Buddy has always been a big fan of your typical “kid food” – chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, pizza, etc. I always felt a little silly complaining about it because (a) all my friends said the same thing about their kids, and (b) the boy has never met a vegetable he didn’t like – broccoli, in particular, has always been a favorite. So it’s not like he’s a picky eater. But I was starting to feel like a short-order cook each night as I rushed around trying to prepare two meals, because Dr. G and I are more adventurous eaters (well, as adventurous as you can be as one vegetarian and one sometimes-vegetarian) who prefer ethnic-inspired recipes. Plus we like our meals to have flavor and spices – two things Buddy abhors.
And don’t even think about mixing two foods together (unless one of the foods includes the word “fry,” as evidenced above). Everything on his plate has to be sectioned off, dare they accidentally touch each other. And the few times we tried introducing new foods, he’d exclaim, “It’s too spicy!” no matter what it was, then proceed to scrutinize his entire plate, looking for invisible grounds of black pepper or rogue pieces of parsley. Then he’d refuse to try it. Ahh, the lovely dinner table power struggle.
Enter New Food Monday.
We started this on a whim one week and told Buddy that every Monday, he’d have to try at least three bites of a new food with his dinner. Trust me, we weren’t that ambitious with the new food – I believe we started with some pasta sauce and veggie burgers. If he successfully ate his three bites, he got to have a small treat after dinner. If he refused to try it, he had to go to his room until bedtime. We were low-key, no pressure about it – the choice was his. We had read so many times that if a kid is hungry, he will eat, so we were willing to call his bluff.
Guess how many times he went to his room without eating a bite? Zero.
Now guess how many times he’d try the new food and proclaim, “Mommy, this is delicious! May I have another helping, please?”
Zero.
But I’d still call NFM a success. He now eats veggie burgers, tacos, black beans, raw red peppers and roasted carrots and brussel sprouts – some of the only NFM meals/dishes to break into our weekday meal rotation. Having him eat at least portions of foods that Dr. G. and I are eating for our dinner has also been more of a timesaver than I expected – definitely a win-win!
With other dishes, he would eat quite a bit (far beyond the prerequisite three bites), but if you were to ask him if he wanted it again, he would respond quickly, “No way.” And he still refuses to eat any foods mixed together. But one of the reasons I think NFM worked is because Buddy is pretty analytical, so I think the whole “if this, then that” concept really resonated with him. And I think he enjoying having what he perceived as a “choice.”
After a few months of Dr. G and I patting ourselves on the back and congratulating ourselves on our brilliant parenting skills, we started slacking off. I’m not gonna lie: it eventually got hard to come up with new foods to try every weel. We even tried salad one disastrous NFM (shudder). And then Mimi was born and, well, you know how it goes. NFM slowly trailed off — much to Buddy’s delight, I’m sure.
But in the spirit of new beginnings and the launch of KMS, I joyfully told Buddy yesterday, “Guess what, we’re doing New Food Monday again!”
He gave me a pained (or was it panicked?) look and wailed, “Noooooooo! I don’t like New Food Monday!”
Ahh, how I missed those days. So tonight we dusted off the NFM rules and tried something I thought both kiddos might eat: this gnocchi recipe from Eating Well.
It sounded promising and looked pretty easy to make – something that is a must for us, because we’re lucky if we’re both home by 6pm and usually the kids and grumpy and hungry by that time. Which makes me grumpy and hungry.
Tonight, Buddy “accidentally” dropped his first piece of gnocchi to Raven (who jumped from her usual position by Mimi’s highchair) and then took three miniscule bites of the next piece. Oh, and he made sure to tell us many times how much he didn’t like it. And how he’s not eating those green things (zucchini ribbons). And then he looked at me suspiciously when he found some ground pepper flakes. Oh, the horror!
In the end, he managed to swallow three real bites (and Dr. G and I finished off the rest – we thought it was yummy!) and decided he was done.
And so the resurrection of NFM bore a striking resemblance to the launch of NFM. But we’re going to stick with it this go-round, because I want to make sure Mimi is introduced to different and flavorful foods at a young age (and it’s important that we continue offering these same foods to Buddy). And, quite frankly, cooking three different dinners each night completely stresses me out and turns me into Cranky Mommy. My dream one day is to follow a recipe that “serves four” that we can all enjoy together while we discuss our days. So I guess I better lay the groundwork now.
So with that, I now proclaim Mondays to be “New Food Mondays” here on KMS! Be sure to check on my progress as I attempt to turn my culinary critics into mini-foodies! (Ahh, who am I kidding – I’d be happy if I had two kids who let me put sauce on their pasta. But it’s all about baby steps, right?)
What creative things have you done to get your kids to try new foods?
Jane says
I love this idea! Owen strictly eats tan food…. I would love to add some color to his life!
Kelly says
Great article Jess…I love your blog! Keep writing!
Jessica says
Thanks! Let me know if you try it 🙂
Jess says
I should recommend New Food Monday to my friend…her son is VERY particular.
Karen says
I like the idea of New Food Monday. I always had the boy “eat his age” of new foods. He had to eat as many bites of a new food as he was old. After that, he didn’t have to have what we were eating, but it was never really a separate meal, just something basic like a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Nothing fancy to entice him NOT to eat what we were having. I still can’t get him to eat most cooked vegetables, but he’s a pretty good eater otherwise.
Jessica says
I love the “eat your age” concept. We may have to move in that direction soon, especially as Buddy is getting older. (P.S. Now I am craving a PB and banana sandwich :>)
Synn says
This is fantastic! My son will eat steamed broccoli over a chocolate cookies but GAWD help us if there is any seasoning ON the broccoli! We are totally going to do this… garam masala, here I come….
Synnove says
This is fantastic! My son will eat steamed broccoli over a chocolate cookies but GAWD help us if there is any seasoning ON the broccoli! We are totally going to do this… garam masala, here I come….
Jessica says
LOL – I am right there with you! Good luck and let me know how it goes 😉
Wendy says
Hey Jess! Came across your blog – love it! It’s amazing how similar kids can be at certain ages; as I’m reading you posts, I would swear you are writing all this to me!!
Love te NFM! Gotta try it out soon…..
~Wendy
Jessica says
Thanks so much for reading! Ahh, kids are funny like that, aren’t they? Glad to know I’m not alone 🙂