Picky, picky…

I think I might have the pickiest eater on earth.  My son is the biggest pain the the behind when it comes to food.  He takes an American Cheese sandwich with him to school everyday.  No crusts.  If there is even a spec of brown from the crust of the bread on there, he will find it and pick it off.  There can’t be any green in his food either.  No parsley, no basil, nothing.  And don’t even THINK about trying to give him a vegetable.  The closest thing to a vegetable he will eat is tomato sauce and tomatoes are fruits.  No carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, nothing.  And fruit?  Yeah, right…  Bananas and applesauce but only if I beg him.

On the other hand, he will eat chips and brownies like they are going out of style.  I can squeeze in a cheese stick sometimes, but not a lot.

He’s very sensitive to textures and can’t have any food touching. (he gets that from me.) But he’s also sensitive to strong flavors and spicy flavors and he will gag and throw up at a moment’s notice. (he gets that from his father)

My husband is a very picky eater as well.  He won’t eat anything off a bone.  He claims he was traumatized as a kid because his parents took him to pig roasts where they had the whole pig roasting over an open fire, head and all.  So now when he sees meat on a bone he envisions the animal it once belonged to and it turns him off.  And there can’t be a speck of fat on his meat either.  He likes his chicken cutlets thin and his pizza well done.  His burgers MUST have American cheese on them and no other cheese, not cheddar or swiss and the only time he will eat mozzarella is if it’s on a pizza, in a Parmesan dish or in a deep fried stick.  And he won’t eat fish.  AT. ALL.  He can keep them in a tank and catch them on the end of a hook, but he won’t eat them.

Now, I admit, I’m not the best eater in the world either.  I’m picky to a point, but I’m learning to get over it and try new things.  I don’t like a lot of vegetables, but I do eat some.  More than certain seven year olds I know…  And I eat fish, but only certain shellfish and fillet.

My daughter will eat just about anything so we’re good with that.  Last week she told me that something I made was “disgusting” and I’m all like “Where did you learn that??  You’re only two!”.  Mmmhmm.  She’s two.

Anyway, even though my son won’t eat a lot of stuff, he likes to help me in the kitchen.  He takes a lot of pride in the fact that he helped make a box of brownies with me once and they were the BEST BROWNIES EVER.  We have yet to be able to duplicate them.  So I got this book in the mail called Top 100 Finger Foods for Kids by Annabel Karmel and in it is a brownie recipe.  We’re gonna try it.  It looks good.  That and the French Toast with caramelized bananas.  And lots of other stuff.

In actuality, I sat with the boy with the cookbook and we flipped through the entire thing looking at all the recipes trying to find one we could do together.  Every recipe we looked at he was all “No.”  “Not this one.”  “Ew.” “I don’t like fish.”  And I’m all, “How can you not like fish? You’ve never tried it!”  I almost gave up when I found the brownies and his eyes lit up.

So, picture this if you will…  It’s Saturday afternoon.  My daughter has FINALLY gone down for a nap and I’m itching to make these brownies.  Hubby’s gone out for the afternoon for a billiards tournament, so it’s just me and the boy.  I break out the cookbook and suddenly he doesn’t want to help.  Really??  He’s tired, he’s bored… “Ok, Mom, I’ll help.”  I think he stirred the batter once and cracked the eggs.  After that he lost interest.  I managed to get him to read the recipe to me while I ran around the kitchen.   And of course, as soon as the brownies are in the oven, he’s gone.  Back to the computer, the video games, or the TV.  I made the topping by myself, not even bothering to ask him to help for fear of a tug o’ war between him and lego.com.  And the brownies?  They were good.  Maybe not worth the fighting, and the nagging, and the constant “What’s next Jonathan??” , but they were GOOD.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll attempt the French Toast with Caramelized Bananas…  only his time without the help.

This post was written as part of the Silicon Valley Moms Group Book Club.  It was inspired by the book “Top 100 Finger Foods for Kids” by Annabel Karmel which I received free from the publisher for the purpose of this book club discussion.