Eating our Gs

I've been so proud of B's willingness to try new foods this summer (despite the fact that he hasn't liked the vast majority of them). I must have jinxed it by mentioning my pride in my previous post. I took the kiddos to Dubuque on Monday to visit the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. Many members of my side of the family met us there. I had packed graham crackers to surprise them with a sweet treat on the long drive home, but before that, we all went to lunch at Olive Garden. My plans for later in the week had included my purchasing and making gnocchi, which would be our new G food. When I saw there was a Chicken & Gnocchi soup on the menu, I decided it would be much easier to order that and have the kids each try a bite. E proclaimed that it tasted like mac & cheese, and L wasn't a fan. B... Well, B wanted badly to try it because we'd all been talking dessert, and goodness knows he wanted dessert. He also knew that I wouldn't likely get him dessert if he didn't try one tiny little bite of gnocchi first. And yet, he just couldn't bring himself to open his mouth. I don't know what about that little piece of pasta had him so anxious, but the audience at the table didn't help matters. Numerous times I tried to just give up making him taste it, but then he'd start to cry because he really did want to... It was a vicious cycle that downward spiraled into mild hysterics until at least half of the patrons sharing that dining room with us were watching with distaste. I quickly became that crazy mother trying to force-feed her 4 year old. Even my own mother thought I was being terrible. Three times the gnocchi touched B's tongue, only to land on the table three times. No one at the table got dessert because my other family members couldn't pay their checks and get away from us quickly enough. Epic fail. B was fine the rest of the day, of course. Sigh. 

Happy to have that new food out of the way, we all merrily enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches last night. L & I went a little crazier and made ours with Gouda, one of my all time favorite cheeses. 

Tonight we tried out our new recipe for the letter G: German Style Pot Roast. This was quite possibly the best pot roast I've had. The sauce called for an odd combo of ingredients (including, but not limited to, vinegar, ketchup, and... wait for it... a dozen Gingersnaps!). Mr. B was happy to try his pot roast with a dab of extra ketchup and the promise of an extra Gingersnap. I should have recorded him eating it and sent it to the extended family who witnessed Monday's trauma. L ate a plateful, but didn't want more. E went back for seconds (she's always been our best meat eater). I really loved this recipe. 

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*

Eating our Fs

Last week was pretty traumatic for my youngest, as he participated in his first VBS... and pretty must despised every moment of it. Odd, since he sang along to the music whenever I played it in the car and knew most of the hand motions to the songs. Anyway, by Wednesday morning, one of the volunteers had to literally peel him off of me when I dropped him off. I told him (by way of bribery and out of sheer desperation) that if he could go the rest of the morning without crying, we'd go to Wendy's afterwards for lunch (little did he know that I'd already planned to take them for Frosties). His siblings were excited to learn that because Mr. B handled the rest of the morning okay, they could have lunch there (French fries!), as well as Frosties. :) Late that day, we took L to 4-H camp with the assurance that we'd make sure he didn't miss any special F foods.

I let the kids try Fig Newtons on Thursday. I've never been a huge fan, and Mr. B didn't care for his first taste, but E loved them. After setting aside two for L, we took the package to our friends' house to share during a play date. When B saw how all the other kids were enjoying the Fig Newtons (actually, they were Fig Newmans - the Newman's Own version), he decided they were okay, after all.

The kids snacked on fresh fruit Friday (L even had plenty of that at camp, he said), and we saved the new recipe for Saturday night so L could be there with us. We made Family Friendly Fondue. It was great! Sadly, I was the only one who loved it. We had bread, red peppers, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower to dip in it. E had a decent amount, but said it wasn't her favorite food in the world. L preferred to dip his veggies in ranch dip, and B just ate the bread and carrots. Ho-hum. At least he's trying a few new things this summer!

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*

Eating our Es

Since my children have been denied the pleasure of English muffins, we made individual pizzas with them last Friday. I counted this as a new recipe, too, since I had to look up how long and at what temp to bake them. Oddly enough, only my picky little guy liked them! The older two ate them, but didn't really enjoy them.

The kiddos couldn't all agree on a food they all liked that starts with an E. So, on Monday for breakfast #1 & #2 had eggs and #3 had the last English muffin. I had intended to get some edamame to snack on (believe it or not, they will all eat it), but completely forgot.

Our E treat was Edy's ice cream (thanks to my friend Lisa, who brought it over for my birthday last week). I let the kids make s'mores sundaes with it. It was French Vanilla ice cream, marshmallow topping, dark chocolate chips, and Annie's graham bunnies. Everyone loved it. :)

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*

Eating our Ds

Our first D day happened to be my birthday, so we celebrated with yummy donuts from Topped Doughnuts, my favorite local donut shop.

On Wednesday, we tried dumplings (of the PF Chang's frozen variety). I have personally had hand made dumplings in China Town in NYC, but the kiddos have not experienced that. None of them were huge fans. I think they'd appreciate the "real" thing more, but I did not have time to attempt making them from scratch.

I did try a recipe that began with D, but only for myself. It was a Dilly Beef Sandwich, which included horseradish, dried beef, dill pickles, and tomatoes. I knew none of my children would love those flavors together, so I didn't ask them try it. It was an okay combo, but I probably wouldn't go out of my way to make one again.

