Pick Plate

The INFAMOUS “Pick Plate!”  When my daughter, Ava, was going through her terrible twos, and surviving off boogers and bread, we created the pick plate out of pure desperation.  She only wanted to snack, she never wanted a full meal.  To make it more difficult, she basically would only eat a handful of things.  We tried everything to get her to just eat her dinner, and every method was shot down from this ornery child.   Look, we all have those nights where your energy, patience, and time is up.  This may not be a gourmet meal, but its better than any fast food, and it gets the job done.  I swear there is some sort of psychology to this kind of eating, because this is literally how I got my child to eat vegetables.  She felt like since there was a variety, and a small amount of each, it was easier to eat, and since it wasn’t an actual dinner, it was easier to talk her into eating it.  It is also a huge bonus that usually these plates are made with handheld foods, which is fun for kids.  To this day, we like to create pick plates for lunches, and sometimes dinners, too!

Our pick plates consist of protein, veggies, fruits and sometimes a few crackers.  Ava loves cheese, so usually her pick plate will consist of her favorite cheese, some rainbow carrots, a handful of cherry tomatoes, a halved avocado, a banana, and some strawberries.

Here are a few ideas of what you could gather for simple “Pick Plates” to encourage healthier  eaters in your home!

Proteins:

Yogurt, cheese, eggs, hummus, avocado, beans, meats, deli meat (be careful with quality, they are packed with carcinogens), grass fed/uncured pure beef hotdogs, quinoa, almond butter

Vegetables:

frozen vegetables (my kids absolutely love eating frozen veggies, still frozen, try it out!),Rainbow carrots, tomatoes, green beans, celery, broccoli, etc

Fruits:

Bananas, strawberries, mango, pineapple, oranges, kiwi, etc.