Sunday, March 29, 2009

Oh, fruit!

My kids LOVE fruit. They are passionate about fruit. They would eat fruit, and only fruit, at every meal if I let them. If they were to make a list of favorites I am not sure if it would be grapes, strawberries, peaches, pears, blueberries, raspberries, bananas, apples, or mandarin oranges that would be at the top, probably blueberries or strawberries.



In fact, when I open the fridge I often try to do so discretely. Otherwise I have two little people standing there pointing and grabbing at all of things things they want, always fruit. Then we have "discussions" about maybe being allowed fruit after they have eaten something else.



We used to (and still can) bribe Tryn to take bites of something with fruit. We would tell her that if she wanted a bite of strawberry that she would have to take a bite of spaghetti first. This actually worked really well. However, this is really tiresome to do at every meal and now we are to the point where she is old enough to just understand, "Eat this. This is dinner. If you don't want it, you can't ask for anything else." This doesn't always work as Tryn did not want Lemon Greek Chicken (really yummy!) the other night and when to bed with precisely four bites of chicken in her stomach (as she would not touch the potato, red and green pepper, and onion part of it). Berlin cannot be bribed. She will absolutely not take a bite if she does not want to...no matter what. So I am struggling. My kids HATE veggies as much as they love fruit, which is a lot. They will sometimes eat potatoes or corn. Nothing else. The experts say to keep reintroducing a food that you want your kids to eat and they will eventually start to eat it. Well, we have been introducing Tryn to vegetables for almost three years now and guess what, the experts are WRONG! I actually think Tryn likes veggies less now than she did before.

Well, as I get teased most days at work for eating spinach, carrots, bell peppers, and cucumbers for lunch, I am determined that my kids eat some veggies. I am a firm believer in nutritious eating and well balances meals. So, in a desperate attempt, I made them a grilled cheese sandwich on Saturday and put veggies in the cheese. As you can see below, Berlin was absolutely not impressed. She didn't even swallow a single bite. Tryn had to have ranch to dip hers in, which almost defeats the point of having veggies in the meal, and picked out the majority of carrots that she could find. AH!





Does anybody have any really great recipes, suggestions, ideas? I mean, I really can't complain all that much, because at least my kids will eat...most of the time. I just think it is really important to eat non highly processed and fresh foods, including lots of vegetables. And it's not working so far. Should I just wait and back off for a few months and hope that they will just eventually start eating veggies? Or should I keep trying? I just really don't know what to do...my mom always made me eat stuff. Though I hated it at the time, I am very grateful now :) Ugh.

7 comments:

jessica woudsma said...

If you can get them over the look of it, try smoothies... you can get the fruit in, but then get some spinach in them as well. Which obviously will make it change to a color they might not enjoy, but you can make some killer green smoothies with the right added fruits to mask the spinach (or kale or whatever green). I don't think that stuff should be snuck into a person's food consumption, but your situation appears to be an exception :)

http://happyfoody.com/category/green-smoothies/

AlyssaJoy said...

I suggest the Jessica Seinfeld book Deceptively Delicious. She uses veggie purees in her recipes and they are really good.

The Stephens said...

My sister-in-law uses recipes from that book Deceptively Delicious. Her grilled cheese sandwiches have a veggie puree hidden in them. Her kids love them. It begs the question though, how long will you have to be hiding the veggies:)? But, at least you would know they were getting the nutrients.

Quadruple Life said...

Heidi,
let me be the first to congratulate you in the food success you have thus far made! Caleb will not eat fruit or veggies. Period. The closest I can get to fruit, is yogurt covered raisins. And veggies simply will not happen. I've tried everything. I wish he would simply refuse like Berlin! instead, the times I have "won" the battle of wills and watched him actually swallow either a bite of banana or veggie, I have also been the one to clean up the mess as he vomits it all back up again. This has been going on since he started solids.
I think you are doing great! keep introducing new foods, and let them grow into them. Their mother's influence will eventually leave a mark. Just watch, they'll be taking spinich to school. ;)

Unknown said...

I too know people who love the smoothies. Ice and strawberries and orange juice and gross stuff. I got as far a getting the magic bullet and strawberries but that is all the farther I made it. (for me, not my kids, they eat everything)

jessica woudsma said...

Regarding the smoothies, I just made one today that had spinach, avocado, mango (rehydrated some dried pieces that I had here), and a banana, plus a little bit of water. And yes, it's VERY green, but I put a lot of spinach in it and the taste was very very good... hardly any *green* taste.

amy + ryan said...

ugh! i totally commented on this yesterday! i don't know where it went, though...

i said some nice things about the pictures and how cute your kids are. i also recommended that you let them dip away. dipping is fun, and it doesn't negate the value of the vitamins in the veggies. see what you can get them to dip their veggies in! ranch, ketchup, hummus, liquid "cheese," peanut butter... they just might learn to like the flavors of the veggies as well!

also, you can hide a lot of veggies in meatloaf and spaghetti sauce!