When I am able to cook again, I can assure you the menu will include squash. Right now at my house, I have
- 3 acorn squash
- 5 butternut squash
- 2 spaghetti squash
- 2 zucchini
I have promised the 8yo she can choose the first meal to be cooked on the new stove. This is all manipulation on my part. Despite my efforts, she eats more junk and less nutritious food than I’d like, and sometimes seems to go for days subsisting on the occasional tub of applesauce.
Any hope of her choosing some of that squash for her meal? Somehow I doubt it.
However, she has — after a lengthy flirtation with the idea — declared herself this week to be a full-time vegetarian. Both her father and I have made an effort to educate her on the fact that that will require her to actually eat vegetables.
Her reply: I like artichokes.
Eight-year-olds can muster up quite a bit of scorn when they try. I then urged her to get a paper route so we could afford to feed her year-round.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
hey. get outta my house!
Typepad ate my comment. Grrr.
So I will try again.
I’d try to steer her towards the spaghetti squash. Maybe she’ll think it’s fun to scoop it! It’s definitely fun to eat.
And my mother discovered early on that I’d eat just about anything that had pasta sauce on it (and a little melted mozzarella helped, too)–even broccoli and boiled cabbage. I don’t advocate hiding nutritious foods in junk food and tricking children to eat because I think that just sets up a lifetime of poor relationships with food (just a personal opinion, though).
If you need any suggestions, let me know–I don’t have kids, but I’m cheap and I make a lot of small convenience meals for myself that are very healthy.
Lesley,
Thank you so much. I actually have gotten several good meal ideas from your blog already!! I will let you know how it goes with our new vegetarian.
The funny thing is, we rarely eat meat as it is, and I’m sure the 8yo eats it even less at her dad’s since her stepmom is vegetarian. Mostly it means I’ll have to watch what I do with chicken broth, which has reverted to being a staple around here since _I_ quit being a vegetarian, maybe 4 years ago??