Sunday, July 10, 2011

I'm a vegetable ninja


I have been in vegetable stealth mode pretty much ever since Jack has been eating solids. You know what I'm talking about if you have a picky eater. You find yourself waking up in the middle of the night, tip toeing into the kitchen and injecting your kids yogurt with microscopic portions of butternut squash. You hold your breath and slink back to bed only to be viciously disappointed when your toddler tastes said doctored food item and refuses to eat it. Sigh. You've tried. I mean you've REALLY tried. If you are a vegetable ninja you too know the pain of cooking up homemade goodies with love only to have them rejected before they even reach your tots mouth. In attempting to make peace with the fact that my kidlet won't eat a vegetable, I have had to take a break from vegetable ninja-ry (I just made that word up..It should be a word....Please feel free to start using it in sentences. It could be the new "tom foolery" ) because, truth be told, my attempts to improve my child's nutrition have been enough to make me go prematurely gray. So in this break from fruitless vegetable sneakiness I discovered a new product from none other than Kraft Macaroni and cheese. Kraft has a new mac and cheese that boasts a 1/2 cup of vegetables in every 1 cup serving. Could it be true? Would Jack eat it? Would there be weird vegetable flecks in it thus thwarting any and all attempts to get him to eat it? I had to know. Jack loves boxed mac and cheese. I am thinking he likes it primarily because no cheese was harmed in the making. It's also neon orange. Delightful. So I bought the new mac and cheese and with expectations rather low offered it to Jack. He ate it. He ate ALL of it. I felt like I had won some sort of vegetable triathlon. I want a gold carrot medal. I almost don't care what type of vegetable this mac and cheese proclaims to contain because Jack ate something that had contact with a vegetable and perhaps even an ACTUAL vegetable. I just got goosebumps. By the way its cauliflower for those wondering. Cauliflower goosebumps y'all, cauliflower goosebumps. For all you nay sayers out there who are shaking their heads at the depths I have sunk to in feeding my child a sub par, processed, boxed dish, you just can't ruin this high I am feelin' right now. While I am still wringing my hands a bit at the thought of Jack developing rickets or some weird malady because of his lack of vegetable intake, I feel like I have finally won a round. So, go forth vegetable ninjas! Continue hiding healthy foods inside your kids favorites, continue sharing ideas with other frazzled moms, and know that you are never alone. This ninja knows your pain.

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

I'm still tweaking my veggie ninja'ry style. One of my favorites is to put butternut squash in macaroni and cheese (have you tried Annie's macaroni and cheese? It's so yummy!). I also make an alfredo-ish pasta with broccoli puree in it. The kids know it's green, they just think it comes that way.

30 by 30 said...

Jack loves Annies so I have to stock up on that too! I successfully hid peeled, steamed, pureed summer squash into his mac and cheese last night! Mooohahahah~! It hides really well!

Michelle said...

May I just say that I am abeyond mused by the sentence that contains "FRUIT-LESS vegetable sneakiness." Am I alone in my demented pleasure with this? You're a master of word ninja'ry, too, Lily!

Michelle said...

Please ignore all stupid letter A's that appear in the above comment without express permission from the typist.

Michelle said...

And then ignore the fact that I erroneously placed the word "beyond" between the a- and -muse by editing my own post... unsuccessfully. Le sigh!