Feeding MY Picky Eater

As most of you know, or don't know, Daniel is a very picky eater. He basically survived on Breast milk, starch, and a few fruits until he was 15 months old. Then he added a few more items to his daily menu. At 22 months old (tomorrow), I can say that his eating has grown by leaps and bounds and he still only eats about 15 things (peanut butter, yogurt, most fruits, cucumber, carrots, bell peppers, most breads, chicken nuggets, pizza, nuts, waffles), not including sweets, of course! We are slowly trying to trick him into eating more food, but our kid is smart. He analyzes everything before he puts it in his mouth. He pokes it, squeezes it, licks it. If it passes the crunchy AND sweet test, then he usually will take a bite. If it is just crunchy it gets a little nibble. If it is soft, you can forget about it!

Sam and I have set a new goal: get Daniel to eat one new food a month! So far we have had two successes for the month of February! Since it is now fish stick season Daniel has eaten ONE fish stick! We have tried this before, but never dipped in ketchup. Somehow that helped to get it down. He sucked all the ketchup off the plate via fish stick then finally took a little nibble to realize it kinda tasted like a chicken nugget then he finally finished it 15 minutes later! Our second success has been with pasta. Just two days ago I had a rotini pasta that a friend made me for a baby shower. It was a bit lacking so I smothered it in cheese and added chicken. I put a big scoop on Sam's plate and Daniel looked at it and said "ZA ZA!" (his word for pizza). We put a few noodles on his plate and YEA! he ate them (just the noodles, not the chicken). Very fast actually. This trick also worked with lasagna (once again, just the noodles, not the meat). I guess noodles just aren't appealing unless smothered in cheese (although he won't touch mac and cheese for some reason).

Since this is the best way for me to keep a record of Daniel's eating (for his and my future enjoyment) I will try to update this every month with our success. Now I will post a recipe for some muffins that make me smile. If you need to sneak in fiber and fruit into breakfast then try this recipe (taken from an old issue of Taste of Home). Daniel eats these so fast you would think they were full of sugar (but they aren't!). Enjoy!

Raisin Bran Muffins
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup veg. oil
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup All-Bran (use this cereal for highest fiber content but any other plain healthy cereal should work too)
3/4 cup of a/p flour
3/4 cup of whole wheat flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (I usually add an extra tbs or so or they are a bit too bland for my taste)
3 ts baking powder
1 ts ground cinn.
1/2 ts baking soda
1/4 ts salt
1/2 cup (or more) of raisins (I just realized i added a cup and everything turned out great)

Combine first 5 ingredients and let mixture soak for 5 minutes. In another bowl combine rest of ingredients except raisins. Combine two bowls until blended and fold in raisins (batter will be thick). Bake at 375 for 10 min for mini muffins or 15-10 minutes for regular muffins. Makes 12 regular muffins or 24-36 mini muffins (depending on pan size).