Lessons, Learned the Hard Way

  This blog is still a newborn and I have already learned a few things.

1) Clean up the part of the kitchen that will show up in the background of your pictures. Doh!

2) Boyz in their underwares (what we call them)  do not belong on blogs. Dudes, put on some clothes!

3) If the pics look good to me they end up being too dark on the  blog. Do they look too dark to you?

4) I need to start with a lot of kid-friendly foods so that my boyz get used to trying new things. The first recipes we will showcase are no-brainer kid foods with just a touch of adventure. We need to work into this slowly or it will be a big bust. We need 'buy in'.

5) Appearance, texture and description rule the day. Taste comes last for kids. It will never make it past their lips if it looks funny, is too chunky/crunchy/chewy/pastey/you name it. Go for the types of looks and textures they already love. Hint: My kids love all white foods. Pasta, mashed potatoes, bread, etc. Cauliflower, roasted to a soft and acceptable texture? Yum. Favorite flavors can also make a food more palatable. Cheesy, buttery, bacon-ey (is that a word). These all help.

6) Dipping sauces. Kids love to dip. Honey mustard, ranch dressing, ketchup, sweet cream cheese dips, etc. If they can dip it, they can eat it.

7) If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Make it look a little different. (Oh those perfect memories they have....) Serve it in a different way. Add a spin to it. Be creative! Add a face to it and have them eat the monster. Add legs and have them chew them off, with lots of noises. Tell them they are the huge monster eating the village. Whatever works.

8) Show them you like lots of different things. Modeling behavior works in so many different ways. They learn so much by watching us. It's not what we say, but what we do that is important.