Getting the proper nutrients into Jacob is one of our highest priorities.  It makes sense.  He must have the building blocks necessary to do all the building we want him to do.  However, getting enough calories in is a continual battle.  That makes eating quite stressful…for us anyway.  Jacob, on the other hand, takes it all in stride.  As he does with everything!

Jacob’s diet was designed by the team at The Institutes for Achievement of Human Potential www.iahp.org to give him optimal nutrition.  Each meal has a balance of lean protein, complex carbohydrate, leafy green vegetable, green vegetable, another vegetable and a cold pressed oil.  We purchase as much of Jacob’s food as possible from local, organic farmers.  The ingredients we use are rotated with the goal of not repeating an ingredient within a 4 day period.  This is to help identify if he has any allergies.  Thankfully, to date, he does not.

While this this meal is undoubtedly nutritious, it takes a large volume to get to the calorie goals we have for him.  We have learned a few tricks to help us reach our goal.  First, we made changes from the chicken and turkey breast we are used to cooking for ourselves to chicken and turkey thighs. We also supplement each meal with a variety of oils…olive oil, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, sesame oil, walnut oil, coconut oil and ghee (clarified butter).  Finally, our favorite discovery, almond meal pudding. 

Thanks to Pinterest, we found a great, super easy recipe for almond (or any other nut) meal pudding.  We simply put 1 cup of finely ground nuts into a skillet and add enough water to get to the consistency we like.  When it begins to bubble, we temper in an egg and Viola!  We later began adding flaxseeds and Chia seeds on an alternating basis for some extra nutrients.  Finally, we top his pudding with some fresh organic fruit and breakfast is served.  Fresh, healthful and calorically dense!

So far, it is going well. We have a goal of 30 ounces of food a day and we are up to averaging about 25. Each day is different, though. Thankfully, Jacob’s amazing smiles make the stress melt away!