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You are here: Home / FOOD / Christmas dinner with a toddler

Christmas dinner with a toddler

November 22, 2016 by Molly 6 Comments

OK, so I know it’s not even December yet and I’ve always – always – been a stickler for not implementing any Christmas chat until December, BUT… oh man, this year I am SO excited about Christmas! I’ve always loved the festive build up even though, at home, I’m not one for putting a tree up in mid-November (as my buddy Alison says – that’s just nuts). However, there is something to be said about getting organised for Christmas early, avoiding last minute present panic and stressing about the festive food. So, with this in mind, I thought I’d share with you some of my tips about how I cook for my family on Christmas Day – i.e. how we do Christmas dinner with a toddler.

This post has been created as part of my #NoJunkJourney as an Organix ambassador and is packed full of ideas on prepping the lunch itself (I’m all for cutting corners), how we get our kids to happily eat some of the things they’d typically turn their noses up at (sprouts, anyone?) and how I manage to find time to sip fizz and, you know, actually enjoy myself on Christmas Day. After all, despite what everyone says, it’s not all about the children, is it?!

1. Prep ahead

It might sound ridiculously dull, but the first thing I do before I’ve even got the turkey (crown) out of the fridge is to write two lists. I write a list of what we’re eating on the day itself and then I write a list of timings, working out when we want to eat and figuring out when everything needs to go in the oven. With two young children in the family this is pretty key to the whole day working. Hangry, tired kids are no fun, so we tend to eat around 3pm, once Baby Girl’s had her nap.

On Christmas Eve I cover the turkey with bacon and make the stuffing (sausage meat, onion and sage for the win), as well as chopping up the carrots, parsnips and brocolli. That means I have more time to watch the present-opening carnage and drink prosecco on Christmas Day itself.

2. Arm yours kids with snacks

My kids are big snackers. They go WILD for a snack. Christmas Day is no different and, if I’m honest, they’d probably happily munch on chocolate and biscuits all day and skip the main meal completely. I’m not a Scrooge, I let them eat a bit of chocolate on Christmas Day (it is Christmas after all) but I also put around pots of things like raisins, fresh fruit and Organix Goodies treats to balance out some of that sugar. Keeping them stocked up with healthy snacks means they’re less likely to get hungry and grumpy, and it gives me more space to crack on with the cooking.

3. Let the children “help”

Both my girls love to help in the kitchen and, if they show an interest, I try to give them a couple of easy jobs to do so they can get involved. (Interestingly, they often eat way more of the food on their plate if they’ve helped to prepare it – they clearly appreciate their own cooking skills.) For example, we like to have parmesan parsnips as one of our Christmas dinner veggies. You par-boil the parsnips before dusting them with plain flour and parmesan cheese and then roasting at a high temperature so they go all crispy and delicious. Frog often helps to do the dusting bit before the parsnips go in the oven, and I expect Baby Girl will offer a hand this year too.

4. Make veggies interesting

Following on from the parmesan parsnips, we also roast our carrots in honey and balsamic vinegar for a sweet and gooey finish. The kids are FAR more likely to eat carrots this way then just plain boiled or steamed ones. The sprouts are finely chopped and pan-fried in butter with lardons or the chopped up crispy bacon from the turkey. And the roast potatoes are par-boiled, tossed in plain flour, pepper, Himalayan sea salt and rosemary, before being roasted at a high temperature in goose fat. YUM.

 

Right, now I’m seriously hungry. What tips have you got for Christmas dinner with a toddler?

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This post has been created as part of my role as ambassador for Organix. All opinions, copy and photography remain my own. For more information about how I work with brands check out my Work With Me page.

 

Filed Under: FOOD Tagged With: Christmas dinner, healthy snacks, healthy toddler treats, No Junk Mum, recipes, toddler recipes, weaning recipes

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Comments

  1. Alice says

    November 24, 2016 at 2:13 pm

    These tips are great! I love a good timings list when cooking – and the prep ahead is a fab one for Christmas x

    Reply
    • Molly says

      November 29, 2016 at 1:16 pm

      I’m a sucker for festive list!

      Reply
  2. Keri-Anne says

    November 24, 2016 at 9:46 am

    I also agree about the snack part. Over Christmas, normal meal times are all over the place and my girls are normally pretty much stuck to their eating routine so, because christmas dinner is mid afternoon, that causes problems for lunchtime and dinner so snacks are a must x

    Reply
    • Molly says

      November 29, 2016 at 1:17 pm

      Snacks are a lifesaver on Christmas Day, I swear. They’re the answer to family harmony!

