Last week, I made ONE of the dinners I’d planned. It was a weird week, I guess, where we ate leftovers Monday, got takeout Tuesday, ate takeout leftovers Wednesday, and went out to dinner Friday.
Thursday, instead of making one of the pre-planned meals, I pulled some pork chops out of the freezer, baked them in my favorite easy sauce, and paired them with brown rice and some broccoli that was on the verge of going bad. Saturday, finally, I got it together enough to make sheet pan veggie shawarma… but it wasn’t as good as it was the first time. Maybe because I forgot to include a red bell pepper? (My husband kept saying, “Wasn’t there more to this last time?” He thought I’d chopped up a sweet potato in the original, which does sound good. Maybe I threw in a zucchini? Yes, according to photographic evidence I did indeed add a zucchini. DON’T SKIP THE ZUCCHINI NEXT TIME.) Sunday, I made tacos.
This week is going to be weird in a different way: one or more of us has evening activities every single night this week, so dinner is going to be challenging to execute. I think tonight I’m going to make the slow cooker BBQ pulled pork I didn’t make last week, and then… play it by ear the rest of the week. I can always make chicken tacos in the crockpot if I need to.
In startling food news, I bought two heads of cauliflower so that I could wash it all at once, use half for the shawarma, and the other half for snacking. I put a few tiny florets of (raw) cauliflower on Carla’s plate the other night and she exclaimed, “What IS this white broccoli? It’s so good!” and requested more. Then yesterday she was feeling snacky after dinner, so I suggested cauliflower, and she thought that was a great idea. This morning, I noticed that the ENTIRE BAG of cauliflower had been emptied. I’m not complaining! Snacking on cauliflower is preferable to snacking on Cheez Its, in my book.
P.S., Carla 100% has seen and tried cauliflower before, and knows what it is and what it’s called.
As you can perhaps intuit from the above, Carla is still quite a picky eater. I’ve (mostly) stopped fretting about it, but I do sometimes fret about it.
Currently, my frets center around a trip we have planned for later this year. We are going to Europe, which will be Carla’s first time overseas. We are all very excited. And I am also pre-anxious that she will simply not eat anything while we’re gone. Sure, she could probably survive on pastries and ice cream alone, but I don’t really want my child to develop scurvy. (How long does it take to develop scurvy or other signs of malnourishment?) My husband is convinced that we’ll be able to find steak frites everywhere, and I am hopeful that we can find salmon on many menus (and that we can persuade our servers to serve said salmon sans sauce). But I am concerned that even familiar things, like steak and salmon, will be just different enough that Carla will find them inedible.
My mother likes to tell a story about my own first time in Europe. I was eight, which is quite a bit younger than Carla will be during our trip, but I was also very picky. My mother said that I was eating so little that she finally gave in and took me to a McDonald’s. I can only imagine how intensely it pained her to do so. She was desperate to get some food into me, she said, and she knew I would eat a McDonald’s hamburger, and she figured McDonald’s hamburgers were the same all over the world.
Alas, the menu apparently referred to this particular delicacy as a beef burger and – as it was not a hamburger – I refused to eat it.
(Carla, who helped stir the ground beef as it was browning last night, said, “This smells like steak!” and I had to share the apparently shocking revelation that tacos and steak come from the same source.) (I do not think this was new information to her, any more than I think I ever believed a hamburger was made with anything besides beef.)
There is a happy ending to my story, at least. During our trip, I fell in love with two separate cuisines: in Paris, I learned how to love simple green salads (is salad a cuisine? probably not) and in London, I experienced a life-changing introduction to Indian food.
I have hope that Carla will fall in love with something beyond croissants… but I don’t have confidence.
Solidarity, mama! I have three children, two of whom are picky and not averse to the same foods, and I am a somewhat picky vegetarian. We have done two Europe trips the last two summers. England was mostly ok, although my youngest ate mostly chips (fries) for two whole weeks. Germany and France were much more challenging. I was also desperate and offered the picky two McDonald’s in Paris and they deemed it “different.” Which, to be fair, it was! I find it helpful to go to the grocery store and pick up things like sliced bread and familiar fruits so at least there is some nutrient they can put in their bodies. Also, I do pack lots of snack bars which they are sick of in the first few days but at least I can offer them. To be honest, I am already stressed about this summer’s travel (I nixed Asia for now, I just cannot) although I will say that not a single other member of my family, including the ones that are essentially hungry for two weeks seem at all stressed. In my next life I am coming back as a dad.
