Trickery

After-dinner update: This totally worked! I am looking forward to having more help in the kitchen. He even ate the visible kale! It's time to teach him how to use a knife!

How do you get kids to eat what you put in front of them?

This conundrum has been a struggle at our house, albeit not nearly as bad as the horror stories I've overheard. My kids love macaroni and cheese, but they know that we won't serve that them every single night. Or even once a week, for that matter.

I love to cook, and I love to experiment when I do. I have my standards, my easy weeknight meals, the same as anyone else who cooks, the spagetti, the tacos, the tortellini soup. But this working girl likes to get creative on the weekends.

Sometimes when I do that, Fezzik turns his nose up at the plate in front of him. Because we've taken pride in the fact that we don't have particularly picky kids, and we do take credit for that, when he says something is "yucky," my hide gets chapped. Fast.

These days, when we're trying hard to stick to our strict budget, we've been cooking a lot more, and using what I've been pantry-hoarding over the past year. Today, it's lentil soup. This is something Lawnboy and I love, but I don't make very often, for whatever reason. It's been rainy and chilly all day, and I have a cupboard full of nice green French lentils, so why not?

My strategy today was to ask for Fezzik's help in the kitchen. We're currently waiting for the soup to cool down, so we'll see how well this plays out in a few minutes. I hope the effort he put into peeling the carrots, and measuring the spices and broth, will translate into some pride in his soup, and lead him to be excited about eating it.

I hope, also, that he isn't able to pick out the microscopic bits of kale I've hidden in it.