Why I often serve my children something sweet as part of their main meal and how it can help to improve their relationship with all food in general.
If you’ve been following my website or social accounts for a while you’ll know that I often serve up the kids’ pudding or desert as part of their meal. I get asked a lot about this so I thought I’d explain my thinking here.
As my kids are growing up I’m trying to teach them that all food is “good” food. Of course some foods we eat more of (fruits, veggies, proteins etc) and other foods less of (cake, chocolate, crisps) but I try not to demonise any food nor put any food on a pedestal.
By serving up the pudding element of a meal along with everything else, we are physically showing kids that it’s not something that needs to be worked for. They don’t need to eat their other food first to “earn” their pudding and it stops us parents from using it as a stick to force the kids to eat more!
So what if the kids reach for the brownie first? Aoife will tend to leave it until last but Finn would always go for the brownie first. That’s no problem at all as I know that he will then eat the other foods afterwards.
When you’re starting out using this method and worried about your kids only eating the pudding part then I would suggest just having a very small portion of the sweet element to begin with. Maybe half a brownie then give them the rest when the other foods have been eaten.
Let me know if you try it!
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Thara says
I have a rule. You can only eat your pudding after the main course is over. I make a small portion of our main meal for both lunch and supper. Pudding around here varies. I have done a banana pudding and fruit cake. Other cool puddings that I have baked are tomato flan, raspberry cakes, biscuits and strawberry muffins clearly presented on a tea-tray. Try baking a Victorian cake. I now even like to buy ready made puddings in the shops too.
Chutney, butter or honey that is spread out on a few plain biscuits makes a decent pudding. Consider a mini chocolate cake which is topped with small slices of fruit for a balance. Rice or lemon pudding is a alternative option here. You could design your own puddings in question. I get the children to help me do a pudding if we are entertaining people at our home.
Make things like fruit crackers. I’m not sure if you have thought about this but a fruit salad makes a pleasant change. Fruit can be used to make such a lot of desserts. Best wishes. Next time when you are shopping at a supermarket or in a food shop, stop. Try to take a good look at the food items on the shelves for other pudding ideas and inspiration. Make out brief summary notes.