Getting Foods to Stick!- Guest Blogger: Simply Shaye

Today we have a little treat from Shaye at Simply Shaye who is going to share with us some fun ways to celebrate “Something on a Stick Day” coming this Friday! I had no idea such a thing existed, but how fun!

Hello Everyone! I am Shaye, mother and life lover from the great state of Wisconsin.  To me nothing is greater than quality time spent with my family.  That time more often than not come around the dinner table.  I try to keep things fun, delicious, and healthy.  But that isn’t always the easiest of tasks…

I don’t know about you, but my house has some picky eaters. A lot of the time dinner turns into meatloaf, chicken fingers, mashed potatoes, or any other type of food you can douse in ketchup. Plus I’m always stretched for time, and there are a lot of nights when the kids have to eat food on the go because they have after school activities.

One night I was driving my kids to one of their various activities and I hate to admit it but they were eating frozen corn dogs I pulled out of the freezer.  I thought to myself, there has to be a way to get them to eat better but still eat food they would like. After all, I had given them corn dogs that night because they like them and I don’t have to worry about the kids making a mess in the back seat. I mean, it’s on a stick! So that’s when I decided that I could give the kids full meals – and on a stick!

 Vegetable/Side Ideas

Luckily I have my kids convinced that peppers and onions are delicious, so on a stick they shall be! We just need to work on some other vegetables too. I dress these sticks up with different sauces as well, like Dijon. I’ve also been tricking them into eating celery and carrots but skewering them and then sprinkling small amounts of buffalo sauce and blue cheese. I think these caprese skewers sound absolutely delightful! I have my kids convinced on the tomatoes and the basil, I’m just a bit worried about it being a little bit outside their picky zones. We might try it this week!

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 Main Meal

I thought this would also be a good way to open up their horizons and try something new, but at the same time, I didn’t want to shock their taste buds all at once. Most of my main course ideas still involve chicken, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a little healthier. If I’m skewering chicken for the family, I’ll try to add some different sauces. So far Greek dressing, honey mustard, and pesto seem to be going well. I’ve also tried making beef teriyaki and roasted pork, which have all seemed to go over well. I also really want to try these spicy Moroccan chicken skewers, but I feel like that’s for when my kids reach the expert level, and right now we’re still beginners.

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 Dessert!

And of course I have to do some dessert for my kids. They both have quite the sweet tooth! For a healthy recipe, I have been layering strawberries, oranges, bananas, melon, and blueberries on sticks. They love the fruits and it’s very colorful!

But sometimes you want something chocolate-y for dessert, and I’ve found that cake pops are a HUGE crowd pleaser.  My cousin Shannon used to send us cake pops from Shari’s Berries.  The kids would tear open the box and devour them.  So I will have to practice making these when they are asleep and hide them so I can enjoy them myself.

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Remember! Have some fun with it! March 28^th is “Something on a Stick” Day so what better time to play around with food on a stick than in the month of March?!

I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing it.  Experiment with your food and have some fun with your family.  Make sure you let Shannon know how much you appreciate her featuring this post!  For more on me, feel free to check out http://simplyshaye.wordpress.com/.

Thanks Everybody!