Eat it up

My mother-in-law loves tomatoes. So much, that there is family folklore of a time when she ran out of apples, and decided to put tomatoes in her husband's lunch instead. After that, he refused to eat tomatoes.

One thing that we have really tried to do is raise our children to eat healthy foods. I try to always have lots of fresh fruit. When they wouldn't eat spinach, Rob showed them Popeye movies, and now they will eat their spinach salads (with my son growling, "Look how strong I am!"). Last night I made sliced tomatoes sprinkled with mozarella cheese and balsamic vinegar. They had to at least try it, but I figured my husband and I would enjoy the rest. Well, they not only tried it, they LOVED it! I had to cut up another tomato just for Rob and I. For lunch, they wanted tomatoes with the cheese and "spicy sauce" again. Whoohoo! I am seriously so excited about this.

So here is my trick: I usually don't let them snack within 2 hours of dinner. Hungry kids are a lot more willing to try new things. That, and they have gone to bed hungry before when they chose not to eat.