Veggie Daddy Rule# 3: Eat a Variety of Foods

Oh, great, it's lunch. The kids have come back from Church, and they're hungry. Once again, I have to figure out what to feed them. Does lunch ever seem like a battle with your kids? All they want is macaroni & cheese, the locals here always seem to call it Kraft Dinner, though we have never bought it; we always get the PC kind which doesn't glow in the dark or where you have to wear sunglasses because it's so bright, yellow # fill-in-the-blank, or what have you. But we hear from lots of folks, it's Kraft Dinner, that's all the kids want for lunch, dinner, etc. For vegetarian kids, it's usually the Franken-food veggie dogs or "chicken" nuggets.

Veggie Daddy Rule# 3: Eat a variety of foods. Meats are complete proteins, but plant proteins are scattered all over the place, so vary the foods you eat so you get a smattering of everything. But don't go all Nazi about it. A little of this, a little of that, be conscious of it, and you'll be fine. What are you doing right now? Are you daydreaming or are you conscious? Conscious? Good! Feels good, doesn't it? (The reason I mention this is because I used to eat very un-consciously. I'd eat a bag of cookies, load up on the ice-cream, sugar, sugar, sugar. Couldn't get enough of it! Not so, now...I'll explain later.)

So it's lunch and my oldest wants a PB&J. This might surprise you or it may not. Remember the old-fashioned PB&J which seemed to serve as the death sentence for so many of us kids in school as we got it for lunch every single day (I seemed to, anyway) is now absolutely, strictly banned from most schools today because of the most evil ingredient on earth: the terrible, killer peanut, Satan in a shell.

So, yes, my girl wants a PB&J as we do not torture her with such horrors during the week, and she seems to prefer getting tortured with such bland mundanities on the weekends. Luckily, this special daughter of mine has no inkling of the horrid memories that I have had to deal with (I also mostly ate PB&J for three straight months for lunch in NYC because I was so poor and pretty much jobless back in '98--I couldn't afford the heavenly-smelling gyros around the corner) and so who am I to oppose her? But I have a problem with something, mostly based on a lot of the research I have done. I don't really want her to eat too much store-bought bread; we get Dempster's.)

Veggie Daddy Fun Fact: Refined grains aren't all that good for you.

I'll probably go into it later as to why, but just take my word for it, for now. Refined grains, flour and such, should be seen as a sometime food. Keep off the bleached and enriched flours especially. But it's true, our bodies don't do all that well on processed, refined grains. But again, we're not extremists, so all things in moderation, right? Right.

So back to the PB&J. I don't want her to eat two pieces of highly processed bread with even more processed jam. What to do? I also want her to vary her foods. Like me, I know she hasn't had any fruit today, but store-bought jam is NOT fruit. So I gave her suggestions and she could pick. Here were her options:

• Apple
• Our home-made granola (so simple to make!)
• PB & J

Guess what? She said she wanted an apple! Right on. Then I put some peanut butter on it and made a sandwich. Apple slices with peanut butter. No bread, no jam. Fruit, legumes. Here's the picture:

We use Mara Natha peanut-butter, no stir. Uber-delish! Both girls loved the apple sandwiches.

Veggie Daddy Parent Tip: KISS--Keep it simple, stupid. Offer choices then let them choose.

And me? I'm still full from brunch, but I snatched some apple and peanut butter myself, so I am getting the same variety of nutrients. Still hungry? Big-ass glass of water. Yep, it topped me right up. Now it's time to go hit Rocket Bakery, that new bakery I've heard so much about.

Eat B(right),

Veggie Daddy

Food Diary: Deluxe Pizza, Beet Salad, Chocolate "Tofutti" Ice Cream

FOOD DIARY

6:28 P.M. Dinner time! We always have pizza on Saturdays.

Deluxe Pizza:

Pepperoni Alternative (TVP)

Hot Banana Peppers (to make it spicier)

Olives

Mozarella Cheese (the only time I really eat cheese--My wife uses Daiya, but I don't like it)

Homemade pizza sauce

Just finished up with the pizza dough (water, olive oil, flour, salt, sugar, yeast) and we're going to have a jazzed-up version of a typical deluxe pizza sans pepperoni. Instead of pepperoni, which is pretty gross if you care to do the research, we are using a TVP mixture with loads of spices such as anise and liquid smoke to simulate the pepperoni-like flavor.

"What the hell is TVP?" you ask. That's a good question. Textured Vegetable Protein. Even Bulk Barn has it.

Salad:

Green Cabbage, Beets, Carrots, Broccoli Stems, Raisins

Dressing with shallots, brown rice syrup, flax oil/olive oil, lemon juice

Sprinkle Hemp seeds over the top

Would you believe my youngest girl, Age 3, ate her entire salad? I couldn't believe it either. Our oldest girl, Age 8, did not want to try it, but she ate her pizza.

Veggie Daddy Parent Tip: Always put strange/bizarre/yucky-looking food on your kids' dishes, even if you know they won't eat it or touch it. Don't ever force them. Don't bribe them. Put a small, tiny bit because you're gonna either have to throw it out or eat it yourself. If they do eat it, smile big and clap, as if they scored a touch-down. They love that.

Don't forget the glass of wine! (We don't buy our wine, we make it--much cheaper.)

No, that's not a pile of crap, but good guess. It's actually Chocolate-Tofu ice cream for dessert. It's like Tofutti without the brand name attached. And, no, we don't use GMO tofu. We use the Sunrise brand. It's excellent!

Total # of artificial additives, artificial colors, flavors: ZERO (mostly...nothing was processed, anyway.) We are not extremists, you know.

So that was a full, uber-delish meal. I'm sated, mos def. But not stuffed. I ate three big pieces and two generous helpings of salad, one serving of the ice cream, couple glasses of wine. I'm ready to go!

Don't forget Veggie Daddy Rule #2: Eat to 80% of your capacity. That means you got 20% emptiness left in your stomach to move around without feeling bloated.

Veggie Daddy Recap!

Here's all I ate today, (all thanks goes to my lovely wife who makes this amazing food!) :

Big-ass glass of orange/lemon juice.

Pumpkin and Oatmeal cookies

BBQ-Seitan Sandwich w/ crispy potato wedges and ketchup

Peanut-Butter and Chocolate muffin

Deluxe Pizza

Beet and Cabbage Salad

Chocolate Tofu Ice Cream

Wine

Maybe a snack before bed? We'll see...

Whoah, I am way SATED.

Eat B(right),

Veggie Daddy