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Jessica Seinfeld and Missy Chase Lapine: 'Wrong, Wrong, Wrong'
You are all bad parents. All of you. My children are made to stay in the shed until all the vegemite placed before them has been eaten. I don't dress it up or nuthin'. Only then may they come inside. On Sunday they're allowed to bathe.
Jessica Seinfeld and Missy Chase Lapine: 'Wrong, Wrong, Wrong'
I use the recipes and the concept outlined in the Sneaky Chef and have found it to be very effective. I still offer my children whole fruits and vegetables through out the day, along with extra helpings of puree added to their other foods. I do not lie to my children about what is in their food. There is no need to - it tastes great - that's all that matters to them!
For those who say that the amounts of puree added are too small to matter - I disagree. Over the course of a day, my son will average about 8 Tablespoons of extra vegetables added to his "normal" meals. This is in addition to other whole fruits and vegetables throughout the day. These extra tablespoons are concentrated amounts. It takes 3 packed cups of raw spinach leaves to produce about half a cup of pureed spinach. So this morning while devouring a delicious pancake and a milkshake, my son, ate the equivalent of a cup of spinach leaves. (That was before he'd even touched the blueberries scattered on top of his pancake.)
How far do you think I'd get if I sat him down for breakfast before a plate overflowing with that amount of raw spinach?!
Over the course of a week, he eats about 56 tablespoons of these extra's without ever compromising the taste of a meal. Using the spinach example, that would be the eqivalent of 33 cups of raw spinach! I'm sold!
It takes very little extra work and it's a huge weight off my mind to know that my children are getting the nutrients they need.
Jessica Seinfeld and Missy Chase Lapine: 'Wrong, Wrong, Wrong'
I have trouble believing that slipping vegetable into baked goods would work... I don't know that my brother and I were any more sensitive to texture and taste nuances than any other monstrously picky kids, but we would have been onto veg-laced baked goods in a flash. And wouldn't have eaten them.
I'd imagine that if a kid is open-minded enough to eat broccoli brownies (or whatever they may be), there has got to be SOME fruit or vegetable that they'll also eat in its recognisable form.
My boyfriend and his brother dislike vegetables. Their mother is a diligent gardener, and did her best to make certain that, growing up, the two boys had lots of healthy vegetables and fruit. Unfortunately, this being Denmark, the most exquisite and carefully grown produce is... boiled. Boiled until it is squishy, for a good half hour, generally (the process: dump veg in a pot of boiling water, and cook the rest of the food; when the rest of the food is done, remove vegetables from their watery grave). Fruit that is not eaten fresh is given a similar treatment, and put up in jars.
I grew up in Italy, and had a very different vegetable upbringing; my mum usually speedily sauteed vegetables until their colour was just heightened, and served them; sometimes they were roasted. I didn't eat everything my mother cooked, but on the whole, I like vegetables.
I'm not a food missionary, but I've always believed that each time you find something you really appreciate, the universe expands a bit for you. Life gets bigger. So I decided to carefully introduce some of the more pleasurable vegetable to my boyfriend (I know this sounds like I'm way off-topic, but I don't think that there is that much difference between the vegetable-rejecting adult or child). I didn't want to make an issue of it, because I like to relax at mealtimes. I knew that raw carrots, bell-peppers, peas, green beans, things of that sort, were already 'in'. I'd also seen my boyfriend eat beech leaf-buds in early spring; they taste like new peas. So I decided to make baby asparagus (the tips resemble beech leaf-buds) my first effort. I casually passed him the tip of one of the raw ones, and it went down well; I offered to serve them raw, or briefly stir-fried, and stir-fried they were. And they were a hit. I know some things will probably never be eaten, so I don't bother. But there are a lot of cooked vegetables that are now greeted with enthusiasm.
With kids, there is a window of opportunity, when they are about a year old and cheerily putting everything in their mouths, and during which its possible to establish later flexible eating patterns. It makes sense to take advantage of this, since it means that later on, there will be far fewer things that are 'ew, weird' to the kid (if the bairn doesn't take to broccoli and the like during this period, it's going to be more or less of a wash until adulthood). It also makes sense to prepare the the food so it tastes good; I don't mean complicated, time-consuming prep., just briefly cooked so that the appearance, texture, and taste are attractive (i.e. not grey/khaki/squishy/stringy/bitter). And I'd not waste my energy on trying to introduce ANY vegetable-avoiding individual to any of the crucifers.
If someone wants to doctor cake and cookies so that they contain vegetables, I suppose that's fine (although I do wonder how much of their nutritional value survives the baking process), but it seems that taking these same vegetables and stir-frying, roasting, or just washing, slicing, and serving them raw would be a better long-term strategy for getting produce into a kid's (or adults's) diet.
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You are all bad parents. All of you. My children are made to stay in the shed until all the vegemite placed before them has been eaten. I don't dress it up or nuthin'. Only then may they come inside. On Sunday they're allowed to bathe.