Not sugar

Liliana is by no means a picky eater. She’ll try any food happily, and she’ll like most of them.

Every now and then, though, there is a food that she decides she doesn’t really fancy.

Turkey is one of those foods. The last time I tried to give her turkey was a couple of weeks ago and she fought it more than she has fought any other food. She shoved away the spoon, turned her head, pressed her lips together and leaned as far away from me as she possibly could. Granted, it did smell a little funny, but it tasted fine (I swear). I tried mixing it with sweet peas, but she still wouldn’t have anything to do with it.

So I gave up for a while, but today I had an idea. What if I tried adding seasoning to it? After all, I like food better with seasoning, so she probably would too. I don’t have very many spices right now because we are still moving them into this kitchen, but I do have a few.

Any guesses what I added?

I’ll give you a hint: it was not a spoonful of sugar.

It was a sprinkle of chili powder. I mixed it up with the turkey very well and set her in her high chair. I took a spoon and said, “Liliana, you want some?” with a great big smile on my face.

She smiled back and opened her mouth.

In went the spoon.

She closed her mouth, considered it, then looked at me for my reaction.

“Mmmm,” I said with a smile.

She smiled again and wiggled in anticipation of the next bite. She ended up eating all of it, and then some butternut squash afterwards.

I was reminded of three lessons today: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again,” and “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” Or, in this case, a sprinkling of chili powder helps the turkey to not induce gagging.