Proud parenthood at the dinner table

[Gail]

Last night, I made pasta with sausage, peppers, tomatoes and peas. It's an Ainsley Harriott recipe my son found on his web site quite a few years ago-- not a fabulous recipe, but good. Pleasing.

At the dinner table, I noticed a sizeable pile of yellow peppers conregating at the edge of my 13-year-old son's plate.

Me: You need to eat at least some of those.

Hubby: They really don't have much taste...

Me: I really think that picking things out only makes you notice the flavor more. If it's all mixed together the way I served it, it blends in with everything else. After all, it was already cooked together...

Much to my amazement, he scooped the peppers back into the pile of pasta, mixed it around a littlel and resumed eating.

Some days, I'm particularly proud to be his mom. Yesterday was one of those small victories.

And did I mention he went back for seconds? :)

[Gecko]

Good for him (and you). Sometimes my girls just don't realize that they like something until I ask them to have a bite. That was how DD#3 found out that she liked eggplant. Sometimes telling them to mix it in like you did works, and sometimes a LOT of ketchup will help too. :D

[VitaBrevisEst]

i admire your approach. the only time we had a problem ws with mushrooms, my now 20-y-o adventurous eater would not touch them, and they wind up in a LOT of my cooking. i didn't mind, because when i was a kid, i wouldn't touch them either. i never omitted them from any recipe, he would simply pick them out and i would happily collect his and add it to my plate.

otoh, my children were raised on a wide variety of foods from they day they began eating, chinese was a staple at our house as well as my own culinary adventures. and they were on chairs helping with dull knives as soon as they could stand. so i was fortunate not to have had any picky eaters.

[Natasha]

Great story, Gail. :) I have to say I'm not surprised, given how open-minded your son seems, but I'm still impressed. I think I'm even more impressed by the fact that he found the recipe on the 'net, years ago at that.

And hey - now I'm going to harass you. Did you get my e-mails? ;) No rush. Just checking because if not, I'll resend.

Natasha

[Ms. Chevious]

Originally posted by Gail
Much to my amazement, he scooped the peppers back into the pile of pasta, mixed it around a littlel and resumed eating.

Maybe he just didn't want to hear any more flack about it. :rolleyes:

(Sorry but my mom had the same approach, including the "you need to eat" bit, and every single food she forced on me as a child now gags me as an adult. The stuff I wasn't hassled about is the stuff I came to be receptive to.)

[SandyM]

Originally posted by Ms. Chevious
Maybe he just didn't want to hear any more flack about it. :rolleyes:

Knowing Gail the way I do, she doesn't give him "flack". She brought him up (and continues to do so) asking him to try something at least once before forming an opinion. Because of this approach, he eats (and thoroughly enjoys) more different types of food than anyone I know. Except for Gail. :p

Well done, O Wise One. :D

[Ms. Chevious]

Originally posted by SandyM
Knowing Gail the way I do, she doesn't give him "flack". She brought him up (and continues to do so) asking him to try something at least once before forming an opinion.

So sorry - also knowing Gail I would have figured the kid would have seen a yellow pepper before the age of 13 but if this was his first time ever encountering one, OK, whatever.

[lindrusso]

I have the same approach as Sandy writes about.

You need to coax kids a bit or they will happily avoid the veggies all together. My general rule is that if something is so-so, meaning they don't hate it but they don't love it either, they can eat a little bit of it, it's not going to kill them. If I let them eat only the things they raved about, they would not have a very well-rounded diet.

I do, however, recognize that they are really going to dislike some things. Like broccoli - it makes my son gag, so I don't ask him to eat it anymore. I can understand that - there are things that make me gag too! :D

I don't know about Gail's son, but I know that my kids will pick out things that they've eaten before, like yellow peppers. Their tastes can change from one meal to the next!

I've been having many of those proud parent moments too - aren't they wonderful???!!! :D Congrats! :)

Alysha :)

[Gail]

Originally posted by Ms. Chevious


Maybe he just didn't want to hear any more flack about it. :rolleyes:

(Sorry but my mom had the same approach, including the "you need to eat" bit, and every single food she forced on me as a child now gags me as an adult. The stuff I wasn't hassled about is the stuff I came to be receptive to.)

I can't speak for your mom since I wasn't there. I can only tell you that as a parent, my job is to guide my child into self-sufficiency, opening his mind, exposing him to various facets of the world. Certainly when such guidance enters the realm of forcing or hassling, I can understand how some personalities might react as you did.

