Every Family Has One...

Ugh, I guess that 1 out of 4 isn't too bad, especially when those numbers are referring to the number of picky eaters in my house. But sometimes trying to get good healthy food into my 8 year old daughter feels like a never ending battle.

I try everything I can, she cooks with me and we are always talking about how important it is for our bodies to feed it the best possible foods. We have even had a garden for the past 3 years and we have taken advantage of the awesome farmer's markets we have been blessed to have in our neighborhoods. Yet, with all of this she would be content to spend her days eating nothing but white and processed foods.

One day I was even having a safety talk with the older 2 about strangers and Zola said "Mom, I know why it would be bad if we were kidnapped. Because they might not feed us organic food." I wanted to say, yep they may just feed you processed food and then you wouldn't want to be found.

I would love to know what others have done for their picky eaters. I have even gone so far as to buy the cookbooks that you sneak the veggies into the food. That is a real pain in the ass! Creating all of those purees, especially when I following Baby Led Weaning, was so time consuming and then they didn't even want to eat the food because they knew there was something weird in their mac n cheese or whatever else I had made.

This evening I had a delicious tabouli, everyone else had a second helping and she wouldn't even try it because it had "green leaves" (cilantro and parsley) in it. Peylyn and Taj fight over my cups of kombucha and she wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. I guess what annoys me the most is that all of my other kids will at least try something once to for an opinion on a food or drink. She forms her opnion solely based on what she sees. It seriously makes me want to beat my head against a brick wall.

Tabouli:
1 cup whole wheat couscous (cooked according to directions) Let cool then add the following
1 diced and seeded tomato
1/2 cucumber diced
1 small red onion chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 - 3 Tbsp of olive oil
fresh herbs to taste: chopped mint, parsley and cilantro
salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients chill for about an hour or so before serving. I really like to make to let it sit covered in the fridge overnight, it really brings out the flavors of the herbs.