One thing I swore I’d never do as a parent was enter into a war over food with little kids. A major symptom if this conflict, in my opinion, is a frazzled looking parents trying to hide veggies within another more palatable food. You know the drill, “I’ve blended a whole garden of veggies into this tomato paste, which I have then used to top a pizza!”.
The way I saw it Before Kids (”BK”), it was your job as a parent to teach good eating behavior - which means they should learn to eat food in its natural state. Anyway, like so many things, this has now gone out the window! Clearly, BK I had no idea of the capacity of a 3 year old to self determine! I tried, as they say in those books, to make the meal exciting and visually appealing - “Look Big Sis - there are some yummy trees (aka broccoli)”, but she just wouldn’t fall for it!
It started last week when I grated zucchini and carrot into some meatballs. The kids ate it and I had that glowing feeling inside that every parent gets when they see their kids eat some veggies! The next night I did the meatball thing again but this time with more veggies, and guess what - they still ate it! I’m now totally addicted, I made bolognese on the weekend with so much carrot and celery it was barely recognizable, and guess what - they ate it!
Although I did have a close call when Big Sis caught me grating zucchini this afternoon - “That’s not cheese mummy!”, she exclaimed as I pushed it to the back of the fridge. “No, Big Sis”, I said to myself with a quiet smile, “it certainly is not!”
Food
