I’ve given up.

I’m so tired of making nutritious meals that invariably end up being thrown away. Of course I make them eat at least a little bit, but chances are, those bites are the only thing that gets eaten. And the culprit is mainly veggies.

I’ve done everything the “right” way and still, my kids hate vegetables. And my husband probably wouldn’t eat them if it wasn’t for me putting them in everything I make.

At Borders last week I was browsing some of the parenting books while keeping an eye on the kids and came across that Deceptively Delicious book and read through it. I’ve always been firmly set in the “if its not on their plate they will never get used to eating it” camp, but I am so tired of mealtimes becoming a battlegroud that I decided to go ahead and try the sneaky strategy. So far? It has worked brilliantly.

I’m still serving veggies and they are still eating a few bites. But they are also eating all of their swiss steak packed with pureed spinach and broccoli. And they never noticed the butternut squash & carrot puree in their brownies… in fact Ozzie said they were “so yummy I’m going to die!” (He’s a wee bit dramatic sometimes…). I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with overripe banana and ground flax seed that my husband devoured in one evening. And I’ve managed to not wince when they ask for mac n cheese or beanies and weenies for lunch… its really easy to hide some pureed veggies in those and they always lick the plates clean!

In a perfect world my kids would run out to the garden and snack on sugar peas and freshly dug carrots when they were hungry, but we live in a little place called reality. So while I will still encourage a varied and wholesome appetite, I can feel better knowing that like it or not, they are getting plenty of veggies and fruits!

So what do you all think about the fact that we could go from an obesity epidemic to famine in the matter of a few months? This world is a crazy place.