Well kiddo, tonight we’re having steak…
“YAY DADDY I LOVE STEAK!”
It’s a one and a half inch thick, one and a half pound ribeye. When I was your age, I would’ve walked to Texas and back for one of these. I’m really glad you like it. If you want, you can have some applesauce…
“Daddy, may I please have cinnamon sprinkles on my applesauce?”
Yes you may, you asked very nicely. And we’re having your first salad.
“YAY! I LOVE SALAD!”
You’ve never had salad.
“I LOVE SALAD!”
Now we just need to find out which dressing you like.
“I HATE dressing. BLECH!”
I bought five different dressings. I put a splotch of each on a plate, so touch your finger into this one and taste it.”
“I’M GONNA HATE IT!”
This one is called Catalina. It’s basically sugary ketchup. Taste it.
“YUCK IT’S AWFUL I WANNA SPIT IT OUT!”
Fine. Go to the sink and spit it out. Better?
“Yucky.”
Try this. It’s called Thousand Island. It’s very creamy.
“I HATE IT!”
OK. Try this, it’s Honey Mustard. You like this on your chicken nuggets…
“IT MAKES MY TUMMY ACHE! OWIE!!”
French, kiddo. It’s even more sugary than Catalina…
“NO NO NO! IT’S TERRIBLE!”
“Italian? It’s got oil and pretty spices…”
“IT LOOKS GROSS!! I DON’T WANNA!”
OK. I give up. You can eat dry salad.
“YAY! I LOVE DRY SALAD! What are these, Daddy?”
Those are croutons…
“I LOVE CROUTONS! Daddy, I’ll eat all my croutons, and you can have the rest of my salad, deal?”
No deal. You have to eat three pieces of Romaine lettuce, three carrots, and I want you to try a radish slice.
“What’s a radish?”
It’s like a strawberry, except you put it in salads.
“I LOVE STRAWBERRIES!”
I know.
“Daddy?”
Yes, kiddo?
“That’s the worst strawberry I’ve ever had.”
’tis true, despite popular belief, radishes don’t make very good strawberries.
Radishes are more crunchy, like cucumbers. The taste….is still unique of it’s own, though.
I love the Daniel and Son stories. Keep it up.
YAY CROUTONS!
That is so cute!
It’s nice to have these stories about you and your son. It seems like you two are having an amazing time together.
All that, and no ranch dressing? gotta try the ranch. My kids go ape on it.
Smart kid.
And for some odd reason, I was willing to eat blue cheese as a kid.
I love the stories. And these are the moments Son will remember when he’s older, and knows that his dad is pure win.
The kid’s right – radishes are horrible strawberries. Strawberries themselves though are pretty good on salads.
Sarah’s right. Toss some strawberries on that salad, cantaloupe, too, for that matter. Get one of those melon ballers. Kids love those and will actually work a whole 5 minutes making melon balls. I’m impressed you started him on Romaine and not the no-taste Iceberg. I found that getting kids to eat dressing worked better if you called Italian “zombie fluid”. Of course, after dinner you have to put up with the inevitable pseudo-zombies roaming the house, but that’s a small price to pay for getting greens into them.
“That’s the worst strawberry I’ve ever had.”
ROFL!!!
Also whats good on salads is Rasberries, candied walnuts or pecans, and a rasberry vinagerette.
MMM, still love Blue Cheese dressing, only thing I’ll eat on salads OR baked potatoes.
As for radishes, what did the little one do to deserve that punishment? And comparing them to strawberries? That’s just wrong on so many levels.
lol
Sounds exactly like my 7-year-old. No cucumbers, no tomatoes, no olives. Plenty of crutons. A couple of carrot slices are fine. Raw spinach is okay. Cheese in salad is good. No dressing, ever!. And if I leave out the lettuce, he might actually eat it.
My 9-year-old, on the other hand, now eats everything in a salad except cheese.
You got your son to eat salad?! As a father of two boys, I bow in the presence of greatness!
