Dinner and Lies

Like a lot of mothers in the world I am constantly looking for ways to get my kids to eat good, healthy food. My one son T.K. used to chow on salad with me all the time. I guess he figured out chicken nuggets taste way better cause now he just pretends to eat salad by sucking the ranch off of every piece of lettuce.

I recently discovered a couple of cheats to get them to eat. One day I was cutting up a pineapple. My kids like pineapple but they are usually done after only a couple of pieces. So they were all begging like they were starving so I said ok I'll put it in a bowl and stick some toothpicks in it so you guys don't get so sticky. They were like moths to a flame! I had never seen these kids so excited to eat fruit. I walked away for less than a minute and came back to an empty bowl and they were chirping like baby birds for more.

It happened again this morning. T.K., who presents the biggest problem if you couldn't tell, asked for an Eggo. Now we don't buy Eggos just willy nilly, it's kind of a big deal... for Steve. They are his absolute favorite in this whole world so he likes to hoard them. But I was feeling generous so I made T.K. one with peanut butter. "Could it possibly work?" I wondered. Sure enough you stick toothpicks in and the boy didn't even slow down, until he got to the last 4th of his second one! He did specifically ask for 2 toothpicks. He looks like a praying mantis when he eats like that, dinner and a show!



Last night I made one of the best dinners ever. Baked salmon with smoked salt, quinoa with shredded carrots, and fresh green beans from the garden, delish! Not super kid friendly though. The salmon was perfection. I told the boys it was a special kind of chicken so they were ok to try it. While we were sitting at the table I asked Steve if the house smelled and he said "Like what fish?" I promptly kicked him under the table while gasps of horror came from Brayden. "Is this made with fish?!" He asked with fear in his eyes. "No no, it's meat, yummy huh?" Relief settled over the table and everyone, even T.K. enjoyed some salmon. Miracles never cease.