Solving the Problem of Picky Eaters

I have raised picky eaters.  I know this.  And I know that it is primarily my fault.  Lame.  Having picky eaters means that trying new recipes is always a rather hellish experience.  You find a recipe.  You buy the ingredients.  You spend time preparing the recipe.  It arrives at the table.  And people fuss and moan.  I tend to take this personally.  And suddenly dinner becomes an obstacle, something that makes me dread the end of the day.  No good.

My dilemma:  I want my kids to try new foods, but I hate the process of researching, buying, cooking, crashing and burning.

Two weeks ago during my quiet time (yes, I pray about stuff like this) I was ranting to Jesus about how much I despise dinner time.  And He brought to mind something that a friend has been doing called Blue Apron.  They send you recipes with all the ingredients.  There are online videos you can watch.  It's a different recipe every time.  New foods.  Less work.

I figured it was way out of our budget.  My sister-in-law uses the phrase "for rich people."  Right?  Nope.  For two meals a week, it was just a little more than what I would spend at the grocery store for the same stuff.  That's about how often I feel like I can get away with introducing new stuff to the boys.  Twice a week.  So I signed up, not really knowing how all this would shake down.

We received our first Blue Apron box on Friday and tried our first meal out on Saturday.  Erik actually did all the cooking because my sinus infection continues to lay me a bit low.  Our first recipe was Chicken Parmesan with Fresh Mozzarella and Spinach-Zucchini Pasta.  We made a slight variation for the boys.  Instead of topping their chicken with the diced tomato and onion saute, we topped theirs with plain tomato sauce with a touch of brown sugar, a variation of my much-beloved meat sauce.  We plated the food and made it look shiny.  Presentation is everything, right?

We also grabbed two marbles for each boy (worth ten minutes of weekend video game time) and put them on the table.  We explained to the boys that the marbles would be earned by trying everything and only saying positive things about the meal.  And it worked.  They totally ate the food.  Yes, they were unsure.  Yes, they balked a bit.  But they both tried the chicken and ate it.  Paul ate half of his chicken breast and loads of pasta.  Luke ate all of his chicken and all of his pasta.  SUCCESS.  I'm not kidding.  I nearly wept.

Tonight was our second Blue Apron evening.  We had spent some time talking with the boys about how Blue Apron nights are always going to be something new.  And we told them that our next meal was going to be catfish.  Yes.  Catfish.

Erik and I cooked together this time.  Dukkah-Crusted Catfish with Sugar Snap Pea & Couscous Salad.  I know.  I felt like it might be asking too much of them.  But I just decided to go with it.  The kitchen smelled amazing.  We plated the food again.  We put the marbles on the table, reminded them how to earn them, and prayed over the food.  They ate it.  For real.  My kids ate catfish.  They struggled more with the couscous because it was a larger variety than they are used to and we put lemon on it.  They don't love lemon.  Guess what?  I can serve the lemon wedges on the side and folks can lemon their own couscous next time, boys.

At the end of the meal, Luke actually said something like, "I like Blue Apron."  Me, too, buddy.  For sure.

 No, I won't stop and pose.  I'm eating.  (Our first night, Paul decimated his Spinach Zucchini Pasta.)

Empty chicken plate.  Working on his pasta.  Also unwilling to stop eating and pose.  :-)