Shhhh….my kids ate zucchini today but they have no idea.
Somewhere I failed as a parent in regards to my kids’ eating.
We are not one of those families where the kids eat everything on their plate.
“Oh, Johnny just loves his salmon with asparagus and sushi.”
No, it’s more, “Oh, Alex loves his hamburgers and grilled cheese,” over here.
But to be honest, I’m not really worried.
At one point my youngest sister ate only white food.
For years.
Mashed potatoes, pasta, mashed potatoes, pasta?
Seriously, I don’t know what she ate but she seems to be fine now.
Plus, her food groups have expanded to include green and red foods so there’s hope for my kids.
I have begun “sneaking in” veggies as a little backup for my confidence that all will be fine.
Caroline likes orange juice. In fact, she eats and drinks just about every fruit.
But not one vegetable. I’m sorry I misspoke, she is a corn on the cob connoisseur but that’s it.
So now she drinks her 3/4 orange juice and 1/4 carrot juice combo in the morning. She’s happy and I feel like I can color in one minor section of the food pyramid.
The boys are not much better since they do not stray far from salad and carrots.
I came across a banana chocolate chip zucchini bread recipe in blog world. What? One of these things is not like the other. Zucchini? There have been several gagging incidents at our dining room table over cooked zucchini. Amazingly, we’ve never had any gagging incidents from banana bread or chocolate chips.
Soooooo…I immediately printed out the recipe, gathered the ingredients, and made the bread this morning (naturally doubling the chocolate chips suggested).
I admit the smell was pretty enticing. When I announced the chocolate chip banana bread was ready there were whoops and hollers.
Well folks. Good news. Caroline ate her piece while Andrew had seconds and Alex had thirds. I am pretty sure they consumed exactly 0.05% of the daily serving suggestion for vegetables but it’s more than before.
Hmmm…anyone for turnip tiramisu?
***UPDATE*****
Apparently the one sitting where they consumed a large portion of the brad was a fluke. Alex & Andrew are now refusing to eat the the very same bread they fought over exactly one day ago. Excuse me while I go bash my head on a tree.
That’s so funny and also conforting to know that I’m not the only one that doesn’t make my kids eat everything on their plate. Now that my boys have developed a few cooking skills of their own, they make grilled cheese sandwiches when I make something that they don’t feel like eating. Which means they are eating grilledcheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
*comforting 🙂
As the one who only ate white foods for many years, I can tell you that people’s taste buds change over the years…for the better :-)! That choco chip-banana-zucchini bread sounds fantastic! I might need to bake that soon!
Seriously funny! Seeing that you have the most wonderful, polite & smart kids, I really don’t think there is a correlation between eating veggies and development.
I remember when I had been feeding my children spinach salade for a few years….they thought it was lettuce till gramma Carol came to town and complimented the children on eating their “spinach”….busted…I had to hear all about it for years….
We all pushed our bowls away and screamed “Spinach. We’re eating spinach. Yuck!” Yes, Andrew loves spinach but has no idea.
My sister gave me a spinach brownie recipe that she swears by…I haven’t had the guts to try it, but based on your success, I might go for it.
Ok the secret to getting kids to try other foods is to have other adults feed them! The next time they are going on a play date that involves a meal, call the mom and ask what the food choices will be and see if they can throw in a veggie!
Marisa is the pickiest eater! One day Becky told me that Marisa loves green beans! I said WHAT?!?! She won’t eat them at my house! Marisa had been there for dinner and her kids were eating green beans and so Marisa did too! Peer Pressure!
I couldn’t get her to eat anywhere but McDonalds and Dickies BBQ. I had begged her to try a Chili’s Hamburger for years. She went to celebrate her friend’s Birthday at Chili’s and came home loving their hamburgers!
She calls me from Choir tour in Chicago 2 weeks ago and says, ” Mom I love peanut butter fudge!” “I want Paw paw to make his PBFudge! ” …..WHAT! I’ve been trying to years and I mean 17 yrs to get my daughter to try my dad’s incredible pbfudge! It takes $800 and 129 kids and a production of Godspell to get her to try it!?!
Moral to the story….there is hope! and your kids are fine! Keep sneaking in the veggies. All else fails, give them vitamins! 🙂
That is true – Andrew eats all kind of things at school but never when I make them at home- loves cucumbers at school but they disgust him at home – go figure
i must say, regular zucchini bread (muffins) are FABULOUS! can’t quite fathom them with banana and chocolate chips. 🙂