Another post got me thinking

I was just wondering, I find myself to be very laid back about what I feed them at each official meal time. Maybe because one of my dd is so picky that I find myself desperate to get her to eat ANYTHING. In other words it doesn't bother me to feed them eggs or cereal for dinner and to give them grilled cheese for bfast. I pretty much wing their every meal and make my choice based on something they haven't had that day or the day before. I have given my girls yogurt for dinner if I have noticed that they really didn't drink a lot of their milk that day.

Do you feel a need to give them traditional bfast, lunch and dinner meals? Am I the only one who often feeds my girls a bfast lunch or bfast dinner?

I guess if we ate dinner together, it would be a little different but we don't yet. I guess when that starts happening they will eat a little bit more of a traditional dinner type meal but even dh and I eat a bfast dinner once a week (usually omelettes and toast).

 

Not really we tend to have a breakfast with breakfast food, lunch and a full dinner a few about 4 times a week but on the w/e's I make very easy meals as the kids eat before DH gets home from work so everyone eats at different times....I do sandwhichs like PB&J or lunch stuff sometimes when I don't cook a dinner and we do something called Opposite Night for dinner about once a month which is breakfast for dinner.

 

We stay pretty traditional, but we always eat dinner together so they eat what we eat. Once in a great while we do have breakfast for dinner, but mostly we are traditional.

 

Once a week we have breakfast for dinner..........it is one of our fav days of the week..............the others days we have traditional meals unless on the off chance we have pizza for dinner and they would like the cold leftovers for breakfast.

 

I don't see anything wrong with serving breakfast foods for dinner (vice versa). I personally tend to serve traditional meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's my personal preference (and I'm the cook ) plus I just think it gives the opportunity to serve a better variety of foods to them. (You aren't going to get veggies in at breakfast.) So again, I don't think it really matters if its "traditional" as long as you keep offering them a variety of foods (including fruits and/or veggies at each meal) so that they learn that they are always part of a normal healthy meal.

My college training is as a dietitian....so I'm very in tune with nutrition. I try to eat with my kids as much as possible. Research has always shown that kids learn to like foods by trying them. They will often only try them if they see other people eating them. So you're more likely to have them try something new if they see you enjoying it. I would give a try to eating the same dinner together. They can now eat all table foods...and it will will save you from creating 2 dinners.

 

QUOTE
You aren't going to get veggies in at breakfast.
Sure you can, omelettes are a wonderful thing!

 

I try to go with traditional-type meals, but there have also been several days when they have had eggs or pancakes for dinner. My thinking is if they are eating something nutritious who really cares if it's considered a "breakfast food".

 

Before we all ate together, they had dinner leftovers for breakfast and breakfast foods for lunch pretty regularly. It was quicker for me to get a breakfast of leftovers on their trays than to make something so I saved the cooked meal for later in the day. I didn't think anything of it but other people commented. Now that we eat together for all meals and they can wait for a few minutes in the morning, they eat more traditionally.

As for not eating veggies at breakfast, that doesn't hold in our house either. I put spinach, tomato, onion, peppers, etc. in their eggs most of the time. I'll also put pumpkin or zucchini in their waffles and I often serve carrot slices in the morning. And why not? Nobody has told them that they shouldn't enjoy certain foods at certain times.

 

We have breakfast for dinner about every two weeks sometimes more, we call it mixed up (then whatever day it is) and the kids love it. It helps since the kids love it and if we can't figure out something else to have or just got home late for whatever reason that's what we do. We also have that too since we have dinner together every night. Other than that I guess we have traditional meals. Breakfast is usually cereal or waffles with the occasional eggs or pancakes. Lunch is sandwiches, spagheti-o's, yogurt, or something like that. Then dinner is the bigger meal since my dh is home to either cook the meal while I watch the kids or the other way around. Oh I almost forgot we also have pancakes almost every Sunday after church at my parents house (sometimes it's eggs or something else but usually pancakes), the kids look so forward to it. I don't see a big deal in it, I can't do the pizza for breakfast but my dh can.

 

My boys are extremely picky, so like you I don't care what they eat just as long as they eat. I feed them toast, pancakes, french toast (the only way they'll eat eggs), cereal...at any meal since it's "breakfast" foods that they like the most. Tonight they had toast with butter and banana bread for dinner