I find myself in a bit of a conundrum lately. I’m always trying to instil in my children the concepts of intuitive eating, while at the same time teaching them the importance of healthful eating. One of the main concepts of intuitive eating is to give yourself (and your children) the freedom to choose the foods you/they want to eat. The theory is this:
Given the choice and taking away the guilt or rules behind certain foods, overtime the intuitive eater will be able to balance their physiological needs, along with what they crave and then respond accordingly. Their attitudes and behaviours towards food becomes more balanced.
But what do you do when your child wants dessert and hasn’t pooped in 3 days?!?!
Such is the struggle in our house as of late and we’ve gone through it a few times since my 5 year old was a toddler. When she is having a bound-up episode, I try to gently encourage her to eat her veggies, whole grains and drink her water because “they have fibre in them” and will only improve her situation. She’ll then proceed to ask me if dessert has fibre and be disappointed when the response is no. And I’ll be honest, we’ve had some frustrating conversations and I’ve come really close to forbidding foods until she poops. But then I know that’s not going to help her in the long run in terms of having a healthy relationship with food.
My little girl loves her sweets and I want her to be able to enjoy the foods she loves without apology. That’s why I’ve found ways to allow both the sweets and the fibre into dessert time, making every body happy 🙂 Here are two recipes I’ve served up that include whole wheat flour and grated zucchini. Delicious and effective!
I stumbled upon this recipe for Zucchini-Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins and made them the other night:
A few years back, I found this next recipe for brownies. I wish I could remember the website so I could give them due credit but only have a written version…
Double Chocolate Brownies (with Disclaimer: may contain a green vegetable and still taste good)
- 2 c. whole wheat flour
- 1/2 c. cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 c. canola oil
- 1/2 c. apple sauce
- 1 c. sugar
- 1 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 2 c. shredded zucchini
- 1/4 c. chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour a 9×13 pan.
- In medium bowl combine first four ingredients (dry).
- In large bowl mix sugars, oil and vanilla; mix until well blended.
- Combine dry and wet mix.
- Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips.
- Spread evenly into pan and bake for approximately 30 minutes or until brownies spring back in the centre when touched.
Foodie Fridays is a weekly blog series from Michelle Pitman, attempting to remove the stigma and the labelling of food that tastes good as being bad for you; to show how supportive choices can incorporate all categories of food and that balanced eating means you are satisfying your physical needs as well as the emotional ones. Bon Appetit!!
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