Getting Your Kids to Eat: Failure

 I don't want to make food a fight in my house, but sometimes it would be nice not to have someone whining over the food. I heard about a line of cookbooks with kid-friendly recipes so I borrowed the only one the library had. Well, there are lots of recipes that sound delicious, but basically her thing is that kids will eat anything if it "looks" fun. While reading the book, I had a couple of basic thoughts that kept repeating themselves: "this is a colossal waste of time" and "maybe this would be neat for a special occasion." I don't really want to buy into her ideas because I don't want Jacob to only eat carrot slices if I take the time to cut out little stars with a mini cookie cutter. And I really don't think he would eat egg salad just because I put it on a piece of bread that is shaped like a duck. However, Jacob really likes this picture in the book:

He calls them "cookie bears" even though they are english muffin pizzas. Well, yesterday was a rough day for him so I thought I would make him pizza, which he loves, and I could easily put a happy face on it for him.

Okay, I admit it is kind of creepy, but this was a last minute thing, and the only veggies in my house were mushrooms, red onion, and orange pepper. And guess what? Jacob wouldn't eat it. Not a bite. He ate it for lunch today, but I think that was because I cut it up when he wasn't looking so he didn't know it was the same pizza. 

I showed Jacob this picture and asked if he would eat it:

He said "No." 

In case you are wondering, the snail is a homemade turkey sausage and his shell is a scoop of mashed potatoes. You are supposed to make the shell swirl with ketchup in a small piping bag.  Steam 4 peas and 3 tiny carrot slivers to make the eyes, mouth, and antennae.  Thinly slice lettuce for the grass. 

Yah right!! 

I Thought Pyrex Was Indestructible

Jacob was helping unload the dishwasher last night, and he dropped my 1cup Pyrex measuring cup. SMASH! It shattered everywhere. I quickly scooped Jacob up and plopped him into the hallway. Grabbed Daniel (who was standing right next to the dishwasher) and handed him to Jeff. He picked his way through the glass and went to console Jacob that it was just an accident and it really didn't matter. I wasn't really too worried about getting glass in my feet, but Jacob kept wanting to come back into the kitchen. Seeing as he HATES band-aids (he cries when I need one) we told him that if he went in the kitchen he would cut himself, bleed, and need a band-aid. And apparently just to make my point, I accidently leaned on some glass and cut my finger. Now, don't go freaking out, it bled for all of 12 seconds and it didn't even really hurt, but I showed Jacob and that kept him out of the kitchen. Maybe I should have put a band-aid on it just for show, but as of right now, I can't even remember which finger was bleeding. 

As an aside,  Jeff added "Pyrex" to our grocery list, and we now have the weirdest grocery list on our fridge ever:

rinse agent

egg timer

Pyrex

rubber boots

peanut butter

Why Juice Boxes Make Lousy Blocks

So while I was trying to make dinner yesterday, Jacob emptied all the 1-ish litre apple juice boxes from the cupboard. We had just recently bought a new case so there was probably 11 or 12 in there. At first it didn't really bother me. He was stacking them around Daniel and they both seemed to be entertained, which was a good thing. Who knew you could make walls and towers out of juice boxes? I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention because next thing I know Jacob is standing on top of his stack of juice boxes and the bottom two have broken open. Now the mess could have been much worse, which I am thankful for, but now I have discovered one more thing that needs to be kept in a locked cupboard... juice.

Why do I ALWAYS Experiment on my Friends?

... because that is what they are for! (And then if it is gross you don't have to eat it all by yourself.) I tried another new bread recipe for lunch with some friends this week. Mixed Pepper Bread- a somewhat basic bread recipe with diced red and yellow peppers thrown in.  The recipe did call for cumin seeds to dress the top of the bread but I don't know what those taste like and thus I didn't have any, but I do like parsley so I used that instead. Wow, was this bread good! The loaf was HUGE, which was surprising since the picture in the book is shown next to a red pepper and it only looks about twice the size. This loaf took up my whole medium baking sheet. Anyways, Jacob loved it, but Daniel cried every time he stuck a piece in his mouth.
Oh yeah, and my March 2011 Baking Challenge Recipe is up. Check it out.