Celebrating...Naturally

For some reason holidays come with ad campaigns that would have us believe that without candy, chocolate and other "treats" we can't really celebrate. I think as a mom this has been the most challenging and also most fun thing about the no sugar resolution. It has forced me to be really creative and I like the opportunity to try some new things. I am trying to get to the point where the natural stuff is associated with the fun times, not the other way around. For St. Patrick's Day breakfast we made these green waffles with green whipped cream and kiwis. There were no complaints!

For my oldest son's birthday I took cake pops (very sugary!) to school, so I wanted to balance it for his party. We had popcorn, movie candy and root beer floats. We used OOgave Root Beer and Rice Dream Vanilla icecream for the floats. The Simply Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit Nuggets took the place of the candy for some of the kids and the popcorn made a healthier alternative to chips. I am still trying to find the right balance with my boys, I offer them the naturally sweet alternatives and hope to counteract the less-healthy (but sometimes fun!) foods. They still have the occasional Happy Meal or sugar cereal, but hopefully they are learning there are better choices that still taste great and are fun.