Particular, not picky

I'm going to have to revise my statement about having two picky-eater kids. I have one picky eater. And I have one particular eater.

What's the difference, you ask?

You can't call a girl who eats asparagus picky. Especially when she asks for seconds.

She's still not an easy creature to feed, but wow is this blogging thing working! I told her about the blog and as she's such a people person, she wants the people who read this to see her in a positive light (so anyone local--if you run into us, praise her to the stars. I swear, she will glow. And maybe even eat some zucchini).

Since I started the blog she has:

• Eaten chocolate with raisins in it (and yes, previously she would not have eaten the chocolate because the raisins made it toxic.)
• Small tastes of salsa, guacamole and sour cream at a Mexican restaurant.
• Tried asparagus with no fuss. Asked for more. Asked for us to buy more at the store. Had it for dinner tonight and again asked for seconds. (!!!)
• Ate a small portion of peas with butter.
• Ate pasta and alfredo sauce with peas in it, though there was a little griping since I was sticking something not-so-welcome into one of her favorite foods. That seems pretty understandable.
• Ate cooked carrots and pronounced them "ok."
• Tried homemade mushroom soup (and didn't spit it out, maybe even sort of liked it. I'll make it again soon and we'll see.) 
• Tried a piece of pizza with mushrooms on it.
• Tried a leaf of baby red swiss chard with no complaint.
• Ate some salmon and asked if we could have it again (and told the boy, "it tastes like chicken.")

For the record, the boy is also aware of this blog though he doesn't care as much about what anonymous readers think. He does, however, care about what his friends and his friends families might think if he was at their house and wouldn't eat their food.  Since we started he:

• Ate half a serving of broccoli (there was some loud noise about finishing it. I'll try again though I don't think he'll be happy about it).
• Tasted a small piece of asparagus (and hated it, but no noise)
• Lots of (mild) salsa at the Mexican restaurant.
• Has tried carrots in four different formats: carrot sticks, raw carrot ribbons, sauteed carrot pennies, and baby carrots. Still not a fan. But the ribbons went down the easiest.
• Tried a leaf of baby red swiss chard with no complaint
• Tried the salmon without fussing, though I'm not sure he's ready to be served an entire portion of it for dinner yet.

What's up next?

• I'm going to buy some mild salsa and make some Mexican food this week and see if we can reproduce the Mexican restaurant success (I don't expect him to eat my homemade salsa since it is pretty spicy. Maybe this summer, if they are eating it regularly, I'll make a mild batch for the kids.)
• Whole steamed artichokes. I know, not exactly a food they are going to be served everywhere, but I think the novelty of eating a large thistle and copious quantities of melted butter might just do the trick.
• Roasted cauliflower. I love it. I can't imagine anyone not loving it. Of course, I might get a little surprise in this matter. If so, more for me!

I still haven't figured out a way to improve their fruit consumption... maybe we'll give smoothies another try and see if they can tolerate tiny strawberry seeds in a drink (it failed before, but it has been a while since I tried).