17 // Are you stuck in a rut with buttered noodles?
Are you stuck in a rut with buttered noodles?
3 EASY swaps that add variety to your child’s go-to plate of pasta with zero extra effort from the busy mom.
A friend recently sent me a message about an epiphany she had when listening to episode 5, "What is a BALANCED diet? This is why having the same “healthy” foods every day isn’t healthy and what you can do to begin covering your kiddo’s nutritional bases better."
This is a friend I know well, and I know both her deeply rooted desire to feed her children healthfully and yet the rut we can still find ourselves in when we find something that just works! Easy wins are a saving grace in motherhood, but how can we also make sure that the ease they offer doesn't end up creating bigger issues like picky eating? This episode addresses just that!
With advice for the parent who may offer the same kind of noodles multiple times a week, consider what simple swaps you can make to add variety but with zero extra effort. These will gradually help add variety to your child's diet without compromising what your kid loves about go-to's like buttered noodles.
Listen to this episode of The Veggies & Virtue Podcast now!
Full Episode Transcription
Please note this a raw transcription. If something doesn’t read correctly, toggle to that timestamp in the show so that you can listen in on what was actually being said!
[00:00:00] Mama, are you struggling with how to feed your kids? Right? Do you wish that there was a way to help your child try new foods? Do you look at a pantry cluttered with pirate, booty and a fridge full of the same food every week and wonder how you're going to get your family's meals off the hot mess express.
[00:00:16] I know what it feels like to scroll through all the feeding accounts on Instagram and to see a bunch of Fuji food that my family would never eat. And I too have pinned all the healthy recipes with good intention. But zero execution. I understand as a busy mom of three, that it can feel really unattainable, especially on the days when I'm exhausted.
[00:00:34] I have a short fuse. You really just want an easy button and the date with, well, that's where these meals made. Easy episode ideas come from with everyday ingredients that you already have on hand, I give you one meal or snack idea week that's dietician, mom approved. Ghana's gonna fit in your family's busy life.
[00:00:52] So get ready to press, add to cart and to make meals.
[00:00:59] Hi friend. I have been dying to tell you this. So I was listening to your podcasts, like probably like five ago. This is how long I've been wanting to tell you. And I think I had the most aha food moment like of my life. I'm not joking. You're gonna be so proud. Cause I was listening to your podcast. You were talking about how sometimes parents get so caught up in the meal.
[00:01:20] As healthy as it can possibly be that you get stuck in these ruts of serving the same thing. For example, I only serve my girls bonds, the noodles and the spirals are at Costco. They're very affordable. I served them to them, especially Kendall, cause it's a food that she can eat and protein and stuff.
[00:01:38] But I serve it to the girls like four times a week, at least like four days a week. Not even times four days a week, I always serve cucumbers. I always serve tomatoes like the same things to Mackenzie. Cause she'll eat the healthy foods, but your message was like, it's so much better to have a balanced diet and have a kid that will really kind of.
[00:01:57] Not really eat anything. And I had such, just like a homeroom aha moment of like, wait a minute. Yeah. Like I serve the same things. I told you this, I serve the same things all the time. Like I get in these ruts and then I'm so caught up in like McKinsey eating, such healthy foods for her meals. I'm not like one of those parents, like she can have ice cream.
[00:02:14] I don't care. She can. I mean, she doesn't eat that much. So I'm always like, yeah, like. If you want it, you can have it. If you want to bars. I don't care if we're in the car, have four bars. I don't care if you're hungry, but at meal times I'm so caught up in like it being so healthy and so perfect and blah, blah, blah, that I serve her the same things.
[00:02:30] And she doesn't eat a variety of foods because I'm not offering them. So I just wanted you to know that message. That you shared about like having our kids eat balanced diets, that was like the best thing you've ever shared. Okay. I just love this message on so many levels. I wanted to share it with you guys because I went on to reply to her with kind of how I would pivot from her example of offering the same pasta forties a week.
[00:02:56] And when I did, I was thinking it might be helpful to share here as a meals name, easy. For dinner specifically, because y'all know that I love doing DIY dinner bins. I'm huge on. Meal planning like rotational type menus that you just can continue to repurpose and reuse throughout the seasons. If you've ever bought my seasonal meal plans, you know that like, I am not making new meals every week, but I also don't want to make the same meals every week or the same meals multiple times a week.
[00:03:26] Because again, even if it's really healthy in and of itself, we will. Variety. And sometimes that just means range. And so some of the advice that a you, my friend was, you know, with one of her daughters, she has feeding challenges. And so, you know, they do have a more narrow diet with her as they kind of find which foods that she can tolerate and which ones that she's able to actually like mechanically process.