      Reply
  3. Lori says

    November 23, 2016 at 11:14 am

    It’s so true about kids wanting to snack and graze rather then wait out for the big event of the christmas dinner. My mum just doesn’t get it at all bless her. x

    Reply
    • Molly says

      November 29, 2016 at 1:17 pm

      I’m a real snacker too to be honest. Although I always seem to find room for my main meal too. Funny that!

      Reply

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Hello and welcome! I'm Molly Forbes - podcaster, presenter and blogger with a passion for positivity, confidence and body image chat. Regularly writing and vlogging about empowering female issues from a motherhood angle, I also cover lifestyle and fashion topics for like-minded mums who want to rediscover themselves after having children. Thanks for stopping by! Read More…

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Dear PE teachers (and everyone), don’t do this 💔
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If you’re a PE teacher and you’re interested in engaging more kids in class then lose the diet culture and body shaming messaging - even if it’s meant in jest. Research shows kids who feel comfortable in their body are more likely to take part in sports, and movement is for ALL bodies, not just the kids with super athletic toned ones. 
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Want more insight and help with this stuff? Sign up to a Body Happy Kids workshop - we’ve got you. Oh, and read Train Happy by @tallyrye in the meantime.
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And parents - if your kids experience this type of messaging in their school setting absolutely challenge it. We’ve got a template letter on the #FreeFromDiets website you can tweak and a downloadable info pack about the workshops you can send to your school if you’d like them to sign up. Just hit the Workshops link in my bio and scroll down towards the bottom of the page.
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Creating a body happy setting can: 
⚡️increase engagement in class 
⚡️increase engagement in movement 
⚡️increase academic attainment 
⚡️increase happiness, confidence and overall wellbeing
⚡️help kids be more likely to engage in health promoting behaviours 
(And that’s just for starters).
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PS. I’m not coming for teachers - my husband is one. BUT research shows weight bias is often more common in PE teachers than other subject areas so this is a conversation worth having. 
#BodyHappyKids
I turn 37 in three weeks. When I was younger I use I turn 37 in three weeks. When I was younger I used to think 37 was old. It was “grown-up”, boring, over-the-hill. 
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By the time you were 37 you had your life figured out, wore sensible clothes and had waved goodbye to the fun stuff. 
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It’s no surprise I thought that really. Women aged 37 and over - particularly mums - were invisible. The only representations of older women on screen were the matriarchs. Ad campaigns and magazines featured young women in their “prime” (side note: 🤮 hate that phrase - what does “prime” even mean? We’re not cuts of meat. “Prime” baby making age? Is making babies all we’re good for?!)
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There was no space for any other version of women over 35. Women over 35 weren’t playful, fun, adventurous, sexual, curious. Women over 35 were Responsible, Sensible, Dutiful.
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Well that’s not what 37 is going to look like for me. Sure I do school runs and meet deadlines and wash smelly socks. But I also play and dance and adventure and enjoy my body. I feel like I’m just getting going to be honest. 
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37 is going to be a big year. I’m excited. I’m ready. And I’m certainly not invisible. Bring it on.
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#BirthdayCountdown #MumsGoneWild
Every year @GirlGuiding publishes something called Every year @GirlGuiding publishes something called the Girls’ Attitudes Survey. It’s a big piece of research into the thoughts and feelings of the girls in their community and gives an insight into some of the things that are important to girls and young women in the UK today. 
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The early findings of the 2020 survey have been released and the headline is (surprise, surprise) girls feel under intense pressure to look a certain way and it’s damaging their confidence and wellbeing. 
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Here are some of the stats:
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⚡️80% of girls and young women have considered changing how they look. 
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⚡️51% of girls aged 7-10 believe women are judged more on what they look like than what they can do (this figure is up from 35% in 2016).
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There’s also the finding that two thirds of girls support legislation to stop them seeing ads for diet products and weight loss clubs. 
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It makes for pretty devastating reading but is worth looking at, particularly if you have a daughter - I’ll link to the early findings in my Stories and the full report will be out next month.
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These girls are telling us not only do they feel this intense pressure to look a certain way, but that it’s causing them pain. They are telling us they don’t want the pressure, the ads, the constant barrage of negativity making them feel insecure about their appearance and their body. It’s costing them their wellbeing, confidence and health. 
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It’s time to listen.
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Sign the #FreeFromDiets petition. Tell your kids’ school about the Body Happy Kids Workshop for teachers. Call out diet culture when you see it (particularly when it comes for your kids). There are more resources in my bio as well as a post on media literacy further down my grid too. It doesn’t have to be this way. 💕✨ #BodyHappyKids
My babies started Year 1 & Year 6 today and as I w My babies started Year 1 & Year 6 today and as I waved them off to school after months of being home, it got me thinking about how my relationship with their first home has changed: my body. ❤️
