Cooking Kids Are Bland Eaters, Wife Is Too. Ideas?

[gila]

we took in 2 nephews a couple of years ago. for years it was just my picky (meat & pototoes & not much else) wife and me. i like everything and i do all the cooking. for just us, it was easy enough to cook around our differences or even cook 2 things, but with the boys....i want them to enjoy eating different things, too, but they came to us with bland, non-adventurous tastes and are very quick to say "ewww" or "no" and shake their heads when presented with anything new. anytime we go out, they only want to get chicken fingers (and they dip them in ketchup only). i've booked ADRs at a Boma and Biergarten for our upcoming trip, hoping theyu'll at least try some things outside the norm but having some safe fallbacks just in case. any ideas on how to open them up? it doesn't help that my wife doesn't set much of an example

 

[MazdaUK]

I used to be really picky (like no pasta, no tomatoey stuff, no green stuff ) My eldest would for years only eat "shaped" potato - waffles, smiley faces etc. - and breaded stuff - fishfingers, nuggets etc. Then he discovered roast dinners and soon moved on. DS(9) is more adventurous in theory - HIS big thing used to be tinned spagetti hoops - and can still be a little picky, but both love pasta, fajitas (made not too spicy - half a packet of flavouring only and very mild salsa) and curry (I won't touch that, or rice). Not quite sure how it all happened - I think a big thing actually was going to Disney and having different things available (that's where DS(then5) got into mac and cheese ), especially going to buffet things so we could say - try that, if you don't like it you can go get something else. Also we go to Belgium quite often, and eat in buffets where there are alternatives to regular kids stuff. And in France (outside DLRP) they don't really "do" a kids menu, just a small protion of a limited number of the adult dishes, so they got used to having other stuff.

Best bet is ask whether things are spicy - herbs are fine, but too spicy can put people off! - or ask for advice from the waiter or chef.

 

[tiggerfan1]

A member of my family is the same as your wife and kids. He normally only likes things like chicken, potatoes, beef (ground only), etc. Traveling to other countries and eating ethnic dishes at friends' homes have helped him to become a little more adventurous. The key is exposure. Maybe you can go to a local ethnic restaurant and order a couple of dishes to try (you might want to start off with take-out). Start with "safe" meals, like chicken dishes, potato dishes, etc. If this doesn't work, there are lot of options at WDW that they may enjoy: fish and chips at Yorkshire County (Epcot), roasted chicken at Sunshine Seasons (Epcot) and Cosmic Ray's (MK), barbecue at Flame Tree (AK), Chef Mickey's (the Contemporary), Crystal Palace (MK), and many others. I hope this helps!


ETA: If you'll be going to WDW anywhere from late September to early/mid November, you should definitely check out the Food and Wine festival at Epcot. You can get small servings of different dishes from all over the world for about $2-$5. That'd be a great and relatively inexpensive way to try some ethnic dishes.

 

[gila]

i actually had success the other night serving them chicken korma curry (a mild, jarred curry sauce that i simmered with cooked chicken. it was lightly sweet as it had coconut milk in it). the reason it was so successful, i think, is because it was just me & the boys and i didn't offer them anything else

they tried it right away, though, and really liked it, so i'm stoked