A day in the life of my 12-year-old eater

Ben is away on a two-night/three-day school trip this week. It's the first time he's been away for two consecutive nights on his own, so we're missing him like crazy today. While we've been wondering how much fun he’s having, we're also celebrating the fact that our grocery bill is certain to be lower this week, without him here to gobble up all the food.

I'm only slightly kidding, but his absence, and our surplus of food, made me think I should share with you just what this boy of mine eats in a day. I know most of you have younger kids - or at least that's how it seems from your sweet comments and emails - so I thought it would be nice for you to catch a glimpse what your future looks like.

A few things to note:

• Ben is taller than most boys his age. He turned 12 in April and is nearing 5'9" tall. He was 5'6" in June, and 5'8" in August, so his growth is quite rapid these days. He grew another half inch the past month, making him taller than me now, as evidenced in the photos below, where he's also nearly as tall as his hockey coach. He is incredibly active and often eats to accommodate that, so I do recognize that not all boys will eat the way he does right now.

• I kept this food diary of everything he ate, last Friday. It happened to be pizza lunch at school, and we also ordered Indian dishes for dinner. He doesn't typically eat out twice in six hours, but in the interest of keeping it real, I'm still sharing his meals for that day.

Ben's Breakfast (8:00am):

• 4 homemade pancakes (about 4" in diameter) with maple syrup
• 1 honeycrisp apple
• 1/2 banana
• Glass of milk

Ben's Lunch (11:30am):

• 2 large slices of pizza
• Drink
• Snack (It was provided by the school and I forgot to ask what it was)

Ben's Afterschool Snack (3:45pm):

• 3 homemade pumpkin muffins
• 1 bunch of grapes (PLEASE NOTE: This isn't a handful of grapes. This is the entire bunch that I bought at the store earlier that day - about 2lbs)

Ben's Dinner (5:30pm):

• Adult serving of butter chicken with rice
• 1 vegetable samosa
• 1 piece of naan
• Glass of milk

Ben's Snack (9:45pm):

• 1 protein shake (with banana)
• 2 peanut butter sandwiches
• Popcorn

There you have it - a day in the life of my 12-year-old eater. Save your pennies, people. Save your pennies. 

Comments

[Paula]

I'm not so surprised by the food that your young Ben ate on Friday. He is a growing boy and their appetites seem to grow with every inch they put on in height. What did surprise me was the short time frame between each meal and snack! Especially, the short time between his after school snack and his dinner!!!
I don't know where they put it all :)

[Aimee @ Simple Bites]

Whew! That's crazy. Three muffins?! Bless your heart. =)

[Brandy]

Oh my! I've got three boys... The oldest (6 yo) already eats a ton so I can't imagine what he's going to eat as he gets even bigger. And then two more growing boys right behind him...