toddlers and sushi

This morning, my two year old cried "I want to pick sushi over there" as I pushed our cart past the area of our local food store that contains the sushi station.

"Sorry, honey, but we are having pizza for lunch at Angela's house today" I replied, sure that this would excite her.

"Want. Sushi." she replied with a pouty lip as her tiny feet banged against the cart in protest.

Sushi used to be my lunch treat. Now it is our lunch treat.

I think it is safe to say, my kids are not picky eaters.

Parenting magazines are filled with elaborate ideas involving dips and animal shaped foods designed to get children to try new foods.

My own father's method was very simple. If you refused to eat something, he ate it. Right off your plate. His theory was you would think you were missing something good and next time you would give it a try. And either way, he was not going to let perfectly good food go to waste.

I remember eating some pretty terrible white fish, canned beets and canned green beans as a child but I really don't recall ever going to bed hungry.

Naturally, I go easier on my own children.

I never make separate meals for them, but I do tend to make meals with at least one vegetable I know they like and meats that are very tender and easy for little mouths to chew. I do involve them in the shopping, the cooking and the planting our garden in the spring. I cook mostly from scratch and spend an average of $75 a week on food. And on occasion, when Daddy is out, I do indulge them in good old Kraft mac and cheese or a processed nugget.

In addition to sushi, Claire's favorite meals currently include sweet meat (daddy's fall off the bone tender Braised Ribs) and spicy chicken peas (Spicy Sauteed Chickpeas, Beef & Cilantro).

Abby's favorites include Salmon Cakes and Pasta with Shrimp and Broccoli, which she has been eating since before her first birthday.

And both girls absolutely love avocados and my Sour Cream Noodle Bake.

As babies, neither one had any interest in baby food (although to be fair, I am not sure if we ever offered Claire any). They starting exploring food by eating off of our plates and they have continued to want to eat what we eat, especially if it is something we are reluctant to share with them (like, say, my sushi lunch).

My father, naturally, deemed my four year old spoiled this past summer as she ate a pile of steamer clams shelled by my husband and I. Apparently by age two, I was shelling my own steamer clams to avoid getting them eaten off my plate.