On food and eating...

I have a food-centric household. I not only read cooking magazines, I re-read them, I dog-ear them for recipes, I study the photos and I daydream about visiting the featured spots and tasting the food. My daughter knows the names of all of the cooks on the Food Network. She eats at "fancy" restaurants with my mom almost weekly. My husband has a full page "menu" from which to (sometimes) choose what he wants for dinner. I have an extensive list of bookmarks on my computer, all devoted to food related blogs, recipes, and general chowing-down. Fortunately for me, I do have a daughter who eats a pretty wide variety of foods.
Eating and food can be a big issue for some parents. For those who are blessed with "good eaters" we can only be thankful they do not have to dread mealtimes. As I was standing in line at "whole paycheck", I was drawn the photo of a luscious sandwich on the cover of Bon Appetit magazine. Of course, I had to buy it.
One article in the magazine really got my attention. The article, Health Wise: Eat Your Broccoli!, talks about the recent trend on "sneaking" vegetables into our children's diet. There are two recently published books The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food
The concept is good, sneak vegetables into your child with food they are willing to eat, such as macaroni and cheese with puree of cauliflower, and brownies(!) with pureed spinach. The problem, the author of the article points out, is that your child will "grow up learning to eat macaroni and cheese but not vegetables."
We all know our child's likes and dislikes, and I'm sure vegetables is on the top of many "dislike" lists. So, how do we get our children to eat their vegetables? (One parent, a few years ago, asked me to tell their child to eat vegetables because as a teacher, they felt I could convince their child...if only I had that kind of magic!) I can only give suggestions, and you can only try a few of the suggestions. So here it goes...

Grow a garden. Children will try things that they grow themselves.
Allow them to "help" cook their meals. Let them peel carrots, stir the bowl, toss the salad...
Cut things into interesting shapes. Use cookie cutters, or shred raw zucchini into strips like noodles, sprinkle with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, grated parmesan and toss. Sounds weird, but can be tasty!
Ask other parents what their tried and true vegetable preparations are...maybe what we've been cooking just wasn't tasty enough!
Present an offending vegetable on their plate, along with their other food often. Sometimes it takes more than a dozen times to introduce a food before a child will try it. Sometimes we give up too easily.

Nothing is more effective than showing your child that you eat lots of vegetables yourself. Eat a variety, eat it often, order it as a side at restaurants so that you widen your own repertoire of preparations. If your child sees that you relish eating your vegetables, they will more likely grow up to be a vegetable eater.

Results not guaranteed. But at least we tried...

Hello!

Okay, so I took a long time to advertise this blog to you, my room parents. Really, it's more out of total embarrassment than anything. I'm not so comfortable as a writer, but I do feel pretty passionate about my point of view. I really want to help you navigate through this time in your child's life. When I write a blog entry, hopefully, I'll be able to write frequently, not like the previous posts. I will write about general things that have been swirling in my head about events from the classroom, but I will try to be very general to keep the event that trigger these thoughts ambiguous, and keep the anonymity of the individual(s) involved.
Also, please forgive typos and possible spelling errors! I usually will be writing posts late, after the little one has been tucked in bed!