The Picky Eater Project

Book excerpt: The Picky Eater Project: 6 Weeks to Happier, Healthier Family Mealtimes is a one-of-a-kind book that can transform even the most finicky eaters into fledgling foodies. Focusing on kids' participation, interactive strategies, kitchen experiments, and delicious kid-friendly recipes, the book is based on a six-week plan that makes shopping and cooking fun. Weekly themes and goals include - Week 1 - Picky-Free Parenting: Setting the stage to help your child choose a wider variety of healthful food with key parenting strategies - Week 2 - A Kitchen Revolution: Shaping your child's taste preferences away from bland, white and processed towards flavorful, robust, and more adventurous by changing the way you purchase, arrange, and prepare foods. - Week 3 - The Little Chef: Getting your child into the kitchen - early and often - to encourage him or her to try new foods. - Week 4 - A Shopping Adventure: Making grocery shopping and meal planning with your child more of an adventure than a chore. - Week 5 - Family Mini-Feast: Recognizing the value of family meals and setting them up to fit your lifestyle while progressing in your pursuit of undoing picky eating. - Week 6 - It Takes a Village: Enlisting spouses, partners, grandparents, siblings, and friends to help undo picky eating and influence more adventurous choices. - Post-Picky Eater Project Week - Making It Stick-y: Planning for challenges and barriers, and putting contingency plans into action for lasting impact. Six weeks will fly by before you know it! You and your junior chef will have an amazing time working together to make - Layered Yogurt Parfaits - Corn Pancakes - Mix and Match Smoothies - Beanie Cheeseburgers - (Almost) Any Vegetable Soup - And many more fun and healthy recipes! Written by Natalie Digate Muth, a pediatrician and dietician, and Sally Sampson, cookbook author and founder of ChopChop, a food magazine for kids and their families, The Picky Eater Project addresses both the importance of healthy childhood nutrition and family harmony. It offers tips and troubleshooting, recognizing that it takes planning and perseverance to make behavior changes stick, but that it can happen. Start your picky eater project today - your kids will love it, and you'll see real changes in their eating habits!