Lately, I have been feeling more anxious than ever about Clara's picky palate. She tells me that these are her 5 favourite foods:
- waffles
- puff pancake
- cereal
- butter noodles
- the inside of a chicken finger (?)
These are not only her 5 favourite foods, but the only 5 foods she would like to eat. And as you can see, my girl loves her carbs. Funnily enough, french fries used to be in the top 5 but now she says that they are too unhealthy? She will consider other foods, but they must be served straight up with no seasoning or sauce of any kind.
Over the course of a day, she eventually does consume (with much encouragement and sometimes bribery) a little bit of all the food groups, but I'm mostly anxious about life outside the house, like when she is a guest at someone's house or at a restaurant. There are not too many places that serve pizza with no sauce, steak with no grill marks on it, or serve hamburgers with no patty, just ketchup (otherwise known as a ketchup bun).
In the hopes of encouraging Clara to at least try some new foods, I have been doing some experimenting. First, the kids now get to choose one dinner a week. It could be (and has been) waffles, but the meal has to include a grain, protein, veggie and fruit. They have to figure out what ingredients we need, and then they have to help me prepare it. I thought maybe if Clara was more involved in the process of getting dinner to the table, she might grow to love some new foods?
I have also resorted to deception. I finally bought Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook and have been successfully sneaking in fruit and veggie purees in my family's meals and snacks for a few weeks now. Even my husband didn't notice the cauliflower in his macaroni.
Clara has happily eaten applesauce muffins with butternut squash and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with chick peas (see our cookies below). So satisfying.
Sam wanted to participate in his top 5 favourite foods too. Unlike his sister, he will eat ANYTHING, except pickled ginger.
- pizza
- sushi
- pickles
- sausages
- puff pancake
3 comments:
I may have to buy this book. if worth it.
Rocco's top five is:
1) strawberries
2) oreo cookies (but just icing inside cookie so I find cookie wafers everywhere in my house)
3) broccoli not cooked or steamed
4) sushi but only everything inside of sushi
5) aunt B's puff pancake
at least I have diversity and fruits and vegi's in mine!
might have to add french fries with dip in too.
I LOVE that book! It has some fabulous ideas.
We throw pureed (or finely chopped) veggies into almost everything we make now. Max still has nights (like tonight) where he won't eat any of it though.
I think his only favourite food right now, is olives. He ate 12 black kalamata olives for dinner tonight and refused to eat anything else. What a day!
Post a Comment