Meatballs

My kids are picky eaters. I never thought bc (before children) that I would succumb to meatballs, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, pb&j on a daily basis. But, here I am five years into the parenting thing and my children eat pb&j almost daily. There were bags of meatballs and chicken nuggets from the big box store in the freezer until recently. The battle for what to feed the children is constant. On one hand, I want my kids to clean their plates. On the other hand, I want them to eat what I put on the table. Tonight was a blessing, I made sloppy joes and carrot sticks and to my great surprise little J ate it with a smile on his face. He always surprises me.

The bags of meatballs and chicken nuggets are gone. I would like to feed the wee ones what they want and crave but I don't want to feed them a lot of salt, spare meat parts, factory farmed animals and preservatives. The solution that I have is making my own. I can get pastured beef and poultry and the reminder of the ingredients is a short list. Tonight, I made two pounds of meatballs. The recipe was a simple one that I found online here All Recipes Meatballs. I replaced the turkey with the beef that I had in the freezer. I added minced onion. I didn't have Italian seasoned breadcrumbs but I did have bread crumbs so I just threw in a bit of spices and called it a day. They are done and cooling on the stove now. I will freeze them tonight and have them ready to pull out for lunch whenever they are called for.

As for the big what to feed the kids dilemma our family has solved it this way. Breakfast is a big meal that the kids tend to love with oatmeal, eggs, cereal and bacon being top on the list. Lunch is whatever the kids want, within reason. Dinner is whatever I am serving and we all eat the same. The kids actually do eat vegetables, maybe not as many as some children, but they do it them. It is a good feeling.