Tonight Nalin made an awesome stir fry. I think he's sort of perfected the art. He makes it slightly different every time, but the two main ingredients are pretty consistent: chicken and celery. Today he added leeks, carrots, a zucchini, and a bit of spinach. Seasoned simply with a few drops of sesame oil, soy sauce, and black pepper, and it is ready to top off the rice. This is a favorite dish around the house. Tonight, Ettu remarked, "Delicious, papa," as he spooned in large bites. And this brings me to a topic that seems to come up quite often in my conversations with friends and family: how to get kids to eat healthy and diverse food.
Prior to writing tonight, I was reading an article on the Dr. Sears website (a favorite parenting reference around here) entitled "Nutri-Tip—Ways to Introduce New Foods to Picky Eaters." It got me thinking about how lucky we've been to be able to feed our boys (3-1/2 and nearly 2) a variety of foods like the stir fry mentioned above, and they really seem to enjoy almost everything (don't get me wrong, we have had many meals or days, for that matter, when they have refused everything we have offered). Ironically, the one thing I can rarely get them to eat is macaroni and cheese. The article has some great tips on how to diversify your child's palette. It strikes me that many adults would benefit from this advice as well. My favorite line in the article is "Don't expect love at first bite." Ultimately, the goal is to make eating a satisfying and interesting experience. And we certainly can't expect our kids to eat in ways that differ drastically from our own. If we ourselves are hesitant to try new things and eat healthy ingredients, then why would we think our children would be any different?
A stir fry, like an Indian curry dish, or even a layered pasta, incorporates several ingredients in one bite. It challenges the typical American notion of the dinner plate with the meat, the vegetable, the grain/bread, and the fruit/jello all in distinct and separate locales. I've always thought that this type of dinner automatically sets a parent up for failure, as the comparisons from meat to vegetable, from bread to fruit, create conflicts in little minds as they struggle to find the one thing on the plate that they like to eat, rather than experiencing the meal as a whole. And parents often seem a bit hesitant to let their children experiment with new foods, spices, textures, assuming that their children "won't like that." Who knows? They just might surprise you.
Both of my boys did not eat much of anything solid until the age of one. With Ettu we were so excited to make our own baby food at home with all organic ingredients and a food mill. From the age of six months on he'd barely have 3-4 bites of any of it at one sitting (he never even touched the rice cereals). We were frustrated and nervous when at age one he had still hardly ventured from the Os or berries we'd put in front of him on the table. That is until we talked to our pediatrician who, upon hearing that I was still breastfeeding, told us not to worry, that he's getting what he needs and will eventually start showing more interest in food. Sure enough, at just past one year, he went straight for the mango guacamole (with cumin, garlic, and lime) Nalin had made one night for a party. He ate almost an entire bowl. From that moment on, we fed him what we were eating and have done pretty well ever since (Korean tofu soup was a favorite of Ettu's for a while). It seems that he just needed a little flavor and spice!
I know that this openness may not last forever as our children grow and become more independent, but I'm hoping that we can encourage a love and curiosity of food that will last throughout their lives. That is the ultimate goal, perhaps. When you are open to new experiences, then there tends to be a natural link to good ingredients, a new way to use spices, and hopefully a connection to a broader world around you. And cooking at home is always the healthiest option. Knowing what is going into your food is half the battle.