Jenn Hallak

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The Trick to Getting Kids to Eat Protein

You hear it time and time again:

How do I get my kids to eat vegetables?

Well in our home, we've got the opposite problem. Ava will eat fruits and vegetables like its her job but protein? That's a whole different story and I'm always trying to come up with new foods and new ways to get Ava more protein in her daily diet.

First, I discovered that Ava gets bored of a food after maybe a day and a half of eating it. But give it about a months break and boom, she will eat it again. This doesn't make it too easy on me but switching up her meals a ton has helped just a little bit.

So ask this mommy blogger, right here, the trick to getting kids to eat more protein and I know she'll tell ya ;)

A couple months back Frank was reading Ava "Green Eggs and Ham" and I was like, "hmmm, we have ham! Why don't we make Ava green eggs and ham!" We headed straight for the kitchen, pulled out our food coloring and thought, "Well since we've got all of these colors, why don't we just let Ava choose which one she wants?"

And just like that, Ava scarfed down three pink scrambled eggs.

So every time we need to get Ava more protein, we ask her what color eggs she wants -- most of the time they're pink but sometimes she chooses blue and it's fun for her to pour in the colors, mix it all together and be proud of what she's made. Oh yeah, and it's fun for us to see her actually eating too!

[Yes, those are neon pink scrambled eggs right there. Pretty cool, huh?]

We've only tried it with eggs but I suppose you could really do it with any food! Try it out and let me know how it goes for ya!


Photo by Briana Lindsey Photography