entrant in the #SuperMilkMan contest. Unfortunately it was not with a lifetime supply of milk. All opinions expressed are completely my own, for better or worse.

Dairy Delight

Dealing with a picky eater is challenging. Dealing with a kid who refuses to range beyond his half dozen core foods is exhausting. Every time we leave the house for an extended amount of time we have to pack a full meal for our 3-year-old Little Dude. Needless to say, I can now boil pasta in my sleep. And given our current exhaustion level with a newborn in the house, I often do.  

He would eat pancakes 3 times a day, if given the chance.

So as a parent who has dealt with this for 3+ years, one ongoing concern is how he will get his protein, since he flat-out refuses the protein staples most kids eat: chicken nuggets, hamburgers, pizza, etc. He eats a variety of fruits and even some vegetables, which is great, but protein is such an essential item to have throughout the day for energy.

He has an affinity for hot dogs, but I try not to overdo those even though I buy the nitrate-free ones. I’ve tried cheese, both grilled on buttery bread and fresh from the fridge in slices, strings and cubes and he won’t touch them. I’ve tried bribery and not even the allure of new Hot Wheels is enticing enough to make him give any of these things a shot. As though pizza is such an awful thing.

But there is one thing that really whets his whistle. It’s probably the only thing that I can order him virtually anywhere and he’ll actually consume it. Good old fashioned milk.  You always hear the old wives tales about how “milk is good for your bones”. It turns out that old wives are actually pretty accurate sometimes.  I recently discovered that an 8oz glass has 8 grams of protein, which is not too shabby.

I know the feeling...

Since he started preschool in the fall, the Little Dude burns a lot more energy in the mornings than he used to. There are a lot of days when he’ll come home from school and literally lay prone on the floor because he’s so wiped out. I never knew watercolors could be so exhausting, but I believe Picasso was a tired Dude, too.

So when he needs a pick-me-up in the afternoon, I hand him one of his trusty Cars cups filled with the white creamy goodness that only comes from a cow. That tides him over for the afternoon until dinnertime, when his pickiness resumes. It also gives him the energy to get outside and play. I hope that if he drinks enough milk, he’ll soon be able to start training for the 2028 Olympics because given how he sometimes plays with his stuffed animals I think he’d be a good shot putter. So I’m thankful for the vitamins and nine essential nutrients that I know will help him grow big and strong. And thankful for milk, because I don’t know any other natural way he’d willingly get them.  

Milk tastes better when served by Lightning McQueen

Given how important milk is to my children’s growth, I’m teaming up with the “got milk?” Campaign and Fuel Up to Play 60 for the Breakfast Blitz program to help provide $250,000 in grants to local schools across the country to help give kids greater access to a healthy breakfast. Now through Feb. 17, when you buy milk you can vote to have a portion go to a local school.

If you don’t already know, Fuel Up to Play 60 is a great in-school program designed to show students how to eat right and stay active. I know firsthand that choosing healthy foods and leading an active lifestyle gives me and my family the energy to do the things we love.

Want to learn more about the wonderful benefits of milk? Check out:

·  Sweeps page: MilkMustache.com

·  Hashtag: #BfastBlitz

·  FUTP: http://www.fueluptoplay60.com/

·  Facebook: Milk Mustache Campaign

·  Twitter: @MilkMustache

·  Pinterest: Milk Mustache Campaign

·  Instagram: Milk Mustache

I wrote this post while participating in the got milk? FUTP60/Breakfast Blitz Promotion and was compensated, though the opinions expressed are entirely 163% mine. For better or worse. 

The Battle of Turkey Pasta

He’d eaten it a million times.  Well, that’s exaggerating. He’s eaten Kraft Mac & Cheese and/or turkey dogs a million times. He’d eaten this many times and always liked it. What’s not to like about pasta with marinara sauce and ground turkey? Though it had been a while since he’d had it, that shouldn’t have mattered.  

My Little Dude is a picky eater, that's no secret. He always has been. Even with the baby food in jars he was given at six months old, he rejected most of them.  Usually all over me and my clothes.

But one exception to the rule has been Mrs. Dude’s famous “Turkey Pasta”.  She’s made it for years and he’s always been a big fan, just as I am. And in some weird coincidence, he usually wears a white or light-colored shirt on the days that he eats it.  That’s partly why we buy kegs of stain remover at Costco.   

"Big Tubes" & "Worms" pictured.

But a few months ago, my sister came to visit and introduced the Little Dude to a new culinary treat: “Butter Pasta”.   I can’t really argue that in most circumstances items topped with butter usually taste better than items mixed with turkey, but this dish may be an exception to that rule.  My sister made butter pasta for my nieces and the Little Dude immediately took to it. So much so that he started requesting it multiple times a week.  If he gets excited to eat something we get excited, though in this case I wish it had a little more protein in it.