[00:03:50] And so, you know, one of the things I was saying is if you find an option. Bonds and noodles, for example, which for those of you who don't know they're like a lentil based pasta. So it's a pasta, but instead of being made with a grain bonds that is made with chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans. So they're going to be a lot higher of earned fiber, also in protein.
[00:04:09] So if your child is learning to like protein or the protein that you tend to offer on pasta night, this can be a great option for your noodle. And so I think it is a great option. I do buy it myself at Costco. I think it's super economical there. I like a lot of their products. I don't personally prefer them reheated.
[00:04:27] This is not a sponsored episode by the way. But I think they're a great option, but this is also an ideal opportunity, I think as well. To think through how can you pivot the episode that this friend was mentioning to? I've had her mess voice message for a little while. Was one of my first episodes when I talked about how you can kind of make these small little rotations and, you know, just pivot the slightest bit in the feeding space, we call this food chaining, but I want you as the parents, as we talked about with eggs and as I'll talk about often as I want you to think about how can this be a meal made easy.
[00:04:59] If you have one that is a goat. Do you know, works. If it's not broken, you don't have to fix it. But when I do encourage you to think about is how can you add some variety to what you already know works? So with this friend, you know, she says that you know, she serves these bonds and noodles. She serves them with cucumber and tomatoes and the same go-to foods.
[00:05:21] Well, this is where I encouraged her to consider it a few of the following. One buying different shapes of the noodle. Even if it's all eat bonds, a brand, maybe watch for them to go on sale at the store too. So while you might buy them at Costco, maybe you also kind of switch in some of the other bonds of shapes that are still going to be the same taste and texture as the whole bonds align, but they're going to be in different shapes.
[00:05:45] And so it's adding range and variety because your kids don't associate noodles with only one certain type and shape. If you're say on like a just kind of traditional pasta noodle, what you may want to consider again, [00:06:00] depending on how particular your kid is. And again, with this friend, her daughter does have some feeding challenges.
[00:06:05] And so they're not making huge strides each day that, you know, they're taking really baby steps to be as supportive and ultimately as successful as possible. But what I would encourage you to do, depending on how big. Your child tolerates is you might go from like a white flour, more refined flour based pasta, maybe to a bonds up, or even from a refined flour to a whole wheat pasta, or they have some great, like super green noodles that you could do as like a
[00:06:33] Especially if your child is on their buttered noodle kick, which is so common with kids. And so I would encourage you even if you know, pasta is a staple, which for many, many houses, including my own, I know it is, but I would encourage you switch up the type of noodle and try and find as nutrient dense of options as you can.
[00:06:50] But piggybacking off of that, when you have. Kind of gotten to this really nutrient dense option. Like a bonzer don't stop there. Even if they only want buttered noodles, maybe you just mix the smallest little taste of spaghetti sauce in with it or pesto sauce or Alfredo sauce, or just even some like lemon and garlic and like some herbs, just teeny tiny bits though.
[00:07:13] Again, remember this is very subtle. We want changes to the foods that they love that are big enough that they notice, but small enough that they don't care. So I encourage you if dinner, a dinnertime staple that is working for your family is some sort of buttered noodle. Think of how can you make a small change to what you're offering in the shape of noodle that you're offering in the type or the brand?
[00:07:38] Again, this might be. You know, making the next step to a whole grain or from a whole grain to like a lentil or check fee-based option. If you're looking for something with a little bit higher protein and how can you change the taste in this Citrus, but adding a little drop of sauce to the butter as you toss their noodles in that option.
[00:07:58] But as we wrap up today's episode, what I really want you to take away is that if you have a staple that is an easy win for you and your child, Go with it. See it as an easy way and do not feel guilty about it, but look at it for opportunities. There are clues in that menu that concludes you in to how to add in additional variety with some of these simple little pivots that you can make to ultimately add variety to the healthy foods that I know you're trying to help your kids learn to live without creating more work for yourself or over-complicating.
[00:08:33] At these meals made easy ideas are helping you in any way, or this show is encouraging you and the messes and the mealtimes of motherhood. I would love to hear about it. All you need to do is scroll down on all apple podcasts and tap, write a review. I check each and every one of these and they truly bust need to read and to know how the show is helping shape your family's relationship with food so that I can continue to create content that serves you best.
[00:08:58] Thank you. For taking the time to leave me a review. And I look forward to seeing you back here next time.
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