Top tips for picky eaters
Toni
“[My daughter] has taught me many things over the years. But one of the most important lessons was about food, breaking the established rules to suit the person rather than the tradition and coming up with something delicious, incredibly low-sugar and usually full of protein for that starter meal of the day.”
When my daughter was little, we spent more mornings than I care to admit in a heated battle over breakfast. I was insistent that she eat a “good” breakfast, maintaining that breakfast was truly the most important meal of the day. She, on the other hand, just didn’t like it. The only way to get her to eat anything was to coax her with last night’s warmed-over pizza or traditional PB&J on an English muffin or, when all else failed, a bowl of Ramen noodles or potato soup. To my way of thinking, this was not breakfast. Where was the oatmeal, the scrambled eggs and bacon, the pancakes I was willing to make from scratch, the high-priced cereal every other kid just had to have? Why was she not a good breakfast eater?
Well, in reality she was a great little breakfast eater, perhaps better than her mother. It wasn’t breakfast she detested; it was the menu. Heather has taught me many things over the years (children do have a way of doing that). But one of the most important lessons was about food, breaking the established rules to suit the person rather than the tradition and coming up with something delicious, incredibly low-sugar (for instance, compare black beans and scrambled egg on a sprouted tortilla to a cinnamon roll) and usually full of protein for that starter meal of the day.
So my daughter Heather was the inspiration for my blog post: Quinoa Breakfast Bowls, which actually could work for lunch or dinner, just as well. We both like quinoa for the base of this recipe because we are both vegetarians, and quinoa is a complete protein. Heather is also gluten-free and quinoa breakfast bowls are super easy to prepare.
Our quinoa breakfast bowls turned out to be the perfect high-protein, low-sugar breakfast for many reasons, including flexibility and quick warm-overs on busy mornings. In fact, this recipe is more like an outline that gives you the freedom to cook with the season and use what you like and not what you don’t—just as Heather would have it at breakfast. You’ll find the basic recipe and ideas for variations here. So there’s no excuse for skipping that most important meal of the day, is there, when you set your own rules?