Pizza Delivery

One of the epic battles between Jordan and her caregivers has got to do with food. She doesn't like to eat. A workshop I attended talked about how to her, eating was a power struggle and judging by her temperament, it was a power struggle she was insistent on winning. There were ways around this, to defuse the power struggle, either by just letting her NOT eat when she didn't want to eat but not giving her anything in exchange till her next meal, thereby letting her know that if she didn't eat, fine, but she wasn't getting anything else and she could go hungry till the next meal. The second thing we could do was to involve them in their meals and make it fun for them.

Obviously both had difficulties. The first one required all her caregivers to be OK with her NOT eating. It's hard for the grandparents though. They think she might starve. They think she might get gastric pains. There is also the matter of Baby J's great grandfather who will yield to her powerful baby demands for his junk food. What's harder than saying no to a 2-year-old? Saying no to a 92-year-old.

The second one required us to be ok with mess, something that once again, because we don't live in our own house, was a little bit difficult. And once again, there was no guarantee that involving them in their meals was going to make any difference to Baby J. But I decided to try any way. We decided pizza was the way to go. We could have all the basic food groups on it and it would be colourful and crispy for them. So this is what I did.

1. Buy pizza crusts. Small ones work because it's just the right size for the kids to muck about with.
2. Stir fry some diced chicken.
3. Slice mushrooms.
4. Steam some cauliflower, peas, carrots and corn.
5. Pour canned tomato paste and some shredded cheese into bowls.
6. Drag their little table outside and line the floor with newspaper.
7. Preheat the oven and guess what 450Farenheit is in Celsius.
8. Let the fun begin.
















The tomato paste was a big hit. Its tarty and sharp flavour must have been fun for the kids because they were eating the stuff out of the bowl. We had to boil the rest of it because we needed to keep it for the lasagne that we're trying out tomorrow.
























Evan mucking about, laying cauliflower onto his pizza and then picking it off and popping it into his mouth.


















Jordan focussing very hard on laying the peas and carrots out individually and spacing them out. And also popping them into her mouth. She liked the peas but not so much the corn. Totally the opposite from Mommy who loves corn and can't stand the sight of peas.

There was also the eating of the chicken that was supposed to go on as topping but generally, they seemed to have been very thrilled at being able to muck about as well as eat what they were mucking about with.

The end product didn't look too bad and I decided to improvise and make it an Aussie pizza, not with beetroot (!) but with an egg broken over the pizza and baked with the cheese.

















So, did they like it? Verdict?






























Yes they did! Evan ate more of it than Baby J did but she had a fair share and she ate the pizza as it should be eaten, holding the crust and putting the pointy end into her mouth.

So was it a success? Yes. She ate most of her dinner, we didn't have to fight her on it and she was quite excited at the prospect of al fresco dining. I will endeavour to do this again but she needs to eat stuff that is good for her and not as enjoyable as well. Plus, if we made a mess everyday in the yard, our helpers would not be too pleased.

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