Vegetable Salad...Yummy Yummy

I have two picky eaters....

Buttercup, although she eats sparingly, will eat nearly anything...

However, my oldest two are extremely picky. I don't know what I did to contribute to this but it remains a fact and we deal with it every evening around 6pm.

Boy is the hardest and he seems to only get pickier and pickier as the days go on.

I have tried everything from forcefeeding to threatening etc...

I am no stranger to this, as my dad went through this with me as well...I was very picky, but as an adult I eat and enjoy just about everything.

My kids don't even eat what I consider to be reasonable foods though...no hamburgers, no chili, no pot pie, no soups...they like pasta. They would eat pasta and sandwiches all the time. But pasta does not have the nutritional value for me to feed it to my kids on a daily basis. PB & J...well, that is certainly yummy as well...but I have been feeling like I am between a rock and a hard place.

Today I sat down, exacerbated at the thought of another difficult dinner as well as the idea of making him a separate meal...

I looked at Mickey and I said "how do we make sure he is healthy?"

So...we decided to make a deal with the kids....

IF they don't want to eat the meal we prepare for the family...then they can eat broccoly, carrots, cauliflower. Eat it til they are full. They will get no dessert on thos days, but at least I can know that they are eating something healthy for their bodies.

Boy thought this was a great idea and Bluebird joined him tonight. The both ate two full bowls full of what Boy endearingly called "Vegetable salad".

I suppose there are worse things in the world.

So...how do you get your kids to eat? What do other people do in this situation?