Anyone who knows me well, knows that when it comes to cooking, my patience is pretty much zip and I prefer not to do it. It only frustrates me - it's just not pretty. I married a wonderful man though who is wonderful at cooking and I don't mind in the least to be on clean up duty.
However, I got ambitious one day and bought a cookbook that contains recipes intended to deceive the pickiest of eaters, aka Jonas. We are in a never-ending battle of getting Jonas to eat more than just a few items. His culinary repertoire includes:
- Peanut butter sandwiches
- Neutra-Grain bars (or their TJ or Kashi equivalent)
- Cheddar Bunnies (aka goldfish)
- Block or shredded cheese (not sliced)
- Taco meat and soft tortillas (not combined, but eaten separate)
- Chicken Nuggets and fries (chic-fil-a)
- Muffins (only pumpkin muffins from Panera)
- Pizza (cheese or pepperoni)
- Cookies (of course, but only chocolate chip)
- Apple juice
Luckily he'll eat a gummy vitamin, but otherwise the above contain the only nutrients he gets. I've talked to the pediatrician who was not overly concerned since Jonas is gaining weight and growing appropriately.
After an informational session at his school by some nice ladies that specialize in eating issues, I now realize that Jonas isn't a "picky eater," he's a "problem eater." I am still researching and learning on this and will post my findings in a later post.
I'm starting to think that some of this pickiness is almost entirely sensory. He refuses anything wet or cold and no matter what I do (this includes ice cream!); he will not even touch certain things. Sometimes I think he truly believes they're poison.
When these eating issues began, I tried not to fix him anything special, just like they tell you on all the mommy advice websites. Ahh, but those mommy websites become completely irrelevant once you have a child with special needs. So I started thinking: What if these issues are entirely sensory-related and he can't control it? The mom in me just cannot deprive him of food, so if he's willing to eat something, I let him.
We decided to get creative and started with an idea that Jonathan had: sneak him Naked Super Food in an opaque sippy cup (half juice, half water). If you don't know what Super Food is, well, it's just what the title suggests: packed with fruits, veggies, and other really good for you stuff. It was our trial run and we didn't expect it to work. Much to our surprise, he drank it like it was his normal apple juice. SCORE!! 1 for the sneaky, deceptive parents.
This got me excited so I pulled out the "deceptive" cookbook and made a list of the ingredients I needed for a few of the recipes that I thought I could deceive Jonas with (muffins, pizza, and chicken nuggets).
Deception #1: Applesauce Muffins
These contain unsweetened apple sauce and carrot puree. Either they were not hard to make or I was so excited that I didn't get frustrated. Don't they look yummy...
Strike 1
Right off the bat, Jonas did not want the "nuts" on top, which were actually oats and brown sugar. These did taste pretty good, but the consistency was more moist than the pumpkin muffin at Panera that he loves.
Possible Rework: No topping, less apple sauce, and add chocolate chips.
Deception #2: Pita Pizzas
These were fast and easy to make. They contained spinach puree, hidden beneath the sauce and cheese. They turned out a bit messy (not anything like the picture in the cookbook), but didn't taste too bad.
Semi-Strike 2
Jonas picked the cheese off and only ate that after he discovered the spinach underneath.
Deception #3: Scrambled Eggs
This is not on Jonas' list of 10 preferred foods above, but he will occasionally eat scrambled eggs for my mom, so I figured I would try it. This recipe contained cauliflower puree and cheese of course.
Strike 3
No photo for this recipe because they didn't even make it to the table. This might possibly be due to my lack of patience as I don't think they turned out quite right.
Things seemed to be going down hill, so after the scrambled egg incident I took a little break... to restore my confidence.
Deception #4: Chicken Nuggets
These skinless, boneless, all breast meat nuggets contain spinach puree and flax seed meal along with parmesan cheese.
SCORE!
Jonas really liked the chicken nuggets. We were actually able to substitute his staple lunch item, the PB sandwich, with these nuggets with zero fuss.
I've not attempted the muffins or pizza again, but the nuggets and Super Food have stuck.
Hey there. While Katy isn't really super picky, she does NOT like to eat her veggies so it feels like a constant struggle to make sure she gets more than carbs in her diet. I'm not sure how Jonas takes some of the following foods that I've found work my little one:
ReplyDeleteI juice veggies and fruit in the juicer in order to get Katy to drink her veggies. She missing some of the fiber, but hey, it's still veggies!
As for the pizza, instead of hiding the spinach puree under the cheese, I actually mix the spinach puree in with the tomato sauce and then assemble like a normal pizza. I have also found that carrot and squash puree work especially well for this application.
Katy loves mac and cheese. In order to make it more of a meal, I like to mix in a can of veggies and/or puree of carrots/squash (aka something orange/yellow) in with the cheese sauce.
As for the muffins, I've made applesauce squash cake and gotten Katy to eat some extra veggies this way. http://allthingskaty.blogspot.com/2012/01/applesauce-squash-cake.html
Oh, and for cookies- Katy is allergic to eggs so I've been forced to get creative when it comes to baking. I will substitute 1/4 cup applesauce or squash for 1 egg in a recipe.
Not sure if any of that helps you, or not, but I thought I'd at least share. Good luck!