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I have thin privilege but I’ve still often felt like my body was “wrong”. Why? Because like many of us I live in a society that taught me to fear fatness and idolise thinness from an early age. 
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Internalised fatphobia ran so deep that even after my body performed its most miraculous feat of my life - growing and birthing a human - I feared the softness of my belly.
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I justified the internalised fat phobia by telling myself it was about health, believing that health was a simplified concept I could control and monitor by a number on the scales. 
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And even when I started to suspect diets weren’t healthy I still failed to recognise the total system of oppression that diet culture is, how it harms so very many people including children, how it creates a culture where discriminating against people over their weight is seen as acceptable under the guise of health concern.
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I believe we will never end body-based oppression until we do the internal work too, rejecting diet culture & internalised fat phobia. Then we can challenge the health “facts” we’re sold by a multi billion £ industry, and investigate why we’re so ready to accept government diet culture infused health policy when we’re quick to question other policies.
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It starts with us showing body acceptance to our children, teaching them ALL bodies are good bodies, giving them the tools to question anyone who says otherwise. 
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This is not just about raising children at peace in their body. It’s about raising children who grow to challenge a system that harms us all, but particularly those in marginalised bodies. 
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For me, it started with exploring my feelings about my babies’ first home. ❤️
A little story about 🩸periods🩸 and intuitive A little story about 🩸periods🩸 and intuitive movement and diet culture - here’s the headline: DIET CULTURE MESSES UP OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR BODY AND THIS HARM RUNS DEEP.
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Let me explain. 
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This was me last week. We hiked up a hill and when we got to the top the sky turned a murky shade of grey. Within seconds we were being pelted by hail and rain. It was GLORIOUS. I felt ALIVE.
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Not so this week. Because this week I got my period. And instead of relaxing into it, being gentle with myself, I battled it. I got frustrated with myself when exhaustion hit and my brain felt soupy. I tried to dig deep to find my spark, my energy, I felt guilt at missing swim sessions I’d booked. 
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Why? Because diet culture runs deep. I examined it and realised I was feeling guilt at what I’d told myself I “should” be doing, rather than what my body *actually* needed. “No one regrets a workout! It’ll pep you up! Energise you!” Said the voice. But my body was bleeding and I was tired to my bones. I didn’t feel like it. And I felt like I was letting some invisible person down. 
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Last night I gave myself permission to be gentle. Cancelled all my swim sessions for a couple of days. Had a bath and put on my comfiest PJs. Turned off my laptop and phone, watched a film and had an early night. It’s what my body needed, and once I actually listened to it I felt so much better. 
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Embracing the seasons of my cycle and going with my natural energy levels is how I’m reclaiming my relationship with my body, I’ve decided. For me, this is the last internal bastion of rebellion against diet culture. And it’s (literally) bloody liberating 🩸⚡️💥
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#BodyHappyMum #JoyfulMovement #DevonIsHeaven #PeriodPower #WeBleed
No child comes fresh out the womb doubting their b No child comes fresh out the womb doubting their body. But, little by little, the messages come.
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Some of the messages may be from what they see online on TV and in magazines. Some of them may even come from the people who love and care for them - their friends, parents, grandparents, teachers and even doctors. Some of the messages are blatant and some are more insidious.
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It’s not hopeless though. Here are some things you can do, right now:
✨ Speak to yourself with kindness or use neutral language about your own body in front of your kids.
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✨Call out the messages when you see them - point them out and talk about what they’re promoting, and show your kids the other perspective. This is called media literacy and I’ve got a post further down my grid with lots more info on this.
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✨ Teach your kids that beauty and health don’t just look one way, and that regardless of the outside shell of our body all humans deserve respect, empathy and love - and that includes self-love. (Some mantras that I use with my kids to help drive this message home - ALL bodies are GOOD bodies 💕 It’s not your job to be pretty 💕 Your body is YOUR OWN.)
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✨ Seek out wider representation, whether that’s through books, social media accounts, positive TV shows and films, it all matters.
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✨ Set clear boundaries - if you have a family member or friend who constantly discusses diets, body shames themselves or makes comments about other people’s bodies (and maybe even your child’s) have a conversation with them about why this isn’t OK. Explain that little ears are always listening and you’re working hard to raise your kids to have a happy, healthy relationship with their body. 
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For more resources on this check out the links in my bio ❤️
#BodyHappyKids
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[📸 My one day old daughter’s foot in my hand, taken in 2010, by @carolinepalmerphoto]
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