What We Ate Wednesday: Starring My Second Grader

My second grader had the day off from school yesterday, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to show you his natural inclination for grazing all the day long. (Unless you label a food as “dinner”, of course. Then he has very little interest.)

For breakfast, he had three small whole wheat pancakes that we had made together the day before. We made a double batch of this recipe for Wild Blueberry Pancakes but swapped out the blueberries for a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips. He ate the pancakes with butter and syrup, and washed it down with a glass of milk.

An hour or two later, he had a small, sliced Gala apple.

I found out later that he helped himself to an ALDI granola bar while I was upstairs working on a blog post.

It was Election Day yesterday, so we walked to our polling place to vote. He munched on a banana during our stroll.

When we got home, he asked for lunch. (If you haven’t noticed, this kid can really pack it away before 1pm.) I made him a burrito using last night’s leftover taco filling (ground turkey, refried beans, and shredded cheddar) on a whole wheat tortilla. He asked for a smoothie, so I made a small one with a few fresh strawberries, half a banana, a spoonful each of plain yogurt and strawberry yogurt, and a splash of pineapple juice. He ate half the burrito for lunch and then finished the rest an hour later, along with a small glass of calcium-fortified orange juice.

Aaaaand I think we’ve had more than enough fruit and juice for the day!

Sam had two friends over to play later in the afternoon. When they came asking for snack, I got out my trusty bag of playdate pretzels. Pretzels are pretty nutritionally wimpy, but an awful lot of boys come in and out of our house, they are always hungry and eat a lot of food, and I’m not made of money. I added some cheddar on the side. They ate all of it.

Then they came to me less than an hour later saying they were still hungry (see above: they are ALWAYS HUNGRY). I gave them a plate of carrots and sugar-snap peas and a double batch of No-Fail Stovetop Popcorn sprinkled with nutritional yeast. They ate all of it.

I was feeling a little under the weather, so I made homemade chicken soup for dinner. Sam ate half of his small helping (plus a glass of milk) and heated up the rest himself in the microwave about an hour later. (Read more about why we always save his plate for later: Coming To Peace With A Not-So-Perfect Dinnertime.)

He chose two items from his trick-or-treat stash for dessert.

A couple hours later, he snagged some of the snack his older brother was making for himself: a half of a graham cracker spread with peanut butter.

Then, blessedly, it was time for bed and I could stop preparing food or cleaning up from preparing food and then preparing food again. Except for packing lunches….so, never mind.