Never cater to toddlers... (Early Days cont'd)

Okay, if you have been reading along and not just looking at the cute baby pictures, you will know that the Emperor has been a bit... persnickety about food for some time now. Weirdest thing-- he used to be EXTREMELY laid back about food and would eat anything we put in front of him. Then he started preschool in August and all of a sudden, he wouldn't eat much of anything at dinnertime anymore. (He eats anything they give him at school, including foods he won't touch at home, like carrot sticks.) He even rejects most foods that all kids like. Seriously, 95% of the time he won't eat potatoes.

I have to tell you that after half a year of this, it's wearing a bit thin. I'd be delighted to never hear the phrase "this is NOT yummy" (or more recently, "this is not good, mom") about something he hasn't even tried ever again. Though I know it's not personal, some days I have a hard time remembering that. Like when I made a special meal for him yesterday for Valentine's:



Black bean burgers, baked potato wedges, steamed cauliflower and broccoli. ALL foods he has raved about in the past. And broccoli! The one food he will almost ALWAYS eat.

Guess what he ate?

One potato wedge. That's it.

He absolutely would not try the burgers, even though I made them into little hearts:



He made me cut his into pieces. I'm like dude, you're cutting MY heart into pieces. Sigh.

Tonight I tried again with this meal:



Warm Cheezy White Bean Dip from Eat Drink & Be Vegan (more on that in a sec), cut up carrots, celery, and cucumbers, and baguette from the farmer's market.

Now, this meal, I expected him to eat bread and maybe a little dip. Maybe. As long as no one said the word "bean" out loud. Wasn't getting my hopes up. But you know what? He actually ate bread, several spoonfuls of dip (with a spoon; he refused to dip into it today), and 75% of the cucumber slices. Really, I was fighting him for the last slices of cucumber. Overall, the meal was an unexpected success and I'll have to remember it for next time I foolishly convince myself to make a dinner just to appeal to him...

Oh yeah. Since I am home right now and want/need to eat actual food, I am doing meal planning again. This week I'm cooking stuff out of Eat Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. ED&BV is a weird book for me. It's not flashy, and when I first bought it and paged through it I was like ennnnh nothing here is jumping out at me. But, and this is a big and important but: I have loved almost everything I've ever cooked out of it (sorry, orange black bean hummus, you weirded me out!) and I have cooked a TON out of it over the years. I think it's in my top 5 cookbooks ever. Some day I'm going to buy more of Dreena's books because I bet I'll love them too.

Think that's about it for today, except, of course, for pictures. Here's one of the Emperor from the park today:



And the Magician after his first real (as in, actually submerged in water) bath yesterday: