“I’m glad someone likes my cooking.”
“Are you talking to the dog?” my daughter rolled her pretty blue eyes.
It doesn’t matter what time of day I dish out the kibble, the little guy twirls in circles like he’s never eaten the crunchy cardboard pebbles. Oh, that all my family liked my cooking. It can be a challenge to get kids to try new foods or not complain about veggies they don’t like, which for one daughter includes the whole spectrum.
To be fair, the kids probably took their cues from me. I’m rather picky too. I sometimes make meals I don’t even like just because it’s something to eat.
To combat children’s selective palates and to explore learning opportunities at home with food, here are a few things I tried when the kids were younger that bore some success:
1. Bites or pieces are based on the child’s age. It makes the dreaded, “How much do I have to eat?” question objective. Five-year-olds get 5 carrots or 5 bites...
2. Let the child have one food (or maybe two!) that they can say no to. I get it. I despise, loathe, and detest mayo, so that’s not happening on my watch. One of my kids doesn’t like quiche. Another gags on peas. Just because they don’t like a certain food now, doesn’t mean they won’t try it later.
3. Refuse to be a short-order cook who whips up “special” foods for the younger kids. Everyone can eat from the same menu – most of the time.
4. Have a leftover night periodically, and let the kids eat whatever strange combinations of food they want. That might include weird ketchup combinations. One night of odd concoctions won’t hurt, and it cleans out the fridge.
5. Let your kids help plan meals and cook. Hands-down, this is one of the best ways to encourage kids to explore tastes. If they make the dish, they’re more likely to eat it. I assigned one child the task of helping me cook each Friday during one school year. She decided to make all of her menus chicken based. Who knew there could be so many ways to make chicken? We had honey-mustard chicken, teriyaki chicken, BBQ chicken...cubed, fileted, baked, grilled, stir-fried, and breaded chicken. I even got some new recipes out of the deal. As soon as a little one can safely stand in a chair, let him or her be a sous chef.
6. Leave cooking magazines or recipe books lying around to whet their appetites when they’re bored. Pictures help! Flipping through books can inspire kids to attempt new recipes.
7. Let them try cooking alone. Sometimes ingredients might be wasted, or messes might happen. As a kid, I once I made a cake that even the dog wouldn’t eat! I discovered, however, that baking soda and baking powder are not interchangeable. I also learned to never microwave an unpoked boiled egg unless I actually wanted to thoroughly scrub my appliance. The explosion happens very quickly!
8. Incorporate cooking with history or literature. When studying about a new place, culture, or time period, try those foods. Have scones with tea, curry with nan, or churros with chocolate – yum. Geography makes a natural springboard for deciding what to try next. If you don’t have time to scrounge up new recipes, a trip down the global food aisle can add interest to your plates as can a trip to an ethnic market or restaurant. There are even companion cookbooks to go along with many children’s series, such as Redwall, Little House on the Prairie, Nancy Drew, Star Wars, American Girls, Little Women, The Hobbit, Narnia, Jane Austen, Wind in the Willows, and more...
9. Model trying new things. Kids are smart. They notice if Dad doesn’t spoon up some salad. They also think it’s funny if Mom makes weird faces when encountering an unexpected flavor. This almost becomes like a dare for each other.
10. Pick your battles. I still remember this honest prayer by my little blonde girl: “Thank you for the pizza. I don’t want it.” After a reasonable amount of time to eat, simply wrap up the untouched food up for a later snack.
11. Try not to take it personally if those adoring children don’t like what’s whipped up. I know it’s discouraging to work hard only to see family picking food apart to get out the peppers or spreading beans around to make it look like they ate something. We did have a practice in our house: the kids said thank you at the end of a meal – even if they didn’t like it. They could choose to dislike something but still appreciate the offer and efforts.
12. Hospitality helps. Let kids eat at friends’ houses and vice versa. Being with others broadens perspective and challenges the status quo. One of my kids enjoyed her friend’s mom’s cooking so much that I started to get a little jealous. 😊
13. Use cooking and food to teach math facts (multiplying and dividing fractions), science (Jello-cells are really fun!), and history (cake maps are tasty and don’t need to be filed or stored in a notebook). Creating and learning naturally elicits more adventuresome eating.
14. Cook with a co-op group. Co-ops are great for positive peer pressure and forcing parents and kids to schedule a time to make learning a skill happen. Books, such as The Math Chef or The Science Chef Travels Around the World (Joan D’Amico) work well with friends and offer an opportunity to try new foods with a purpose.
Some people are natural foodies – willing to try most anything, and then there’s the rest of us who want to live off of daily rations of buttered toast. Honestly, I think eating with others and cooking together offer the best remedy for expanding our food horizons. While we want our kids to learn geography and English, we also want to teach them how to independently prepare food and enjoy a variety of dishes.
Teach your children well because here’s a thought...one day you might have to eat their cooking!
Vicky