Given his affection for his new favorite dish, and the ease of preparation, he started eating it a lot. Also since it was over 100 degrees for most of the summer and Turkey Pasta can be a heavy meal, we didn’t make it much over the last couple months.  But I figured it was time to bring it back. Just as people clamor for the McRib every time McDonald’s puts it back on the menu, so should the Little Dude enjoy his beloved Turkey Pasta once again.

Mrs. Dude took him to the grocery store to pick out pasta, as he is very intrigued by the various shapes. He picked out butterflies (farfalle), corkscrews (fusilli), tubes (penne) and more. Then he helped pour them into the boiling water, watching excitedly as they danced around the bubbles.  He waited as the shapes were mixed with sauce and put in his favorite bowl on the table for him.  

And then he refused to eat it.

He wanted something else to eat.  Butter Pasta. Which is OK sometimes, but that’s not what we’d prepared and it’s time for him to get on the same page as us. Making two separate meals is annoying. 

The next hour was not a fun course of events, with many tears shed and a failed bribery attempt, but in the end he opted to go to bed hungry and mad.  Which is a truly heartbreaking thing for a parent to watch but was entirely his choice.

Punishment came when he bounded into our room this morning at 5:30am, cheerful and happy. Acting as though nothing had occurred ten hours earlier.  “I’m hungry!” he giggled.

Perfect! We are having Turkey Pasta for breakfast...

How have you or would you deal with a situation like this?

Whole Wheat, Sweet!

Old habits die hard. Or as we say around my house, picky eaters are those residents currently under the age of 3.  You know by now, the Little Dude takes pickiness to a new level. His eating habits have gotten better in some ways, like just yesterday he ate a grape tomato at our local farmers’ market, but in many other ways there is no progress either forward or backward.  He still won’t touch a piece of pizza, which is both frustrating and ironic since my blood type is practically Marinara.

The one genre of food that he will eat pretty much any time (beside candy) is breakfast. I’ve told you several times about his affinity for IHOP, or as I sometimes refer to it, TORWMKWESFTM (The Only Restaurant Where My Kid Will Eat Something From The Menu). Not quite as catchy of an acronym, so we’ll refer to it as IHOP here.

The kind bubble-lettered people at IHOP asked me if I wanted to check out some new items on their menu, which presented an interesting conundrum. I know that the Little Dude likes IHOP’s Baby Cakes (aka silver dollar pancakes), but as a creature of habit would he try something new there? I took their offer as a challenge, and also as the opportunity for a free meal.

Since I’m a high roller, I invited the pregnant Mrs. Dude to join us at IHOP for our big night out. With our IHOP outings usually reserved for Dudes’ Days, this was a rare treat for her. Or at least that’s how I pitched it so that she’d attend.

We went for Breakfast for Dinner on a recent weeknight and immediately noticed the giant glossy pictures of the new Red Velvet, Sweet Strawberry & Whole Wheat Pancakes all over the restaurant.  As Mrs. Dude has a chocolate allergy, we nixed Red Velvet and ordered the other two new flavors. And just to be safe we ordered the Little Dude some of his beloved Baby Cakes. Oh, and some of the amazing looking Cinn-a-Stack pancakes, too, to balance out the looming healthiness of the Whole Wheat.

When everything arrived, our table looked like Dr. Atkins’ worst nightmare. Luckily I’m a professional carbaholic, so I could handle it. I decided to see if the Little Dude would eat the Whole Wheat pancakes. I cut a few bites and poured the brown maple syrup he likes on top. When he bit in, he knew something was a little different, but he went with it anyway. For about 4 bites. Then he decided he’d been adventurous enough for one night and I agreed so he went back to the Baby Cakes.  He tried them and didn’t spit out the first bite. That’s a win in my book.

 

 The advertised Whole Wheat pancakes (above) looked pretty close to the picture of the real product (below). 

Mrs. Dude and I shared the Whole Wheat, Sweet Strawberry and Cinn-A-Stack pancakes for a more objective take. The Whole Wheat was a bit grainier than IHOP’s standard pancakes, but that’s what whole wheat normally is. They weren’t bad and if you are going to eat healthier, there are definitely a lot worse options. They place banana slices on top of these pancakes which add a little moistness and also make them slightly resemble a crop circle.

When we’d ordered, I asked the waitress what the difference was between the new Sweet Strawberry pancakes and the regular Strawberry pancakes was. She told me “nothing”. That wasn’t quite accurate, however, as the new ones have a cream cheese glaze drizzled across the top. Beyond that, they seemed very similar to this IHOP regular. These new ones were good, but as someone who was getting a root canal two days later, I wish they’d been served with a side of fluoride. IHOP’s marketing team was not kidding when they named them “Sweet” Strawberry.

The real Sweet Strawberry pancakes (below) look like a volcanic eruption of the official picture (above).

