In a Galaxy Far, Far Away...

...there lived children that ate all healthy meals and snacks and never a HFCS product crossed their lips.  Yep, that's far, far, far, far, far away from our life.  But like any mom with more to do than I can possibly accomplish in say 50 years yet before they wake up tomorrow, I try. 

When they were babies I breastfed them, because I could and it felt right.  I made it about 6 months with each and pumped like a banshee to allow them to have it mixed with formula as long as possible.  I even made all their baby food from scratch.  That's right, no jars of Gerber for me.  I did it because I felt that if they tasted the real thing, they might be more apt to continue to like all the various vegetables and be less prone to adversity to textures, plus the SAVINGS!  I also love to cook, so since I already feel guilty that I don't spend time enough time with my kids, at least I was spending that time doing something good FOR them. 

That said, Jack is terribly adverse to textures, while Duke will try just about anything (some cajoling required).  Jack eats only raw carrots, Duke only cooked.  Jack loves apples, Duke can't stand them but both will devour applesauce.  Put a bratwurst in front of Duke, watch your fingers because he just keeps eating.  Jack will ask for peanut butter sandwiches every day of the week, for Duke it's yogurt.

Honestly they are both pretty balanced eaters, except over the past year you would have thought a serving of vegetables was the equivalent of a hamburger placed in front of a vegan.  I had all but given up that the only green item they would touch was edamame, simply because they like to "pop" them out of the shell until I saw a tweet about a month ago from @thatkristen. 

No secret, I love me some bloggers, particularly of the Mommy persuasion that are also saavy writers.  There are several I follow both on Google Reader for their blog content as well as Twitter, because they are SO.DARN.FUNNY!  I even have a twitter list I've named "4 Sanity Sake" because they are what keeps me sane on many a day surrounded by all things work, hunting, fishing, basically...men.  I know none of these women personally, but we share, well, life, and that's just fine by me.

So, back to the tweet.  Somewhere in mid November I caught a flash of a tweet where she had miraculously convinced her preschooler son that Luke got his Jedi powers by eating his vegetables.  Shortly there after there was this on her blog, Motherhood Uncensored.  I've always thought she was one smart cookie but that put her at certifiably BRILLIANT.  I mean the woman gave birth to her 4th child at home, and not on purpose and then wrote about it 5 DAYS LATER.  Oh, and that 4th kid, ya, that's the 4th UNDER 6.  Seriously she is amazing and now this is starting to become an obsessive post, so back to the vegetables.

At the same time I saw the tweet we were mid supper, the kids that is, daddy was gone and it was a night they ate at the kitchen island while I nibbled on leftovers.  Again, nary a broccoli touched when I so very casually came out with, "You know guys, those powers Yoda has, with the finger fire and all, he gets that from green food."  Being that my kids are slightly obsessed with everything Star Wars and Jack believes that Yoda is IT, I figured I'd take a shot.

"REALLY"  wide eyed and so naive they are at this age.

"Yep."

The rest is history.  In the last month I have been ASKED to make peas for dinner.  And last Friday, LIMA BEANS, that's right every last one of them in the veggie mix, GONE.

And since that time, we've had Chewbacca food, Obi Wan food, Droid food, Darth Vader food.  You name it, we'll eat it.  As long as the guys on Star Wars do, it's good enough for them.  Even at school Jack has started back on his green beans, telling his teacher in no uncertain terms that it's Yoda food and that's YUMMY!

So, enjoy tonights image from dinner "Grandma's" Chicken Nuggets and...notice anything missing?  Yep, the peas, ate 'em first.  And the faces - oh, that's the powers that the Yoda food gives you, to SCARE Mommy.  I have to do a little ducking and weaving behind the island, but worth every vitamin these two are scarfing down these days!

Kristen, this one's for YOU!