Eating Habits

I love how open Sadie is to trying new food and her love for veggies and fruits! Tonight, we had one of her favorite meals - teriyaki salmon with rice and broccoli.  We've been ordering in a lot more the past while since I've been freelancing a few days a week.  I try to order something different every night and love to discover new favorites of Sadie's.  Last month, the salad we ordered was topped with all sorts of vegetables, some of which I don't have around the house normally.  She couldn't get enough of the cucumber and red pepper.  She even tried the onions but decided that they were too 'spicy.'  And she eats the veggies on her plate before she ventures over to the rest of the meal.  Since I love Japanese, we order that frequently and Sadie always downs the entire order of edamame.  She refuses to call it edamame, she just tells me they are called beans.  She giggles as she tries to pop them out of the shell and they fly all over the place - we end up with quite the mess, but we make up for it in fun and laughter.  Of course she can pack in the junk food.  No joke, she can down two entire slices of NY pizza, her own order of french fries and enough candy, ice cream and popcorn to negate the benefit of the veggies.  But as long as we keep that to a minimum, I'm happy to indulge her every once in a while.  After all, she will happily eat healthy options if presented with them.  Her favorite foods (in no particular order): broccoli (she loves to pull the little trees off and show me how pretty the flowers on top are), tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, avocado, olives, edamame, fresh string beans, zucchini, corn (especially on the cob), peas, strawberries, raspberries, grapes, blueberries, pomegranate and watermelon.  She loves all fish (we call it all salmon - pink salmon, white salmon, etc) and finally eats chicken but could live without any other meat. I've tricked her into trying pork and turkey saying that it was chicken but I rarely can get her to eat beef (which is fine with me).  Though just the other day she ate three bites of hamburger and a full serving of pot roast.  I'm not sure how I got so lucky to have such an adventurous eater, but I'm glad.  Now we just have to help her expand her verizon into mixed foods.  She doesn't like casseroles or any dish with more than one or two simple ingredients, so when I make enchiladas, pastas with various ingredients, etc, I have to separate everything out on her plate.  But as long as she eats it, I don't complain.

Pictures from tonight.  We got home from swimming lessons and she had a voracious appetite.  After cleaning her plate, she started stealing rice and broccoli from mine :)