Want Your Kids to Eat Better? Smash the TV

It can be pretty difficult to get your kids to embrace vegan eating when TV commercials are working overtime to contradict everything you say. 

The case against TV commercials:

“And what are they marketing to children? According to Dr. Harris, the top four products are fast foods, sugared cereals, sugary drinks and candy.

Thomas Robinson, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, has studied childhood obesity and its links to screen time. In experiments with preschoolers, he told me, ‘even a 30-second exposure to a novel product, one that you’ve never seen before, changes their preferences for brand.’ ””

— NY Times

When we started this journey, we had five TVs in our house and the boys wanted everything they saw advertised on them.

Even though our vegan lifestyle wasn't the only reason we got rid of cable, I will say it made it easier to get the boys to eat vegetables and try new dishes once it was gone.

What Can You Do

*Reduce your child's TV time

*Send them outside like grandma used to do us-I know y'all remember those days. lol

*Play a board game or cook together

*Skip the commercials- DVR your child's favorite shows and fast forward through all the commercials. 

*Be willing to say no to your child's demands-I know from experience that is easier said than done, but I worked overtime to get my kids to accept healthier alternatives opposed to the crap pushed in advertisements.

Do you think watching too much TV affects our eating habits? Leave me a comment below.

Further Reading (from quote above): How Advertising Targets Our Children  

Simple Breakfast & Football

As much as I love summer, it's been nice to have cooler weather for the last few days. 

Since blueberry and strawberry season is ending, I'm eating as many of them as possible. I even topped my So Delicious ice cream & vegan chocolate syrup and strawberries the other day. Don't judge me. :-)

For breakfast yesterday we enjoyed a simple meal of banana, berries, vanilla Almond Dream yogurt and plain granola. Doesn't it look so yummy?! It was. :-) I got the idea from FitMenCook on Instragram. His version has Greek yogurt but it very easy to sub that with a vegan one.

I'm trying to keep meals a little more simple since football season started. Shout out to all my football moms!

Elijah played his first game yesterday and we've been busy taking him to practice 3 times a week and getting him settled.

I'm looking forward to sharing more simple meals and having some football fun.

What's your favorite simple breakfast?

Should Vegan Kids Go to the Zoo?

Jason (now 11) was about 5 yrs old in this picture

I came across some pictures of a petting zoo field trip I took with Jason back in 2007. I want to take the boys to the zoo before it gets too cold.

Going to the circus or rodeo with my family is a no-brainer (hell no!), but I go back and forth about the zoo. I love the zoo and want to share this experience with all three of my kids (my youngest son has never been with me).

For me, veganism is way more than food. I became a vegan for ethical reasons. This is why I feel so conflicted.  

It bothers me that those animals are caged in, but at the same time, they're usually well taken care of like the ones at an animal sanctuary.

I don't know....Maybe I'm still too "young" in this lifestyle to completely grasp why it's so wrong to partake in zoo visits. Is it even wrong or have I convinced myself that it's wrong?  

Anyway, I say all that to say that we're visiting the National Zoo later this month.

I'm really working on being more open about my decisions and feeling okay that I don't fit perfectly in this self-imposed vegan box. It's a process and a journey that I will continue to blog about here.

Thanks for reading! 

What are your thoughts? Should vegans go to the zoo?

"I Hated Vegetables" Food Talk with Elijah

Heeey!

I had a great time recording this video with my son, Elijah. We talked about some of his favorite foods, how he feels about this vegan lifestyle now (3 years later), and he also offered tips for families interested in eating more vegan meals.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more vlogs and cooking videos

Elijah's tips:
*Don't tell your family the food is vegan
*Don't bring the kids to the grocery store... for a while
*No lecturing or forcing kids to eat the food
*Find a compromise that works for the family-our compromise is vegan meals at home and you can eat whatever you want elsewhere

Check out these posts from the archives on how we're navigating this vegan life as a family.

"Are Your Kids Vegan, Too?"
"My Struggle with Transitioning My Kids to Vegan Eating"
"Letting it Go...For Now"

What's for Dinner? | Vegan Camping Meal

With all the money we saved last month, Eric and I took the boys on their first camping trip.  I was a little nervous about the food (since we usually stay in cabins), so I kept dinner as simple as possible.

What we ate...

Portobello mushroom burgers using a store-bought marinade

Bush's vegetarian baked beans and grilled red bell peppers seasoned with garlic powder & salt (not pictured).

Watermelon & pistachios

Dessert was s'mores with bananas  (it was too dark for a pic but you can see it in the video). Instead of using vegan marshmallows (regular marshmallows aren't vegan because they contain animal bone collagen), I picked up a few bananas from Wal-Mart once we got to the campgrounds. Dessert was a fail! The bananas didn't melt the dark chocolate, so it didn't remind me of s'mores at all. Maybe I should've roasted the bananas longer and used riper ones? Next time I will be sure to pick up vegan marshmallows from Wegmans before we leave.

I made a quick video (below) of all the food and a full camping vlog on my second YouTube channel.

We're heading to Virginia Beach for another camping trip later this month!

Are you going camping this summer?

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