As many other par­ents of preschool­ers find, I have dis­cov­ered my chil­dren do not eat every­thing I offer them.  Yes, I know, not com­pletely shock­ing.  Although they are beau­ti­ful and sweet and intel­li­gent, they are not per­fect.  I have often referred to my kids as picky when I talk about their eat­ing habits with oth­ers.  I’m won­der­ing if I need to change my per­spec­tive on that, though.  Are they picky?  What is a picky eater?  Is it a child who won’t eat healthy foods?  A child who only eats a few foods?  A child who won’t try new foods?

At our house, break­fast is a sev­eral hour event.  For break­fast, the boys often start out with a bowl of grapes, an apple, or some other type of fruit that we have in the fridge.  Then, round 2 is usu­ally a grain like pan­cakes, toast, or cereal.  Round three is fruit again.  Lunch is usu­ally pretty sim­ple.  We often have mac­a­roni and cheese, sand­wiches, or soup with more fruit and fresh, raw veg­eta­bles (bell pep­pers, car­rots, cau­li­flower, or broc­coli).  The boys will usu­ally eat sugar snap peas and green beans, too, if we have them.  Sup­per is where the “pick­i­ness” comes in.  A often refuses to even try any of the meals I make.  He will usu­ally eat all the ingre­di­ents sep­a­rately (cheese, tor­tillas, lentils, salsa, chips) but won’t eat them together (lentil tacos with chips and salsa).  K will usu­ally try one bite of what­ever I make.  He often says he likes it.  Then, he pro­ceeds to eat only the fruits and veg­gies and breads that are available.

Ear­lier this week, I asked an online friend if she had any thoughts on this topic.  After think­ing about what she said, talk­ing with some other friends, and watch­ing my children’s choices, I’m won­der­ing if I am too con­cerned about this.  Many par­ents work daily to get their chil­dren to eat fruits, veg­gies, and pro­teins.  I am work­ing to get my kids to com­bine these foods into what I con­sider to be meals.  Is it really a prob­lem if I have to leave some sweet potato and some chick­peas out of the soup instead of serv­ing them as a soup to the boys?  Should I really worry if they don’t want chili but will eat the beans, veg­gies, and bread?

I’m start­ing to think that no, in fact, this is just fine, and prob­a­bly age appro­pri­ate.  I’m start­ing to think that because I don’t have to worry about my kids eat­ing fruit, veg­eta­bles, pro­teins, or whole grains, I should prob­a­bly stop look­ing for con­cerns where there aren’t any.

Are your kids picky?  Are you picky?  Should we really spend so much time and energy on things that are prob­a­bly devel­op­men­tal and are prob­a­bly a stage anyway?

For some time now, I’ve been look­ing for a fab­u­lous recipe for hum­mus. I’ve found a few that are fine. I found one that was decent. I also found one that was not good at all. I just haven’t found one that is great, though.

I really like the hum­mus from the store. It’s so expen­sive though for such a lit­tle con­tainer. I should be able to make my own for a frac­tion of the price, right? Well, I can make my own, but it’s missing…something. Mine seems to have a bland taste and not be rich and deep like the fla­vor of the store bought hummus.

My recipes are all pretty sim­i­lar. They all con­tain chickpeas/garbanzo beans, olive oil, lemon juice, tahini, gar­lic, and salt. I just vary the pro­por­tions of each ingre­di­ent, but I just can’t get it right! Heather! Do you have any gourmet magic? Any­one else? Even sit­ting here, I’m get­ting a crav­ing now for some really good hum­mus. Too bad the stuff I made on Sun­day is just okay.