Playing with food

I really hope my kids never really have to fight their weight.  Beyond instilling in them a love for daily exercise and ensuring that they know Mom and Dad work out every day, we want them to make good food decisions.  And that desire runs headlong into my picky eater's desire to eat macaroni & cheese, chicken nuggets and peanut butter sandwiches for 10 meals a week. It's become a battle of control and I know that even if I win, I lose.

After a gut-wrenching blow up this Saturday that made everyone unhappy, I thought I would try something new and try to put my eldest in charge of dinner. We went to the farmers market and he chose the main course.  My only requirement was that it was something new for him to try. He liked being in charge and we found ourselves at the fish monger.

Another element of the program was to invite him to go through a couple of my healthy cookbooks and select food that he would like to make and try.  Cook This...Not That and Kosher by Design Kids were completely reviewed.  He didn't select particularly exciting or flavorful foods - but he did pick some.  And we'll make his recipes.  Most importantly, my picky eater and I had a series of pleasant experiences about food.

• Bought fish together at the fish monger and prepared it
• Selected recipes to try from a couple of healthier cookbooks
• Made homemade baked pretzels - where he did all the measuring, mixing and I only helped with the transfer from rolling to baking

He ate the fish, but not the stir fried cabbage, and although it was clearly difficult for him to eat the fish, he did it without complaint and even said he liked it.