So would I order these new items again? Surprisingly, of the two new styles I’d actually order the Whole Wheat again. I expected them to sit in my stomach like a ton of bricks, as whole wheat/grainy food often does, but that wasn’t the case here. Were they as light and fluffy as the regular IHOP pancakes? No, but that’s why I’d order a side of Cinn-a-Stack again to go along with them. They made an interesting, and ironic, complement to each other. And for my picky Little Dude, I see more Baby Cakes in his future.

"I take my pancakes very seriously"

Yes, we went to town.

The super-kind IHOP people wants one of you to come check out their new products, too. Actually they want all of you to come try them, but they are generously offering a $50 IHOP gift certificate to one lucky reader. To qualify for this prize you must:

1)      Leave a comment below stating your interest in participating in the contest along with your favorite IHOP item.

2)      LIKE me on Facebook for another chance to win & mention that you want to win the IHOP GC

3)      Follow me on Twitter for another chance to win & Tweet “@DudeoftheHouse rocks @IHOP!”

4)      Follow me on Pinterest and share my pics from or this story there.

You can earn up to four entries per person. 

Winner will be randomly selected on Friday August 17, 2012 at 3:00pm PST.  Winner will be notified via a blog post on Dude of the House and will have 24 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. 

The opinions expressed in this post are entirely mine. And partially my wife's. 
IHOP gave me gift cards to try their new items in exchange for writing this post. 

Who Picked This Pickiness?

One of my first posts when I started this blog a year ago was about my frustration at having the pickiest eating toddler in the history of civilization.  Just like they do on TV about old shows no one has thought about in decades, I thought I’d do a “Where Are They Now?” look at, well, where we are now in regard to the diversity of the Little Dude’s palate.

Spoiler Alert: It still sucks.

I expected his picky eating to be a phase that he’d grow out of, as countless people assured me it would. I suppose there is still time for that to occur, since he’s only 2 ½ years old, but it seems like it never will. Especially when we are at kids’ birthday parties and the inevitable cheese pizza is served. Mine is the only kid who would rather eat a bag of Baked Snap Pea Crisps than that mozzarella-covered cardboard they often try to pass off as pizza.

Mandatory Kids' Birthday Party Meal

You might be thinking that it’s much better for him to eat baked vegetable snacks than greasy pizza, which is probably true health-wise. I often wonder about the social component of his pickiness. People have suggested that he’ll evolve when he is around other kids. Um, he’s sitting next to 20 other kids who are all eating pizza and he’s not. Must he go to Burning Man for a bigger crowd?

We are very lucky to have a happy, healthy boy who is consistently near the top of the growth chart, so I shouldn’t be complaining. But the frustration caused by his unwillingness to even taste certain foods is compounded by the fact that he frequently talks about them. Yes, my son is an E.T., an Eating Tease.  

Sometimes Mrs. Dude or I will ask what he wants to eat, though we know it’s really a rhetorical question since he eats the same 5 things every day. Occasionally he’ll surprise us and say he wants pizza, for example, and immediately qualifies his request with “for real!” to add validity.  So we make the pizza, put it in on his plate, and watch as once again he’d rather skip dinner than suffer through the horror of cheese baked on top of tomato sauce and dough.  And every time this happens I feel like Charlie Brown when Lucy pulls the football. Good grief. 

The Little Dude’s eating repertoire has been virtually the same for the last year and a half. He does have an affinity for breakfast food, but beyond that I’m running out of ideas.  This is the same kid who ate Kraft Macaroni & Cheese for dinner EVERY NIGHT for more than a year, and that only ended because we stopped giving it to him every night. Now the great majority of his evening meals are anchored by (Nitrate-Free) Turkey Dogs, aka the only type of “meat” that he’ll consider eating.

There is one exception to his edict of not trying new foods, and that is if he determines that an item is a cookie, cake, candy or other type of sweet. He can hone in on a dry-looking Do-Si-Do from 20 yards away even though he’s never seen one before but the thought of a dinosaur-shaped chicken nugget is torturous. How he developed that sixth sense, I’ll never understand.  

Double-fisting vanilla cones

People who know me well have suggested that this is my payback for behavior from 25-30 years ago. You see, I was a picky eater once, too. In fact, I ate the same lunch virtually every day from kindergarten through 6^th grade: peanut butter & jelly. I’ve broadened my horizon since then, but even at my pickiest stage I ate at least a few other items. I think I can count every item the Little Dude eats on my fingers and toes. And that’s including both Original and Honey Nut Cheerios.

So what should we do? As a parent, this is incredibly frustrating on so many levels.  We can’t go to a restaurant without packing a full meal, because the likelihood of him eating something from the menu is almost nil. Unless they serve hotdogs.  And even then, he won’t eat the French fries or carrots served with it.  He’d much rather eat a half-dozen Trader Joes rice cakes.  Maybe he has the right idea after all.

 How have you dealt with a picky eater?

Two-line Tuesday: Smiley Plate

I don't care if the plate is smiling.

I'm still not going to eat it.