The past couple weeks have been hell in this house for eating purposes alone.  I've got one toddler who is super picky like her momma, one toddler who will eat just about anything, a husband who's fondness for Ramen Noodles and frozen pizza is overwhelming and then there is everything about being pregnant and food that sucks!  Literally, it's felt like every day of the week we are either running out to grab something from a fast food place so everyone gets what they want or I'm making three and sometimes four different meals.

This one wants chicken nuggets, that one wants pasta...it's never ending!  So I've put my foot down.  Eat it or STARVE!  And I'm being serious here folks...I'm not budging on this anymore.  I'm not letting my kids dictate meal time and I'm not going to continue making snacks and food to appease everyone.  Since Monday I've implemented a new food routine and guess what.  If you don't like it, go hungry...momma don't care!

Since the kids wake up somewhere around 8-9 AM we have breakfast.  I'll give them a choice of pancakes, granola bars, smoothies or yogurt.  If you don't want it, then guess what, you starve until lunch.  Lunch is happening around 11:30 AM - Noon now.  This week the favorite has been some cheese quesadillas with either chips or Cheez-It's and some sort of fruit or veggie.  That's it until after nap time.  The post nap time snack is something easy like peanut butter crackers, fruit snacks or fruit, veggies and cheese.  This is only meant to keep them happy as long as I can take to get dinner ready.


Dinner has honestly been my biggest obstacle.  Every kid wants something different.  Thankfully my husband loves my cooking but with my aversions to meat it's just been hard to really keep him full.  I was happy when this weekend he made the chicken because I couldn't even look at it without feeling like throwing up all over the kitchen. The girls are getting better about eating some dinner foods I make.  They've taken to my pasta and tacos.  Savannah is the easier to make happy as she is the better eater but I'm still struggling with Hannah.

Hannah is the real reason for the "Eat It or Starve" movement.  Her picking at food whether at home or at a restaurant has just become ridiculous.  Every night this week and I've been telling her "This is all you get, I'm not making different food. Eat it or starve."  This has backfired on me a couple times but I figure that's part of the game.  I also make it very clear that if she doesn't eat dinner there will be no post dinner dessert or snacks.  There was one night that I felt horrible because I knew she was hungry but she wouldn't eat dinner so she went to bed hungry.  Guess what?  The next morning she woke up and she ate like 15 pancakes!


It's going to be a hard to stick to this but so much of our lives revolve around food and eating in social settings.   I want my kids to be decent eaters and be able to eat at a restaurant if we go out without tossing a fit over what they are eating.  Dinner time to me is family time.  It's the time of the day we all catch up and it's the biggest chunk of the day they get with their dad.  So I don't want it to be filled with tantrums about hot dogs over chicken nuggets or "I don't want that to eat."

Do you follow the "Eat It or Starve" movement or do you cave and make whatever the kids want to eat just so you know they have full bellies?