Cooking for Everyone

The short order cook, she doesn't live here anymore!

In the past couple of weeks, I've worked really hard on getting Will to try new things. Some are met with success (pork) and others are not. (Peaches, salmon) We had gotten into the habit of asking Will all the time what he wanted for dinner, and being surprised (gasp!) when he'd say the same things over and over. Grilled cheese. Cereal bar. (The answer is no.....that's for breakfast!) Chicken. And lately, hot dogs. So several times a week, I introduce him to something new. He has to give it a bite, and if he doesn't like it, he doesn't have to eat any more. (We call it the "No Thank You" bite.) At first it wasn't successful, but he's coming around.

Then, I decided that I'm tired of cooking separate things for the picky toddler. So, after a hard look at our weekly menu choices for ourselves, I thought that it might be nice to make it a little more kid-friendly. No, I'm not making all of us grilled cheese sandwiches, hamburgers and french fries. Tonight's dinner was pork loin in the crockpot. It was a really easy recipe: season the pork loin and dump it in, followed by thinly sliced sweet potatoes and onion, and then dump apple juice over the whole thing and cook on low for 8 hours. Who can't love a recipe like that? Just Set it and Forget it!

To Will's credit, he tried the sweet potato without too much cajoling.  And true to my word, when he spit it out I didn't make him try another piece.  He did, however, eat the pork, the green beans, the applesauce and of course, the biscuit.  Further proof that he's our kid:  "Oh, I love biscuits!"  :)  Slowly but surely, making progress.