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My five-year-old son tried dipping broccoli in chocolate pudding once, but he doesn?t recommend it. How did this odd food combination come to pass" Sometimes I serve dessert with dinner instead of afterwards. Yep, once in a while, I give my kids a small treat alongside the main meal?so salmon, broccoli, rice and chocolate pudding are all on the same plate together.
Oh, and did I mention I?m a registered dietitian who’s pretty much obsessed with healthy eating"
Why I did this?and why you might want to, too

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar"

Your kids race through dinner because dessert is more exciting.
Your kids don?t each much at dinner because they want to save room for dessert. Your kids pester you for dessert or incessantly ask, ?What?s for dessert"? during dinner and it gets on your nerves.

Some kids are totally captivated with dessert to the point of distraction. One solution would of course to be to simply not serve dessert. The kids would get used to it in time and stop asking for it.
But some parents want to offer dessert in a calm, stress-free way, and there?s nothing wrong with that. So I recommend simply serving it alongside dinner. Why does this work" It gives kids the choice of eating dessert before, during or after the meal, which puts them in control. It makes them feel responsible and trusted, and eases suppertime tension.
The tactic also gets rid of the frowned-upon technique of using sweet...