What’s Worse… Getting a child to eat vegetables or doing laundry?

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It’s a new year!  If you are anything like me, you have some sort of crappy resolution.  My 2012 resolution is to actually fold & put away the clothes when I do laundry.  My mom stopped doing my laundry circa 1994, so for the last 18 years, I have been rummaging around in laundry baskets to find clean clothing every morning.  A quick steam cycle in the dryer & voila… I’m ready to fool the world with my well-kept appearance.  Because the truth is, my life is just like yours – pure chaos.

As I was preparing dinner this week, I found myself thinking about the less-than-valiant start to my laundry resolution.  I think I have done laundry 1 time in 2012.  We’re halfway through January.  This is a problem.  Then I looked at the green beans I was boiling on the stovetop & thought… what’s worse?  Keeping up with the laundry or getting my kids to eat vegetables?

I always serve 1 vegetable with each dinner.  My kids seem to favor steamed broccoli, so I know I’m somewhat lucky.  But I hate eating the same thing every night & they protest every vegetable that is not broccoli.

I have started serving the vegetables as the first course – so while the macaroni & cheese is finishing off in the oven the boys are expected to put down some veggies in order to pass go & get to their meat and potatoes.  I don’t really offer desserts, mostly because I don’t have time but also because I don’t want to set some sort of standard or give the kids another reason to avoid the healthy foods.

Another tip that works is to allow my kids to shop the produce department with me.  During each grocery trip, they get to pick 1 vegetable & 1 fruit.  It’s an adventure for the kids and it keeps me on my toes… if one of them picks fennel, mama needs to know what to do with it.

And finally, I will often add something to the vegetable that makes it more interesting/appetizing.  This week I added dried cherries to the green beans.  Just a small handful (maybe 15 dried cherries) during the last few minutes of cooking is all that it took to add a subtle sweetness to the green beans.  My kids ate their servings in record time.

Now – if anyone has a few tips on how I can rectify this laundry debacle, I welcome your suggestions.

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Green Beans for the Whiny Child

Ingredients 

  • green beans use Garden Cut french green beans
  • dried cherries
  • salt to taste

Instructions 

  • Add your green beans to the salted boiling water – let them cook for a few minutes – add the cherries – boil a few more minutes – drain & serve.
  • Lie to your kids & tell them this is Spiderman (cherries) & Hulk’s (green beans) favorite vegetable dish.

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Cuisine: Kid-Friendly
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xoxo Produce Mom

About Lori

Lori Taylor is the Founder & CEO of The Produce Moms. For ten years she sold fresh produce to over 300 grocery stores throughout the United States, and today she is fully focused on working with the produce supply chain, media, and government to increase fresh produce access & consumption in the US and around the globe. Connect with Lori on LinkedIn.

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4 Comments

  1. No tips for laundry, I’m pretty much the same as you. Except I’ve done a lot of laundry already this year. Just wanted to say, love your blog so far, keep it rollin’.

    1. Well, Heather, laundry is certainly up there… but you need to meet this woman who runs the Pilates/Yoga studio that I attend! I’m convinced that she is the devil.