Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Every once in a while I feel like I have this motherhood thing figured out

Have you ever tried to feed Sophie lunch?  Since almost all my readership is made up of family members, I'll take that as a yes from most of you.  And for those who haven't...well, trust me, it isn't fun.  The kid eats 4 things: 
  1. tuna, 
  2. fish sticks, 
  3. chicken nuggets
  4. plain pasta  

I call it the beige diet.  Well OK, maybe it's a little exageration, she also eats 
  1. soup, 
  2. bean (only bean, no cheese) burritos, 
  3. hot dogs, 
  4. french fries
  5. cheese pizza (the only time she'll eat cheese at all)
  6. and...and...and nothing, that's the end of the list.  

OK, what is wrong with this list in terms of school lunches?  8 of the 9 items on her list taste like crap cold.  Seriously, I don't even blame her here, cold fish sticks? Ewww.  And the ONLY item that is good cold you can't feed a kid every day cause of the mercury content.  (Yes, that would be the tuna.)

So, what's a mom to do?  Buy her lunch tickets and let her buy a hot lunch that's what.  But that can only go on so long.  I know she only eats the cheese pizza, and has no veggies or fruit whatsoever.  So I've been searching for a satisfactory lunch box meal.  PB&J? Nope. Kid likes neither peanut butter nor jelly.  Lunch meat sandwich? Nope, won't eat them.  Cold pizza? Nope.  

But a week ago I had a genius idea.  What if I shredded up cooked chicken, really small, mixed it with mayonaise, and called it tuna? What if??  So I tried it. And you know what? She LIKED it!  Miracle! TAAAAADAAAAAA! Ding, Ding, Ding, little Mommy bells go off.  And to top it off, Zoe likes it too!! A double winner!!!

So for the next 10 years I'll be making Sophie chicken salad sandwiches (in pita bread mind you, she doesn't like any regular bread, except for the end/crust pieces, weird) and calling them tuna pita sandwiches. And I'll wink at Zoe, and she'll know what she's really having.  

And someday Sophie will read this and say, YOU LIED?? About my sandwiches????  And I'll fess up and say, "YEP!  But I prefer to call it creative parenting."  

2 comments:

Natalie said...

how fun! my kids are pretty brave when it comes to trying new foods. after living overseas for 7 years they didn't have much choice! i capitalized on their food issues on my blog in a series of taste tests! here's a link if you are interested.

http://dixonsturkey.blogspot.com/2008/11/taste-test-final-turkey-edition.html

JustMe said...

I remember when I was nannying Matt and his mother insisted that we call rice cakes "cookies" and pack them in his pre school lunches. Took the kid only two days to come home with the murderous look in his eyes and bits of choc chip cookie still clinging to his lips!