Food, Glorious Food

Recently overheard at my house:

"no, you must finish your french fries before you can have any more broccoli."

ok, seriously. The kids are making me so crazy with their food issues, that I am clearly losing it. We have a dinner system in our house. Every other night we try "new" foods. "New" foods are those the kids hate. They have either not had them before, or are on record hating them. These include anything not in the list of foods they like. On the non "hate" days, we have foods they like. These include (the very limited list of): pasta, tacos/nachos, steak sandwiches, pizza, chicken nuggets, and quesadillas. On the "new" food nights, the kids are given 3 bites of meat, 3 bites of veggie, and 3 bites of starch (i make a pretty traditional plate). They must eat these 3 bites in order to leave the table, and have anything else. And many nights result in at least one person crying (sometimes even the kids). Gotta love dinner in my house.

But there are weird anomalys. The 2 younger kids LOVE broccoli. Love it. B is the most flexible liking several other things (chili, chicken soup). K is the worst but does like tomato soup and quiche (in full disclosure, something I hate!). Big Man used to be great, but is now among the worst, except for his love of broccoli.

I started a new rule this week that nobody can talk badly about dinner. They have to eat it and shut up. I hope this passes soon. I can't handle it. I have tried having them help cook - they still won't eat it. I have tried having them help set the menu - no good.

But we will persevere. I can't go back to being a short-order cook and giving them only the crap they like. Sadly, we have had this plan going for about 9 months, and it is still a nightmare!