Family Dinner

At some point in her early eating career, Froggy turned picky. We have no idea how it happened. She started solids at some point between 4 and 5 months (she was interested, capable and raring to have a go at it) and was not limited to bland foods (watermelon licks, split pea broth, spiced pears, etc). At one she was eating eggs with habanero cheese, pesto, soup broths and paneer tikka masala. And then, bit by bit, foods were phased out until she was down to a small list of acceptable nums (yogurt, dry cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, peanut butter and jelly, pita bread and taziki sauce, meatballs, and all manner of salty, sweet and "bad"-for-you snack foods). We would constantly introduce new foods, constantly give her tastes of whatever we were eating, constantly cajole, beg and bribe her to try something... just LICK it, for goodness sake! This limited food plan was killing us because we are crazy adventurous eaters- there's just about nothing I wouldn't be willing to taste once (hell, my uncle showed up at a family party with homemade Beaver Stew one day and I shrugged and took a bite). We enjoy trying new restaurants and new recipes- cooking is one of the primary hobbies in our house.

We know we are at least partially to blame. 2 nights a week Froggy eats dinner at her grandparents' house, so on Tuesday and Thursday her dinners have to be compact, easy to travel with, sure fire meals because if she doesn't eat her dinner her grandparents will happily let her fill up on whatever she asks for in exchange (Cheese puffs? Sure. Lollipops? Why not.) Fridays is pizza night- a food that she enjoys- and the other 4 days we contributed to the problem by feeding her around 6, putting her to bed around 7 and then settling in for a quiet, relaxed, child-free dinner around 8. But as Froggy approaches 3, we are realizing we have to take the bull by the horns (the toddler by the fork?) and deal with this head on. Thus, we have instituted Family Dinner.

Family Dinner is, currently, about as painful and formidable as it sounds. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday (which is easy), and at least one weekend day we now involve Froggy in the preparation of the meal, help her set the table, put all of the food out family style (which creates SO MANY more dishes to do later) and eat together. Or, at least, Julie and I eat together and watch Froggy devour half a loaf of bread or a nearly unhealthy number of carrot sticks (we try to have something on the table that is on her "yes" list but not overly exciting). Between bites we wheel and deal to get a few morsels of whatever we are eating into her mouth (we insist that she be polite and taste something new- if she spits it out, she has to taste something else. In the end, SOMETHING has to make it to the esophagus) in hopes that repeated exposure will convince her that we are not trying to poison her on a daily basis.

We've been at it for a little over a week.

Tonight we decided on Mark Bittman's Paella with Pasta. It is quick, easy and not outrageously adventurous in terms of a flavor profile. Even better- it provides and AWESOME opportunity for a toddler to help in the kitchen. One of the ingredients is spaghetti broken into 2 inch pieces

Froggy breaking 8 oz of pasta into teeny tiny pieces- kept her busy while I did everything else!

After breaking up the pasta and helping cut the red peppers with a pumpkin carving knife (that was pretty much ineffectual- I think I'm just gonna give her a pairing knife and keep bandaids handy), Froggy went off to play until Mommy got home for Family Dinner.

I kinda wish I was writing to report that our less-than-two-week effort at turning our toddler into a foodie was a blinding success and I'm now ready to pen my own authoritative tome on the topic. Froggy ate 1 3/4 slices of buttered whole wheat toast, 4 or 5 pieces of broken spaghetti, a few nibbles of a shrimp and a single green pea. At some point Julie realized that the glass fish in our candle could be used as a bribe, ABA style to get her to taste small bites ("Eat one piece of pasta and you can have all of the red fishes. Just one. Use your fork. OK, if it won't stay on the fork, use your fingers. Not a bite, a whole piece. Don't spit it into your hand. Put it back in your mouth. Chew. Chew. CHEW. Good... just swallow it and you can have the fish.") From the picture below you can see that she ate about 5 or 6 individual pieces of food- one for each color catagory. We are hoping to one day whittle it down to a fish for each bite. But hey--- she nibbled a shrimp?

Below is the recipe we used. It came out pretty tasty. I added about a tablespoon of hot sauce (to my own portion) and used A LOT more water than it called for when cooking.

Paella with noodles

Mark Bittman

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 8 ounces any long, thin pasta, preferably whole wheat, broken into 2-inch or shorter lengths
• Salt and black pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon saffron threads, optional
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 cups fresh or frozen peas
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1⁄2 cup water or stock, plus more as needed
• 8 ounces scallops, squid, clams, mussels, or shrimp, or a combination
• 1⁄4 cup chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
• Lemon wedges

Preparation

1. Put the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When it's hot, add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until they begin to soften, 3 to 5 minutes; remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. Add the noodles to the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring constantly, until they brown (try not to let them blacken).

2. Return the onion and garlic to the pan and add the saffron, paprika, peas and bell pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes more. Add the water and cook, stirring and adding more liquid if things start to stick, until the noodles are nearly tender and everything is just starting to dry out, about 15 minutes.

3. Stir in the seafood and cook, stirring occasionally and adding a little more water or stock if you like, until it is just cooked through (large shrimp and scallops will take about 5 minutes; small or chopped shrimp about 3 minutes; squid no more than 1 minute). Taste and adjust the seasoning. Stir in the parsley and serve with the lemon wedges.