No one eats more interestingly than a fussy little person. Take my son, Benjamin for example.
“What’s for dinner, Mom?” he asked me just last night, while sitting expectantly at the kitchen table.
“Chicken! And tomato sauce! And rice!” I exclaimed with that fake mother cheer that sends a chill down every woman’s spine. “All mixed up together with a little fish in it and a few peppers!”
This is an important tip. Never give a child the meal’s real name. Always divide it up in to the component parts that the kid has actually been known to eat on occasion.
Oh course, this is an age sensitive tip. Josef, who is 10 and a full 2 years older than Benj, is at that ‘let-me-tell-you-everything-I-know’ stage.
“I think she means we are eating the leftover paella she made for her friends last night,” Joe told Ben with the self-satisfied air of a kid who eats whatever’s on his plate.
D-oh! Thanks, Joe. Benj’s face froze in that horrified look children reserve for people who are trying to either maim them, or feed them unfamiliar food stuffs.
“Why don’t you just pick out the bits you want to eat, love?” I urged, placing bowlfuls of what was, indeed, leftover paella in front of both of them. Josef started wolfing his down.
“It’s too late,” said Benj, in resignation. “All the bits have already touched all the other bits. But it’s okay. Do we have any leftovers of food I do eat?”
I took a deep breath.
“Well, Benj… at last reckoning, you eat precisely 5 things. Spaghetti bolognaise, Cheddar on toast, bacon pizza, Granny Smith apples, and – inexplicably enough – salmon maki.”
And so, as per many nights, cheese toast with a side of apple slices it was.
People, I need help. I asked Chef Caro to make some suggestions on what to feed a fussy little person, and these are the suggestions she made:
· Banana, honey and apple smoothie – really healthy, a meal in a glass and just like a milkshake.
· Cheese and biltong frittata – all the things they eat in one easy hand-held slice. Great for any time of day.
· Gourmet boerewors rolls – you can change the fillings to suit your fussy little one.
· Glazed chicken drumsticks with sweet potato wedges – add a bit of sweetness and they gobble it all up.
But I want to hear from you too, readers. Do you have fussy kids? What do they eat? I promise to try out what you suggest and the person who supplies a dish that Benj will actually eat, will get a R250 Kalahari voucher. Yes, I am that desperate.
Yours, up to my elbows in apple peels,