We took a three-day vacation to the Monterey Bay in honor of Daddy's birthday. As you can imagine, it was hard to keep track of what the girls ate while we were out. Also, I feel embarrassed to post the terrible food available to the girls when we were not eating at home.
I was hoping that the girls would eat better on this trip than the previous ones. After all, they are nearly 2 years old and have all their teeth. Just in case, I brought with me hard boiled eggs, non-refrigerated baby yogurt, non-refrigerated organic 1% milk (Horizon), banana, pears, corn chex, cheerio, Annie's bunny whole wheat crackers, Gerber's lil' crunchies veggie dip flavor, dinner rolls and custard buns. Based on my previous experience, the girls mainly ate carbs while they were out, so I had to figure out how to give them protein and veggies.
Thank goodness the trip was only 3 days. I was right, the girls mainly ate carbs when we ate out. Our first meal on the trip was dinner at a small tasty fish market/restaurant. Their kids menu included hot dogs, fish and chips, fried shrimp and chips, fried squid and fries and possibly chicken tender. OMG!! Where is the healthy option? We didn't order anything from the kids menu, and instead shared our adult meals. The girls didn't care much for the clam chowder I was enjoying. Fish and chips that Daddy was having wasn't very popular either. They seemed ok with grilled scallops and one of the girls ate some rice, broccoli and carrots. All things considered, this was not all that bad.
The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel room. The girls drank their organic 1% milk, ate the dinner rolls, banana and a hard boiled egg. Pretty reasonable. At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we had lunch at the self-service cafeteria. Again, the kids menu included hot dog, fish and chips etc. We got an order of hot dog since the girls eat smoked sausage normally, but they wouldn't take more than one bite. They were not interested in the clam chowder either. Finally they ate the custard bun I brought, plus a yogurt, milk and their cereal mix. After getting back to the hotel, I gave them some pear and the lil crunchies (very salty!!)
We had our second dinner at Bubba Gump. I was hoping to have better options there since this is a very popular spot near the kid-friendly aquarium. Nope, they had pizza, burger, mac and cheese, hot dog etc. No mention of veggies. I already knew my girls wouldn't eat hot dog and burgers and I suspected the pizza was probably salty, greasy and contained no more than tomato sauce and cheese. We ended up with mac and cheese, which came in a small paper "shrimp boat" along with fries, orange and a blue jello. The girls ate some Mac and cheese, fries and sucked on the orange. They refused to eat the grilled zucchini, shrimp or mahi mahi from our plates. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Nestle Tollhouse store for a small dessert. We gave each girl a mini oatmeal raisin cookie. These cookies had so little oatmeal and raisin that I had a hard time distinguish it from chocolate chip cookies!!!
Am I becoming a neurotic mom that make my girls aliens who cannot survive in the normal American society? I seriously wondered if I delayed the girls' progress to eat like an adult. Do other parents feed their kids these fast foods all the time? What do other parents make for their kids when they come home after a day of hard work? Where do other kids get their proteins, vitamins and fiber? What do other parents do when they are traveling with young kids?
And did I mention how hard it is to find milk for toddlers? Of course you can always order it from room service, but they cost a fortune and you can't even store the leftover since most hotel rooms don't have a refrigerator. We walked over to the closest CVS, and they did not carry organic milk. The non-refrigerated Horizon organic 1% milk we brought was somewhat helpful, but I wish they had whole fat milk instead of 1%, vanilla or chocolate options.
Perhaps I am on the neurotic side with my degree in nutrition and years of research on metabolism, obesity and diabetes, but kids menu in restaurants are really really terrible!!! Why should kids be served Mac and cheese?? What nutritional value does it offer besides carbs, salt, fat and yellow? Why should kids be served fried food? Is a blue jello necessary? Do people actually put vegetables on kids' pizza? How much more does it cost to give kids some fruits or steamed/grilled vegetables? I am thinking there's a huge market out there for healthy kids meals that are easy and cheap to prepare. Or there should be children's restaurant/take out in every touristy town.
As much as I complained about the eating situation on the trip, we had a great time. The girls were so intrigued by the ocean and the awesome marine creatures. Mama and Daddy even got to nap and had more than 8 hours of sleep!! However, before we even got home I was already thinking about stuffing my girls with protein and vegetables. Their first meal home: cherry tomatoes, crustless quiche with spinach, zucchini, mushroom and sausage. Fruit: cantaloupe and blueberries. Really, it is not that hard to put vegetables in the kids' diet!!
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