Getting Used to New Foods

In my house, we have sev­eral dif­fer­ent styles of eaters.  Jason eats pretty much any­thing, and he likes almost all of it.  I’m a some­what picky eater, but I usu­ally try to stay away from the things that I don’t like while still mak­ing sure that my fam­ily eats a vari­ety of healthy foods.  Jonas eats a huge vari­ety of foods.  He doesn’t like a few foods (like many types of pasta), but he eats so many foods that both Jason and I enjoy.  Kael and Asa tend to be cau­tious eaters.  They often assume that they don’t like some­thing.  Many times I hear, “I don’t like that.  What is it?”  That used to drive me nuts, and it still does from time to time.  How­ever, at some point in Sep­tem­ber, I had a revelation.

“They” often say that it can take a per­son 15+ expo­sures to a food before that per­son decides whether or not he or she likes the food.  I don’t meal plan in a way that would demon­strate that.  I choose new foods all the time.  I like the fla­vors in Mex­i­can food, Indian food, Ital­ian, American…

I’m sure that’s fine as long as it’s work­ing for every­one.  Unfor­tu­nately, it was not work­ing for us.  Jason and I were doing alright.  Kael and Asa were not.  They were eat­ing fruits, veg­eta­bles, breads, and some other side dishes.  They were not touch­ing many most of the main dishes I made.

I decided that instead of try­ing new foods all the time with a rare sta­ple thrown in I would make one meal plan for a month.  Every Mon­day we would have the same meal.  Every Tues­day would be the same, etc. etc.  for a month.  In addi­tion, I decided to make foods that were more famil­iar and like things they were already inter­ested in eating.

For the last month, this has been our sup­per meal plan:

Mon­day:  Kael’s choice
Tues­day:  Chili, bak­ery break, spaghetti squash
Wednes­day:  Asa’s choice
Thurs­day:  Tacos mixed with black beans and rice, whole grain rice with toma­toes and black beans
Fri­day:  Chili Mac, roasted and fresh cau­li­flower, car­rot and raisin salad
Sat­ur­day:  Slow cooker taco soup, salad, rice
Sun­day:  Pot roast, roasted green beans, bread

I’m sure it’s not a mir­a­cle cure, and there are def­i­nitely days when sup­per is a flop.  I’m hop­ing that those days occur less and less often.  Hope­fully we will work our way back into my more tra­di­tional meal plan where we’re not on a repeat­ing weekly sched­ule.  Until then, though, I’m happy to see both Kael and Asa try­ing more foods at supper.