Paleo mommy success!

After many attempts, I finally made a yogurt flavor rivals store-bought vanilla and strawberry that are my son's favorites. And I am not telling!

No, really, I am telling.  :-)  If I weren't telling, this wouldn't be a blog but one of those add-filled splash pages.  Only no ads.

I mixed my full-fat Creamline Village plain yogurt from Trader Joe's with honey. Not only is honey better than whatever they are likely stuffing vanilla yogurt with, but here I have complete control. Switching over to honey yogurt means, I can gradually reduce honey or even replace it with other flavors.  (Lily has been eating yogurt with palm sugar for a long time - but Alex stuck with the flavored alternatives till now.)

This is just one in my many attempts to trick my non-paleo family into eating healthy and natural.  While I am on the topic, here are some principles I have developed:

• To avoid snacking, feed them early! Kids snack all day because they are hungry.  Stuffing their tummies before they think of it keeps the ice cream away.  I had no idea just how hungry they were after school till I started  making an after-school meal.  I am planning on having dinner ready at 3:30 pm and a healthy snack at 6 instead of the more typical vice-versa.
• Always offer a healthy desert after a meal: strawberries with whipped cream, fruit, meringues, dark chocolate.  Just discovered something to try: paleo cupcakes. If you are lucky, they'll think they are getting something special and won't go looking for cookies. I think, it's generally valuable if kids recognize that their parents value things that are valuable to them! 
• No forbidden fruit. If they want a bagel (and daddy loves bagels, so they will!) they get a bagel. The conflict involved isn't worth it.  If their friends are going for ice cream, we are coming - no guilt, no shame.
• Create replacements.  We just discovered that sun flower seed butter is just as yummy as peanut butter and now we have it in the house. Also, apple/seed butter sandwiches are even better than peanut butter bagels! 
• If they are used to sugar, give them healthy sweetness.  Palm sugar is great; so is honey, maple syrup, stevia. So, I am slowly learning to replace store-bought sweet options with home-made sweet better options.  :-)
• If they are not used to a lot of meat, always have lots of vegetable options for them to choose from. I sometimes say, "Alex, you have 1-2-3..-7 dishes to choose from! Surely, you can find something you like!"  With pressure gone, he is slowly turning into a meat eater. I am thrilled!
• Relax! Stressing about it will make things worse.  It'll create conflict inside the family, turn your kids into picky eaters and will cause you to consider giving up the whole thing.  That's what happened to me.  Since I allowed myself to go easy - things have been great! 

It hasn't been long since I failed at paleo.  Surprisingly, I am finding it fun and easy this time. Part of my success, I know, has been due to the abundance of paleo mommy blogs.  Here are some I have discovered lately:   Wellness Mama with lots of kid-tested recipe, Whitney at the Paleo Child who posts her child's lunch boxes, Anita at Paleo On a Budget who made me realize, fresh ingredients are out there.  I would like to put together a paleo kids resource page as there are seem to be so few out there and we need each other! Please leave me a comment with your blog url if you should go on it!