A few weeks ago I wrote about my desire to find new and innovative ways to get our more picky eaters to eat foods that are a little better for them without resorting to extremes.  Armed with a box full of kids cookbooks I set out to test things out on my young panel to see if there are any tell tale techniques out there that would get my daughter (Jaymi 2 ½) to eat more protein and her cousin (Douglas, 6) to eat more green vegetables.  

The book I used on these two taste testers was “Toddler Café” by Jennifer Carden (Chronicle Books, 2008).  What I loved about this 50 recipe book is Jennifer’s old school approach to feeding kids and getting them involved in the cooking process.  The recipes are straightforward and they are things that the whole family can enjoy. Like me Ms. Carden doesn’t always buy into having to make two or three different meals to satisfy the eaters in your family.  I mean seriously who has time for that.  Isn’t that one of the reasons why we yearn for the day when our babies can eat table food?  No more jars of this or bottles of that or time spent pureeing up your own goodies which is an awesome thing to do if you can and something we’ll talk about in a later article, but let’s be honest, it’s a great day when you don’t have to do it anymore. 

First we’ll start with Jaymi, my kid, child of one parent who is a foodie and the other parent who thinks he’s a foodie (ha ha).  Jaymi is probably a parent’s dream in some respects because she eats most vegetables except for corn, carrots, and potatoes.  She also doesn’t really care for sweets, no cakes and pies for her, its mainly fresh fruit, ice cream, and the occasional chocolate chip cookie.  The problem?  She doesn’t eat a lot of protein.  She likes eggs, American cheese slices (deli brand not Kraft), but no fish, meat or beans other than a beef hot dog (I’m in a voluntary state of denial about how terrible they are for our kids) or chicken nuggets.  All of the recipes featured in the protein chapter of Toddler Café were absolute winners but the two that Jaymi really loved were the “Lord of the Apple Rings” and the “A-maize-ing egg scramble”. 

“Lord of the Apple Rings” had many of the flavors that Jaymi already loves, apples & spinach but this time chopped up and combined with Chicken apple sausage and shaped into finger friendly meatballs. I can’t remember the last time I’d seen her that excited at the dinner table! Even better I didn’t feel like I was deceiving her, I simply enhanced the flavor by combining it with things that she is familiar with.  The added spinach and fresh apple didn’t change the flavor of the sausage one bit, if anything it brought the flavor out and it also created a bit of a different texture, which I often think is another one of the issues that Jaymi has with meat.  My husband and I also happily dined on these little meat sensations with her, accompanied with some buttery orzo pasta. 

The “A-maize-ing egg scramble” was something I tried out one Saturday morning as a substitute to the pancakes her father usually makes for her.  One thing I forgot to mention about Jaymi is that she loves “chips” and “chip-like” snacks.  Chips, pretzels, cheese puffs (I blame my mother who I believe single handedly keeps Lays in business with the amount of chips she buys).  When I saw that this recipe combining scrambled eggs with crushed tortilla chips I knew it was going to be a winner.  The dish combines two scrambled eggs with crushed tortilla ships and shredded cheddar cheese. The fact that Jaymi ate another cheese besides American nearly brought tears to my eyes (just imagine how I’ll be when she finally tries goat cheese!).  It was quick, simple, a combination I would have never thought of and pretty darn good.  Huevos Rancheros for the younger set.  Now that I think about it, a little added tomato sauce would have been a nice touch too.  I could go on and on about the other great protein recipes that continued to wow my youngster but I have to move on to my next taster. 

Another one of the great things about “Toddler Café” is that even though it is a cookbook that targets kids from ages 2-5 it is still a winner for the older set.  In the book the author covers teaching children how to clean up after themselves when preparing meals and other ways your kids can assist you in the kitchen.  Plus, the recipes are easy enough for that older child to make some of them on their own.  Douglas is the total opposite of Jaymi; he’s a real meat and potatoes man who won’t touch his vegetables.  Douglas’s mother is a smoking hot Latina who cooks traditional Latin American cuisine, lots of pork, rice, potatoes, and beans, no green veggies or fresh fruits. I knew I’d have my work cut out for me.  The first recipe I made for him was something called “let us roll-up”.  A combination of seasoned ground beef with a little chopped broccoli and carrots served on romaine lettuce leaves and garnished with chopped peanuts.  At first he took one look at it and pushed his plate aside.  Even a stern talking to by his police officer father wasn’t enough to sway him.  But eventually I won him over by promising him a trip to the zoo.  Initially, he just ate the ground beef and I was happy with that since it had carrots and broccoli mixed in, but he did end up nibbling on a piece of lettuce after I told him that was what bunny rabbits eat to make them strong.  I also had his mother season the ground beef with flavors that were familiar to him, garlic powder, spicy peppers, etc again to enhance the flavor of the unfamiliar with the familiar.  I found out that his mother made the dish a second time and this time he ate everything, so did his 12 year old sister and 14 year old brother. 

The other recipe that converted Douglas into a now occasional vegetable eater was the “Swamp Soup”. A six year old boy’s dream - something that looks like slime: vegetable broth, onion, garlic, zucchini, and avocado. At first he did look at his mother and I like we were crazy but we waited patiently and finally he took one piece of a toasted baguette and dipped it into the soup, then another, and after what felt like an eternity he finished the whole bowl and ran away from the dinner table at lightening speed.  His mother swears that he only ate those things because his favorite big cousin (me) asked him too.  But the good news is that now he will at least try eating vegetables and his older siblings are following suit.  

I’ve got to say I didn’t think I’d have such good luck my first time out with my taste testers, especially Douglas, but I truly believe that if you arm yourself with the right recipes and some patience, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results.  If all else fails you could go really old school on them “You don’t leave the dinner table until you clean your plate”. How many of you remember that?  Sometimes I think we still need a little old school with these new school kids.  Next article I’m going to check in on my buddy Jake, age 11, who is learning how to cook for himself and see how he made out with some of the items I gave him. 

About Chef Heather

Chef Heather (aka Foodie Princess) is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City (formerly Peter Kumps New York Cooking School). She has worked for Gourmet Magazine, TV Personality Katie Brown, and the New York based Indian-fusion restaurant Tabla. Chef Foodie Princess resides in New Jersey with her husband and daughter and is in the process of launching her own Personal Chef Service "The Princess & The Pea".