The Happy Dinner Table: Available on Amazon

Jun 13, 2016 by

Find  The Happy Dinner Table on Amazon, with all the solutions for picky eating!  Simple, practical strategies you can use immediately to eliminate picky eating and improve the dynamics in your home. Discover what’s blocking normal eating for your child and how to solve it, once and for all.

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Delicious Kale Bortsch: Russian Beet Soup

Oct 21, 2014 by

This recipe makes a big pot of delicious soup! One of my favorite winter soups, with a fabulous sour sweet taste with a good kick of cumin, and appealing deep red color.  It’s not tricky to make but does require a good bit of cutting up veggies. I serve leftovers  for a couple of days and freeze the rest.

Traditionally, it calls for curly Savoy cabbage. I couldn’t find any once so I tried curly dinosaur kale with a handful or two of green cabbage. It was delicious, maybe even better than the original.

Clean and trim the vegetables. Chop them up.

Cut up the salt pork and brown it a few minutes in a large soup pot. You may need to add a little oil if the pork doesn’t really render much. Add the cut up vegetables, the tomato paste, and stir it all up for a couple of minutes over…

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Question from a reader: How long do children need for meals?

Mar 21, 2014 by

“Is it best to allot 30 minutes for kiddos to eat, an hour, 90 minutes? I feel like anything over 30-40 minutes just seems excessive and more frustrating for the adults. At about 20 minutes today, it was obvious the kids were done eating what was on their plates.” – Laurel

Thanks for your question, Laurel!  As usual, I have plenty to say. Sometimes parents or caretakers of picky eaters make children sit at the table until they eat a certain amount. Not very effective, I dare say. Making children sit there for a certain amount of time just because you think they should sit there, even if they are not eating, is no better. The ideal is to engage children in enjoyable conversation at the table, regardless of their ages.  If you create a pleasant atmosphere at the table, children will enjoy being with adults at the table. As…

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Question from a reader: When little Johnny wants more waffles, but no eggs & fruit

Mar 19, 2014 by

Dear Sacred Appetite: Just found your blog when searching for ways to avoid picking eating in toddlers. I nanny for newly 3-year old triplets. One is rarely picky, the other two are more picky when it comes to certain types of foods. I love everything you have said here (and in a couple other posts) and it makes perfect sense to not force a kid to eat a certain food if they don’t want it. I do still have a scenario that I haven’t seen addressed much on this or other blogs when it comes to toddlers and food. Let’s say little Johnny has eaten all his waffles, but hasn’t touched his fruit or his eggs. He asks for more waffles. The parents and I have been telling him he needs to eat what’s on his plate first before he gets more of something he already ate. Is…

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Question from Sarah: How do I get my kids to eat more than just one or two parts of the meal?

Nov 25, 2013 by

DEAR ANNA: “Let’s say we put out a roast chicken with cauliflower, sliced raw cucumbers and home-made biscuits. I have one child out of my three that will only eat the meat, another that will only eat the biscuit, and my third that will only eat the vegetables and the biscuit. We don’t pressure them or bribe them with dessert. (true “dessert” only happens when we bake something together or if watermelon is in season). But even when their only option is home made food do I let them take the only kind they want? They are hungry (it’s been hours since after-school snack) but they could still just fill up on one thing for days!”

DEAR SARAH: I love your question! Thanks for asking me. I have a few different thoughts about ways you could address this imbalance in what your kids want to eat. Whatever you do, I…

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