ALL ABOUT KIDS
1 YEAR TO 3 YEARS
1. Forming New Habits
Now that you've made it past the first year with the baby, it's time to focus on forming new habits for the family. The most significant change during this time is that the baby will be transitioning from mostly breastmilk to more regular foods.
Hopefully, by now, the decision has been made to provide the baby with as many healthy, traditionally prepared foods as possible. Assuming this is the case, it is time to finally put into practice all of the techniques, recipes, and habits that you've been reading about.
Keeping a list of action items to be completed in the kitchen is quite helpful. An excellent tool is a kitchen planning dry-erase board on the refrigerator.
When consistently providing the baby (and the rest of the family) with traditionally prepared foods, planning and staying organized is necessary. This means finally cleaning out the pantry and stocking it with staple items, acquiring or upgrading specific kitchen tools or appliances, and planning meals. Many traditionally prepared meals take two to three days to plan.
2. Carbs for Kids
Our children have a limitless supply of energy. Because they are growing so fast and staying so active, it is more critical than ever to provide them with high-quality fuel to burn in their metabolic fires.
High-quality carbohydrates are critical to this equation, so take the time to learn how to prepare them properly. The recipes below offer a great start for learning how to traditionally prepare carb-dense foods that are perfect for your little one.
Carbs for Kids Recipes:
This is our absolute go-to sandwich bread recipe. Full of all the right nutrition to keep your little ones going.
These crackers are amazing! Some of the best crackers we have ever had. I don't always take the time to cut out the goldfish shapes, so you can also use a pizza cutter and cut the dough into squares. You can also make plain sourdough crackers by omitting the seasonings and cheese - works just as well. The only problem with these is they get eaten up so quickly!
Baked oatmeal is so good, and once it's cooled it can be served broken up in a bowl and topped with milk and maple syrup. This eats like cereal, but is waaay better for the kiddos. We always roll our own oats to maximize the freshness and nutrient availability. I highly recommend investing in an oat roller because pre-rolled oats are nothing like freshly rolled; there is a night and day difference.
This is so moist and delicious and perfect for that fall/winter baked goods fix. I always use at least 1/2 freshly ground flour because there are so many more nutrients in fresh flour. Give this a try!
This is a classic Swedish oatmeal dish that soaks the oats overnight, and it's super healthy, especially when you use freshly rolled oats. Very, very tasty and the flavors can be adapted any way you like. The key is to soak the oats and dairy together at least overnight and up to 5 days in the fridge.
We always use freshly ground kamut or einkorn flour and soak it overnight with homemade kefir, or cultured buttermilk. I also add extra butter to the batter - about 1/2 cup all together, then top them with a mixture of 1/2 butter, 1/2 maple syrup. These are so, so good and are waaay better than your typical flapjacks.
Soaked flour breads are far more nutritious than bread mixed up right away, and it's easier than using sprouted flour. I like to use at least 1/2 freshly ground flour to up the nutrients in this bread. Serve with a nice spread of grass fed butter and your kids will love you!
I'm always playing around with different cookie recipes, but this soaked flour version is my current go-to when we must have cookies.
3. Sugar - A Hidden Enemy
BE WEARY OF ALL PACKAGED FOODS.
There are two main reasons to be skeptical of packaged foods for your little one.
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Sugar is in everything! Companies that make packaged foods have learned that sugar, even when you don't taste it, makes products more addictive and tasty. Food labels misrepresent the sugar content in many ways, so it's time to learn how to decipher the coded secret language on labels.
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Packaged food is sterilized, pasteurized, and neutralized. Even when the food doesn't add sugar (think baby food smoothie packs), the fruit and vegetable ingredients are so highly processed that the body responds like sugar. For example, when you take a perfectly healthy fruit and yogurt smoothie and pasteurize it, it loses most of the nutritional benefit and becomes junk food for your little one. No matter how many promises food companies may make, there is no way around this fact.
I know as well as anyone how tempting it can be to throw a few fun-looking kids' items into your cart at the supermarket. They promise an easy solution to your hungry kid problem, and they have every health term under the sun backing up their claim that this food is okay—but I am telling you it is NOT.
With the very rare exception, supermarket snacks and food items should be avoided at all costs. Not only is sugar in nearly every kid's item but the flour and fats used are wholly unacceptable and have no place in a child's belly.
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Very few packaged food products have properly prepared flours or grains (only one that I am aware of—Jovial Foods Products), and if they do, they likely use cheap oil as a substitute for natural fats like butter.
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Nearly all packaged food products use the cheapest oil or fat available. Even when a seemingly decent fat like butter is in a packaged product, it is butter of the lowest quality. I cannot count how many times I have asked a chef or company representative where they source their ingredients, and their answer is Sysco Food Corporation. Ugh!