I didn’t try dressing on a salad until well into my thirties. When I was a little boy, if I didn’t like the name of it, the way it looked, or the smell of it, it stayed on the plate.
Radishes are soooooooo not strawberries.
Try tossing cubes of blue cheese (ok, chunks
, with walnuts, raisins & diced apples, and a small amount of Honey Mustard. That’s pretty good, too.
Heh, good job, my picky eater has trouble with salad, period…
My mom did that to get me to try cauliflower, she said is was a potato. Worst damn potato I ever tried and I still won’t eat cauliflower.
Ranch dressing is the way to go, but my kid will only eat the Hidden Valley ones, and doesn’t like the the Kraft Dressing/Veggie dip that’s a lot cheaper.
Croutons are pure win for any child. Be prepared to start buying more bags… You’re gonna need em. I remember going through those things like candy as a kid. Delicious.
Ranch all the way, gotta be Hidden valley though
30 years old, and I still don’t like salad. OK, that’s not entirely true.
I like lettuce.
I like cheese.
I like dressing.
I like croutons.
ANYTHING ELSE will ruin the food.
Though chicken will change it from a “side-” to a “main-” dish.
next time just put the fruit in the salad. (my girl loves to put strawberries and apples in the salad and add a raspberry vinaigrette. turns lettuces into candy.
Daniel,
Just wanted to stop by and say “HI”. Longtime reader of Bigredkitty. Still keep track of you here.
Keep doing a great job, especially with your boy.
Cheers and Salute
Cute kiddo
He reminds me of my great-nephew…the all caps gives it away.
telling your kid that radishes are like strawberries? evil man, smrt, but evil.
I can see you and your son during the night…
“Daddy, can I have a bedtime story?”
“Sure Kiddo…Hehehe”
Your going to tell a horrific scary story and then act like the monster is attacking you, and he will faint like a rock. Somebody needs to buy you a Worlds Best Dad Cup.
Try black olives too. You never know what kids will like. My 4 boys will eat an entire can of black olives between then and then beg to drink the juice. (and no, I don’t let them!)
I agree with the Ranch dressing comments. Sunflower seeds seem to go over well too. But calling a radish a strawberry? You lost serious credibility points there Dad.
Keep up the good work… With 4 toddlers in my house, I relate completely to your conversations with your son.
Heh, we all used to be the same way with trying new stuff
“You don’t win friends with sal-ad! You don’t win friends with sal-ad!” you don’t win friends…”
My four year old daughter loves blue cheese. She also enjoys: celery, carrots, and strangely olives. I’m sure you can imagine my surprise at that last one.
After reading that, I hope you break out some brussel sprouts or green olives. Used to hate both those when I was a wee one. Now I love em.
Kids definitely go for fruit more than the veggies. Peaches and grapes. Total win, everytime.
Dude,
Salad Cream.
nuff said.
It’s been a while since I have come by and read… been storing them all up for a while…
I almost feel like we live in the same town… I swear that the conversations I have with Odin are so similar…
Thanks as always for a great read… going to try that Strawberry trick…
My nephew was the same as your son. His little sister on the other hand would happily eat everything I put in front of her. Of course, the mind would often wonder what I could get away with if her mother wasn’t standing behind me brandishing a rather large and heavy rolling pin intended for my skullbean if I so much as thought about it for too long.
The strawberry trick might give a welcome hand to our cousin who’s having issues with his two boys refusing to eat salad. First I’ve ever heard of it and I’ve been surrounded with little kids all under the age of five for many consecutive years now. Don’t have any of my own due to rather nasty medical conditions, but I’m always fascinated by others who have the little adventurous ones.
Your son will grow up and remember these moments when he himself has little ones. And then he’ll ask you how in the hell you managed to convince him a radish = bigger strawberry. And you’ll answer sagely that it was all you and no one else taught you to lie with a straight face. That’s the real beauty of it all.
Keep these little snippets coming, mate <3
a lot of good, don’t like those sites, exact same subject exactly how