...but, do you really think I would be puffing out my feathers had my child's attitude been anywhere akin to what you've suggested? ;)

[Gail]

Originally posted by Ms. Chevious


So sorry - also knowing Gail I would have figured the kid would have seen a yellow pepper before the age of 13 but if this was his first time ever encountering one, OK, whatever.

Just to clarify, he's had pepper plenty of times. As Alysha says, kids' tastes constantly are evolving, and our house rule is that a taste or small portion is always required because tastes keep changing. I can't tell you how many times my kid has dug into a meal and asked me, "Why didn't I used to like this?"

It's the appeal to reason which impresses me. No coaxing, no eye-rolling. He listens; he learns. I know this because I hear him expounding these same thoughts to his friends, trying to make them learn to like things. And the cockles of my heart are warmed...

[Gail]

Originally posted by Natasha
...And hey - now I'm going to harass you. Did you get my e-mails? ;) No rush. Just checking because if not, I'll resend.

Natasha

The last one dated 1/4? I'm just running a bit behind on my e-mails. My mother had stuff going on and the employee quarterlies are due. Hang in there; I'll get back to you, I promise!

[Natasha]

Originally posted by Gail


The last one dated 1/4? I'm just running a bit behind on my e-mails. My mother had stuff going on and the employee quarterlies are due. Hang in there; I'll get back to you, I promise!

No hurry whatsoever; I just wanted to know if you'd received it. I'll be patient! :) Look forward to an update whenever is convenient.

Natasha

[Cooky]

Very well done!

That reminds me of when my kids and nieces and nephews where little and they had invited some of their friends to spend a Friday night. After I had gotten over the shock of these parents sending their kids to school with an overnight bag for overnight stay that only one bothered to confer with me about...

...I asked them what they wanted for dinner. Two of mine, 3 of my nieces and 3 of my nephews (yeah, it was that many and more :p ), stated that they wanted liver and onions and hotwater cornbread.

Another little girl said "I don't normally eat liver, but I will try yours", while another expressed that she wanted anything else. The last little boy stated that he hated liver and wanted meatloaf. So I made liver and onions and meatloaf, rice, spinach and hotwater cornbread.

Well to make a long story short, the little boy looked at me like I had arrived from Pluto when I prepared his plate and put the meatloaf on it. He then asked if he could "try" the liver. Well he did and he and the little girl that wanted "anything else" ended up eating more liver and onions than the others. His mother continues to prepare liver and onions with gravy, rice, spinach and hotwater cornbread for him today and he is a college student, and we still laugh at that situation.

[claire797]

In our house, yellow peppers (the sweet banana peppers) are called "yellows" and Emma is crazy about them. We had no idea she'd be interested in pickled yellow peppers until one day she started begging to eat the "yellows" out of our salad. DH slipped her one and she asked for more. Same thing happened with raw onions and olives. Emma now gets her own salad -- a mezze platter of sorts, with olives, yellow peppers, raw onions. Occassionally, I'll throw in some blue cheese.

Pickles are popular around here too.

I've never pushed any of these things on her, she just sees us eating them and begs for tastes. It's amusing and I wonder how long her mini-gourmet habits are going to last. Maybe one day I'll be able to feed her grilled cheese or peanut butter sandwiches. :p

[Gail]

Originally posted by claire797
In our house, yellow peppers (the sweet banana peppers) are called "yellows" and Emma is crazy about them. We had no idea she'd be interested in pickled yellow peppers until one day she started begging to eat the "yellows" out of our salad. DH slipped her one and she asked for more. Same thing happened with raw onions and olives. Emma now gets her own salad -- a mezze platter of sorts, with olives, yellow peppers, raw onions. Occassionally, I'll throw in some blue cheese.

Pickles are popular around here too.

I've never pushed any of these things on her, she just sees us eating them and begs for tastes. It's amusing and I wonder how long her mini-gourmet habits are going to last. Maybe one day I'll be able to feed her grilled cheese or peanut butter sandwiches. :p

But will she eat goat cheese? :p

Seriously, it does my heart good to hear when kids aren't overly picky eaters (though ironically, I was.) If some day Emma comes home from a friend's house and asks "Why don't you ever make grilled cheese sandwiches?" you can remember this day and start making them, and if not... She'll no doubt be eating all sorts of wonderful other things.

PS Not that it matters, but the peppers in question here are yellow bell peppers. On the other hand, I learned a new term. I'd never heard of banana peppers. I'd thought you meant wax peppers, but after a web search, I see they're two distinct varieties. I wonder if we have them or if we simply call them something else...