Picture a beautiful meadow. Picture a beautiful meadow that is home to chicken nuggets, spaghetti and meatballs and mac and cheese (I know, it's weird but just picture it!). Now put a prison-height, high-voltage electric fence around the beautiful meadow. Add barbed wire to the top of the fence.
I've just described my daughter's palate.
My daughter isn't so much a picky eater...she just has some very clear boundaries around what she will and will not eat. I am working to infiltrate those boundaries without destroying the beautiful meadow that lies beyond. Consider me a bunny hopping around the fence looking for a hole to wiggle through.
Or a loving family member trying to smuggle a weapon into the prison in order to assist an escape.
Anyway, here are a few tips for infiltrating the boundaries:
1. Lie. When she asks if I put such-and-such into the dish, I am A-OK with telling a white lie if I'm certain she won't find out. Good for covering up ingredients like mustard and sour cream. Incidentally, this also works on my brother-in-law who will not knowingly eat anything with mayo or sour cream in it. And now that I've put it out there, he will most likely never eat anything I make again.
2. Grate the onion in. Pull out your cheese grater and grate it right in. I do this for meatloaf, meatballs and any ground beef/turkey recipe. The onion pieces are unnoticeable, she'll never get a big chunk of it and the juice of the onion actually seems to flavor the dish better than a dice. This also works for carrots, celery, zucchini and squash.
3. Remind her that she loved the dish when I made it last time...see tip #1 if necessary:
Me (very enthusiastically): "Oh, I've made this before and you loved it! Remember? You asked for seconds! I served it with biscuits!"
Her (with thoughtful expression): "I did? Oh, yeah."
4. Serve with ranch dressing as a dip. My daughter will pretty much eat anything if it comes with ranch. It's how she eats grapes for God's sake.
5. Serve it in a taco shell. I have iCarly to thank for this. And while she won't actually eat tacos, she will eat leftovers (especially spaghetti) in a taco shell. Or shredded cheese with ranch (see tip #4) and iceburg.
6. Tell her she can't eat what Mommy and Daddy are eating because only adults like it. "Oh, honey, I'm sorry. I made a grownup dish. You're just a kid and will hate it. I thought you could have cereal." Reverse psychology at it's finest.
7. Bribery: I am not opposed to offering the occasional bribe for finishing vegetables. An extra bedtime story or a popsicle. I've only paid hard cash once.
8. Respect her tastes. If she tries something (that's the rule in our house...you have to at least try everything I put in front of you) and truly doesn't like it, she doesn't have to eat it. At this point, I allow her to fix an alternative for herself but it can't be junk food. The key is to make THEM do the extra work in this situation.
Please share your tips! I can use all the help I can get!
AW
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