Yesterday, we snacked on dried fruits... banana chips, dried apricots (per my daughter's request - and then she didn't like them), raisins, and craisins. On to Es today!

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*

Eating our Cs

Last Thursday was our first C day. We enjoyed cheese and crackers for snack time (these are definite staples in our house, since the youngest prefers to live on cheese, carbs, and sweets). For dinner, we had corn on the cob, which everyone in our family loves. It's still too early in the season for local corn, but what we found (on sale, even!) was very good.

My sister's family and our mom came to visit on Friday, and they brought along plenty of junk that began with C. Along with the sandwiches I made the kids for lunch, they gladly partook in chips, chocolate milk and chocolate chip cookies. My niece babysit while the adults went out to dinner, and my sister (whose name starts with C!) chose Cosi Cucina, without even knowing about our ABC summer plans.

Today I decided that since we made two new recipes during our B days, that I would forgo a new recipe with Cs. I had initially thought it would be fun to try making crepes, but I got too lazy. ;) We did try a food that was new to all of us. I bought some Cacao Nibs (tiny pieces of cacao beans). I explained to the kiddos that chocolate is made from cacao beans, and we all eagerly tried a piece. We now understand why sugar, butter, and other yummy ingredients are necessary in chocolate. Hopefully I can figure out how to use the rest of the nibs. Maybe they'll work in a trail mix?

After 4 hours with a (very sweet) home inspector who arrived unannounced... no thanks to our wonderful real estate agent (and a half-hour with the buyers of our home)... I was a little stressed. Casey's pizza came to the rescue tonight. It is a family favorite. Since there are no Casey's stores in the Portland area, this dinner made three very content children and a happier mom.

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*

Eating our Bs

We began our B days on Monday. It was a pretty simple day of bananas for a snack (one of the few fruits that all three children in our house love) and a summer staple for dinner: BLTs. Of course my picky little Mr. B's "BLT" was more of a cheese sandwich, but I have to pick my battles.

We tried two new recipes on our subsequent B days. One served double duty as our sweet treat and was amazing. So much so that I'm going to share the recipe with you (I sadly do not recall where online I originally found it, so I cannot cite my source - sorry!). They happen to be gluten free (which we do not require in our family) and relatively healthy as far as brownies go. They are delicious!
Dark Chocolate Brownie Bites

Makes: 24 brownies

Ingredients:

3.5 oz. dark chocolate

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/3-1/2 cup raw honey

2 organic, free-range eggs

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. almond extract

3/4 cup blanched almond flour

1/2 tsp. unrefined sea salt

Extra 1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a mini muffin pan with coconut oil.

2. In a double boiler, gently melt the 3.5 ounces of chocolate, coconut oil and raw honey. Remove from heat, allow to cool, then add the eggs, vanilla and almond extract.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour and salt. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in the remaining chopped chocolate pieces. Fill the mini muffin tin nearly to the top. Bake for 15-25 minutes until golden and set.

4. Allow the brownies to cool in the pan - if you don't wait then they'll fall apart!

Wednesday's recipe attempt was less successful, but that may be because we all decided that the new food we were going to try was rather disgusting. I made Bacon Braised Brussel Sprouts. I've always been curious what a brussel sprout tasted like (after all, I do love bean sprouts and alfalfa sprouts...), and I thought that as they'd be braised with bacon, they'd surely taste good. Wrong. Not only do brussel sprouts obviously look different from all other sprouts, but they also taste awful. E was graceful enough to say that they smelled like something she'd had (and liked) at school once, contemplated her first bite with a positive attitude, and then admitted that they were not likeable, after all. I only served each child one sprout (luckily I only made a half-recipe) and merely encouraged them to try it (they all did so). I ate four of them, but only to be a good role model. We all agreed that brussel sprouts would not find a place in our kitchen again. Ick.

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*

Eating our As

I decided to start out the summer with Alphabet Soup for dinner the evening school was dismissed. We haven't ever had this in our home, so the kids were excited. And my pickiest little eater asked for seconds!

Sadly, I do not recall ever eating apricots in my lifetime. I'm sure I have, but I have no memory of it. So even though the Alphabet Soup could count as the food we'd never tried, on Wednesday I challenged us to all try apricots as well. I also had the kiddos try avocado. I eat it all the time, but they've never desired to try it. I'm keeping a list of new foods they've tried and having them rate each one. The apricots rated high with my older two, the oldest was neutral on the avocado, Miss Middle Child didn't care for the avocado, and (big surprise here...) the picky one detested both.

The recipe I chose to make was Apple Butter Pork Loin. We had it with sweet corn, which was a bigger hit than the meat. Admittedly, even I didn't really care for pork with apple butter on it. B did eat his 4 "no, thank you" bites and is still leery of any meat that isn't in the form of chicken nuggets or hot dogs (in his defense, he did branch out to eating steak - with ketchup, of course - last month).

We all love apples in this house (especially Honeycrisp!). Despite them being far out of season and therefore, not the best choice in the produce department, we bought a bag of them to snack on this week. Almonds were also on hand, as they typically are. Both make great snacks to take to the pool!

For the special treat, I let the children vote on whether we should get some animal crackers or head to the mall for Auntie Anne's Pretzels. Of course, there was not a consensus. The younger ones wanted animal crackers, but I still took L to Auntie Anne's. Everyone was happy. :)

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*