Vanilla

I am coming to the devastating realization that everything that my son eats can be categorized by one of the following colors; white, tan, yellow or brown. I made this nice little graphic for you to illustrate my point:


Now, as you know I grew up on a semi-farm in Maine. We ate fresh veggies, eggs laid by our own chickens, chicken from our own chickens, ahhh, you get the picture.

When James was a baby (sniff, sniff) he ate all colors--peas, carrots, beef, turkey, tomato, etc. But that was because it was spoon fed to him out of a baby food jar. Now that he can feed himself, every attempt I make to put something from the more colorful of the food groups gets immediately thrown across the room, or fed to the dogs under the table. (sigh).

So of course I am totally distraught every time I make a plate of food for him. I keep trying to slip a more colorful item onto his plate, knowing full well that I will be cleaning it up off the floor or that Rocco (lately known as TANK) will be eating it.

Today I started to think about everything James is eating by color group.

WHITE

milk
white cheddar cheese cubes
string cheese
cheese tortellini
ziti
Wonder Bread (I know, Mom, I cringe just writing it. That is Chris' fault) LOL
vanilla pudding
vanilla ice cream
vanilla wafers

TAN
mini pancakes
tortilla chips
dinosaur chicken nuggets
fish sticks
french fries

YELLOW
Ritz Bits
grilled cheese
scrambled eggs
waffles

BROWN
maple syrup
pretzels
graham crackers
whole wheat toast
chocolate chip cookies
brownies
chocolate ice cream

I just heard on TV this morning that this will be the first time EVER that this generation of children will have a shorter life expectancy that their parents, mostly due to obesity and diabetes.

So, then I heard about what Jessica Seinfeld is doing, which is basically pureeing veggies and putting them into chix nuggets, cookies and cake. She has a new book out called "Deceptively Delicious" which compiles all of these sneaky recipes.


I was thinking "WOW That's it!!" And then I thought, "Hmmm . . . Allison, why don't you just keep putting real veggies in front of him, and maybe he will just start eating them. "

Hey Mom, remember when you used to set the timer on the stove and tell me that I had until the timer went off to finish my meal (which I was NOT going to eat because it was probably LOADED with veggies) and then you would take my chair away and I would have to eat standing up?? LOL

WHATEVER IT TAKES!!! Hey, James, want one of these cupcakes? It has pureed cauliflower in it! YUM!!!