“In my next life I am coming back as a dad” — LOL! Preach!
I love the idea of going to a grocery store and getting familiar foods! My kid doesn’t really even like snack bars!!!! It’s so hard to feed her!
I love the fact that ” in Paris, I learned how to love simple green salads”. My husband (gently) mocks me for saying that my favorite foods from our France trip, which included Paris, were the salads, but it is so true! Every restaurant had their own unique salad dressing and lettuce mix and it was awesome and inspiring how, literally, a vinaigrette and lettuce could taste so different at each location despite having the same basic ingredients.
YES! A simple mix of greens and a light vinaigrette can be transcendent!
Happy belated birthday! I’ve found that the best thing for picky eaters is when they eat with friends, they are much more willing to try something their friend likes than something I push. Maybe for your trip abroad you could make a food treasure hunt so Carla can try the local faves and check them off?
Thanks! Yes, peer pressure does help a tiny amount with my kid. Not a whole lot, though, sadly. I like the idea of a food treasure hunt! But to be honest with you, we offer to pay her to try new foods and even the promise of money is not enough most times to get her to taste something unfamiliar.
Yum, snacking on cauliflower. I’m glad the girl has caught on. I like the foods you learned about in Europe as a girl. Travel opens you to so many things.
So interesting that you brought this up because I recently listened to a podcast (Search Engine) that was called “Can Picky Eating Be Cured?” If a podcast title could be classified as click bait, that would be it. First of all, the entire episode centred around one man who was considered the picky eater in his group because…he had an aversion to fish. That’s it. Does this mean that every person in the world who doesn’t eat everything set in front of them is picky? I don’t think of myself as picky, but I guess I am. I was a picky eater as a child but honestly, I think I was just an undiagnosed vegetarian. Anyway, the whole episode was about how this guy tried different kinds of fish until he could eat a serving of fish, and Suzanne, it was so dumb I can’t believe I listened to it.
Anyway.
You just never know what will happen; I had my first Caesar salad at a friend’s house when I was 13 and I was blown away. I didn’t know salad could be like that! My view of salad was iceberg lettuce with chunks of cheddar and croutons, and maybe some radishes, with Kraft bottled dressing. So you never know what Carla might try!
There’s a meme about cauliflower out there on the internets where it’s called ghost broccoli. The tag line is “I know what I saw”. Anytime that I eat cauliflower, it is guaranteed that someone in my family will say “ghost broccoli”. My stepsons love to play dumb about food – I mean my husband eats a limited menu and I don’t know what the food sitch was in their mom’s house, so it’s possible but not likely that they didn’t know the difference between cucumbers and zucchini.
I predict that the Europe trip will be a blast and that food will be a non issue! Hey, a girl can dream.
Look at Carla’s growth – she’s likes cauliflower now! And is willing to at least try something different. Maybe the key to getting her to eat in Europe is to start hyping up the adventure of trying new things. Who knows. But her palette is growing that’s for certain.
This is impeccable timing for a post about picky eating. Taco had an ENT appt at 11 today so I packed a little lunch for him since he would miss lunch at school. I packed a peanut butter sandwich, baby carrots, sliced red peppers, and a few crackers. HE ATE THE CARROTS AND PEPPERS FIRST. I texted Phil to tell him this because after how picky Paul is, I assumed we did something wrong. But they were raised nearly identically and yet they eat so very differently. Paul will not eat any vegetables or fruits despite our best efforts. I would love it if he would someday decide he likes broccoli or “white broccoli” but I can’t even wrap my mind around it!
I would just go with the flow in Europe and find things she will eat. And maybe she will decide she likes new foods after exposure to them in cool places!! But if not – who knows what the next “white broccoli” will be for her!
Aww, I love “white broccoli.” I might start calling cauliflower that!
I love how much time and care you put into your meals. I can only imagine how delicious they must taste—truly.
When I was a child, I only ever ordered hamburgers off the kids’ menu when I went out to eat, but I was an adventurous eater at home! Go figure!
White broccoli, so cute! Angus called pad thai ‘yucky spaghetti’ for a while, even though he liked it. I had two picky kids, and my best (and probably useless) advice is just don’t worry about it, and do whatever you can while traveling. She will not get scurvy before you get back home.
I have been both depressed and alone much of January and February, so as you can imagine the cooking situation is dire. Eve asked me to bring her some stuff for the freezer when we go down next week which is great because it will be the spur I need. And then I”ll freeze some for when Matt’s gone again in two weeks. Sigh.
