It’s come to my attention that mothers are threatening children with my blog recipes, ie mummy snaps: “If you keep complaining about your dinner, I’ll give you what the Sprogs are having – lamb korma curry with roti bread.” Then they read out the ingredients as their children wail: “Noooo, Mummy, stop! That sounds disgusting! Stop, stop!” Which is not entirely what I had in mind when I started putting recipes in my posts. The idea was to give parents alternatives to schnitzel and sausages. Or, at the very least, additions to schnitzel and sausages to make them a bit more interesting for grown-ups. When I was pregnant with Sprog 1, Husband and I fantasised about our Mini-Me, who’d sitting with us in exotic restaurants, patting her little belly and saying “Very good food, mummy and daddy.” Imagine our disappointment at her initial, horrified reaction to food (see above). But she quickly got into the swing of things and loved everything from Thai takeaway to tomato and olive salad (though she never developed a taste for mashed orange stuff). We were the annoying parents who’d smugly announce, “Sprog 1 can’t bear chicken nuggets. Her favourite foods are strawberries, olives and prawns.” Flush with culinary success, I embarked on an A-Z of world cuisine with the Sprogs. Once a month we’d spend a day learning about a country and then eat in a restaurant serving its cuisine. We started with Austria, then Brazil, then China, then Denmark, then Egypt. When we moved to New York, the idea went on hold, though there was a very nice Ethiopian restaurant around the corner from our apartment. I’m hoping to revive the A-Z one day, when Sprog 2 stops wailing “too spicy” all the time (Greek, Hungarian, Indian, Japanese, Lebanese, Maltese etc are calling my name). Sadly, while we were overseas, Sprog 1 stopped loving exotic cuisine and started wanting plain pasta, chips and sausages every meal. (Sprog 2 refused to eat pretty much everything from word go, so we had no illusions where she was concerned.) I was bitterly disappointed, but I towed the line. At first. Eventually I got cross. I like my food. I like it with lots of flavour and variety. So I thought bugger it, they are going to expand their horizons. After much moaning, they’ve learned to suck it up princesses. They eat it or there’s no dessert/milk before bedtime. I don’t challenge their tastebuds every night, they still eat lots of spaghetti and sausages. But I make them try different stuff too, like tagines and curries and soups. Things I want to cook and eat. And they’ve discovered they like korma, lemon chicken and roasted tomato soup, if they stop complaining long enough to actually try it.
housegoeshome 
Good on you too Alana! How are they ever going to know if they don’t try it? We were all reading (out loud, in really loud voices…) “Green Eggs & Ham” last night. Love that book. All time favourite from childhood.
Our sprogs are quite good at the don’t knock before you try it mentality, as it’s been drummed into them since birth. For our Sprog 1, it’s never an issue to get her to try something (unless it’s worms) and 9 out of 10 times she goes for it. Waitresses are amazed at what she orders when we go out (Eggs Benedict with Salmon & a side of mushrooms is her all time breakfast fav.). Sprog 2 is a bit less sure, but most often gives it a go and then goes back to the plain pasta (or scrambled eggs on toast). Sprog 3 is going through the eat anything I put in my mouth stage – including dirt, snot, day old fruit found under the coffee table etc., so I guess only time will tell what his approach will be (eats bits of everyone else’s breakfast as well as his own at the moment! – big fat pig).
Keep up the good work.
PS. Am loving the blog! Would love to comment on every post but often read it “on the run”. So relevant, so honest, so real. Love it.
I can relate to this post my eldest daughter doesn’t eat most foods she ate when she was a little one and will inform me ‘well mum I liked it when I was little I don’t now that I am big’. And my middle child is starting to head that way too, so I sit there signing the try it you might like it song from Yo Gabba Gabba most meal times much to my husbands amusement lol. We struggled with our now 10mth old son to start solids as he was not a fan of the whole mashed food process to the point we were sent to a speech pathologist to see if there was something wrong with his mouth, turns out there was nothing wrong with his mouth he really dislikes mashed food and will sit and eat feeding himself quiet happily if it is chopped into little pieces his fingers can pick up.
thanks for a great read.
Ah, we all get through it in the end. I actually got Sprog 2 to eat roast beef the other night. Progress!