#32 - Convince my kids to eat carrot sticks.

To the ordinary person, this task is probably not list-worthy.

I guess that's what makes my kids extraordinary.

Their disdain for raw veggies is not hereditary.  (As I sit here at my desk chomping on a bag of baby carrots.  And yes, I mean a bag.  It probably won't make it until the end of the day.  I have no willpower when it comes to food, even the healthy kind.)  They will eat cooked vegetables of most varieties (especially when they are boiled in butter for so long that their nutritional value becomes non-existent), but come at them with a cucumber or a carrot stick and you might as well have the booger-puller in hand.

A few weekends ago, we were making one of those lunches after church where we try to use up all of our random ingredients before they go bad.  Like our own little version of the Food Network's Chopped, if you will.  Sam was making his unbelievably good potato & broccoli soup that he dreamed up because, one day, he couldn't decide whether to make potato soup or broccoli soup.  I was chopping up potatoes, carrots, and onions to roast in the oven.  As I chopped the carrots, I remembered the list, and sliced a few sticks for the kidlings.

I don't know if I got lucky, or if they were just so hungry that they were willing to eat anything at that point, but they were surprisingly receptive to the carrot sticks.  Ben grabbed one, chomped it down like bugs bunny, and asked for another one (!!!).  Abby took one taste and was less than enthusiastic about it.  But given the option to dip it in ranch, she was sold.

I think it was a matter of optimal conditions (and a very, very late lunch).  If I tried that for the first time, for instance, tonight at 5pm, I bet it wouldn't have worked. 

So there you have it...a lesser task, but accomplished nonetheless.

#32 ~ Convince the kids to eat carrot sticks....Check!

P.S. - I can now say that Abby will eat asparagus also (obviously not raw).  She calls them "big green beans".