Toddler in the Kitchen

I admit, when my toddler refused to eat her vegetables (countless attempts, I tell you) I gave up trying to feed her. 

When I see other toddlers aged 3 eating vegetables on their own, I secretly wished my toddler would do the same.

Only recently when she had trouble passing motion with her face turning red as she tries hard to pass motion and at times end up crying, I knew at that moment I had to do something. Owh, I did feel like crying whenever she had to go through one of her episodes, poor baby girl!

Asking her to gulp down a few bottles of fluid is no longer sufficient.

What made matters worse was that in the past 2 weeks as we were bogged down with moving house and unpacking, I often forgot to remind her to drink her water. 

She's more interested to play or help around the house. 

Determined I was to get her to eat her vegetables, my toddler and I went to the supermarket earlier in the week. 

I didn't splurge on the greens as yet and started off with broccoli, mixed vegetables (green peas + carrots + corn) in addition to buying salmon which was RM 12 for one piece.

We started off to prepare her meals together in the kitchen. 

I gave her the responsibility to chop her broccoli or cook her vegetables / pasta and heat up the bolognese sauce (bought in a jar). Everything was done by her AND under close supervision, of course. 

This was her first meal, fully loaded with salmon, mixed vege and broccoli. I guess I was too ambitious, just look at how green the broccoli is and it didn't occur to me that she wouldn't like it. 

On a more positive note, she was happy consuming her carrots, corn and green peas. GREEN PEAS! Oh wow, I was extremely impressed and shared it with hubby and the family! Woo hoo! 

As the previous attempt to introduce broccoli didn't end well as the broccoli ended up in the dustbin, I incorporated broccoli in the bolognese sauce below: 

Any hints or traces of broccoli wasn't visible, not to her, at least. 

The sauce was spread onto pita bread, topped with mozzarella cheese which she gladly helped prepare.

We slightly grilled the pita bread until the cheese melted slightly and tadaaa pita pizza was ready within 3 minutes or so. 

The verdict? 

She LOVED it! :D

Towards the end of the week, all we did was mix everything together and the results as below: 

I'm a happy mom! 

I'm super happy that she ate her vegetables on a DAILY basis and whenever she passes motion now, it no longer looks excruciatingly painful for her! 

Hubby and I discovered that our toddler needed to be involved in cooking or preparing the meals so she would actually eat the food prepared, especially vegetables!