Adopting is very much a give-and-take process. The kids has to adapt to our habbits and ways of living – and we also adapt to some of things they were used to in the orphanage. Eating soup every day is one of them – and boy it has a power beyond imagination!
We ate pretty healthy also before we got kids. Bought quality rather than quantity, tried to juggle between meat, fish and vegetarian – and cut on all the extras like cakes and sweets. But still we always struggled to stay close to the “ideal weight”…. Somehow we both ended up heavier than we would like to be.
In the beginning when we were at the orphanage with the kids, we ate there several times together with them. One thing that was always served before the main course, was a bowl of soup. The kids were used to this and ate it without complaining – something that is way harder when we make food with visible vegetables inside. One doesn’t like bell peppers, the other only likes carrots when they are soft, the third likes onions but not when they are visible etc. etc.
Soup is an excellent way to feed kids vegetables. Stuff anything in there you like and make sure they get their daily ratio of vegetables. Once you get used to making it the portuguese way, it is simple and fast:
- Cut and boil a bunch of vegetables with some salt.
- Add olive oil. Plenty.
- Mash it all with a blender. Done.
…the positive side effect it has had on us parents is amazing: Within a month and a half she has lost the 5 kg that was nagging her for years and that plenty of running couldn’t get rid off – and he has dropped to below 80 kg for the first time in decades. So… soup is here to stay! 🙂