I love snacking on cauliflower too although it has an unfortunate effect on me. 😉 So does broccoli. Zucchini improves every dish! I love them. I think Carla will surprise you in Europe and find some stuff she likes. Probably not what you expect either.
How does she feel about grilled cheese, burgers, and ham sandwiches? How does she like her meat cooked? When in France, I have noticed that the cut of the steak is generally different than here, which does somehow change the taste. Still good, but different. Burgers are often served medium rare, but maybe at more casual places you will have good luck. Croque madame is pretty much grilled cheese with cheese on the outside (I mean, it’s a bechemel or something, but cheesy) and the street ham sandwiches are supposed to be amazing but I’ve never tried them so I don’t know.
ANYWAY – I am sure she will be OK, if worst comes to worst they have cereal at the supermarkets, and I’m almost positive you can find a beautiful street market with booths that sell amazing cauliflower.
I’m excited for you!
White broccoli is great! (Ha! Ha!)
The French do have a way with salads – and pretty much all food! Hopefully your daughter will be able to find something she enjoys and get some happy memories about it. For me, it’s quiche. I loved buying a single piece of cold quiche at a shop near where I lived, and I’d eat it as I walked to the university. I can’t replicate that quiche for the life of me. It will always remain a wonderful food memory.
I’ll chime in and say I really like the red peppers in that shawarma dish- I would be sad to leave them out.
You might have some challenging moments on your trip- but Carla will be fine. And, even if she just discovers ONE new thing that she likes, it will be a win. My daughter was also a picky eater (she’s branched out now) but there was a while there where we had to make sure any restaurant we went to had french fries- sigh.
May she have a cauliflower-level breakthrough on your travels. You never know, it could happen.
We had a weird food week here last week too. I decided to whip up a few different chicken meals back to back – giving us leftovers so that I didn’t have to cook much. Then Reg decided to bring his 3 roomies here for the weekend and I made more food than I thought possible.
I’m excited about your upcoming trip. I’m confident that Carla will find something to eat. We go to Italy at the end of the month, and I’m a little nervous about finding gluten free food for me.
Your McDonalds story is so relatable. When I was in Europe with my brother while we were travelling during our study abroad year – my brother ordered pasta in Italy. Thanks to the language barrier, they brought him a small bowl of what looked like Spaghettios. He’s 6’4″ and was so hungry and frustrated that he insisted that we eat the rest of our meals in Italy for the rest of our visit. *eye roll*
Food is honestly too much. I love food but ALL the time? Every day? Multiple times per day? This is unacceptable.
When my SIL traveled to Europe, she packed peanut butter and crackers and she just ate some of that whenever she couldn’t find something to suit her taste. There are options!
There will definitely be some McDonald’s the next time we take the kids to Europe. But it IS different in Paris. I tell people it was the only bad meal I had when I went to Paris with my husband. I rarely eat McDonald’s (once a year?) so usually it’s a “treat” – but, ugh. In Paris is was NOT GOOD.
I also ditto what someone else said about going to the grocery store. It saves money AND it’s so much easier to pick up things kids will like. I will say that I find it harder to find things like granola bars in Europe (not nearly as common, at least in my experience), so if there are shelf-stable snack foods Carla likes, it would be a good idea to bring a small stash along.
I LOVE raw cauliflower dipped in dill pickle hummus. I am practically drooling just writing that sentence out 🙂
Carla will be great. She will eat. Maybe not exactly how you hope she will, but she will eat. She will try new things and she will LOVE Europe. LOVE IT!
Travel is tough and tiring work; perhaps Carla will feel the need to fuel themselves by being an adventurous eater! My own picky eaters frequently surprised me when we traveled. I hope she doesn’t have any allergies? (Mine do.)
I love croissants. Croissants and ice cream really are all you need. Also I just traveled to Europe with a nut/seed allergy and a vegetarian and we did just fine. I am sure it will be fine. Also, they have pizza! Does she like pizza? It has veggies on it….
LOL at not eating a hamburger because it’s called a beef burger! The first time we went out to lunch with my four year old she ordered a hamburger for lunch and started crying when it arrived because she wanted ham and this burger was made of meat and not ham.
Kids are only predictable in their unpredictability… so I suspect that anything you think might happen in Europe might not. 🙂
Raw cauliflower as a snack! That’s so random that Carla would eat it – who knew! But it just means, you have to keep trying with her… and I think that’ll apply to the trip to Europe! I am sure she’ll love the Croissants (who doesn’t?) but hopefully something else surprising too!