“I’m staaaarrrrrving!” moaned my four-year-old daughter one night at 5:05, exactly as she had the previous ten days in row. To prove her point, she collapsed right in front of the kitchen sink. I don’t know were she learned the word “starving,” or why this breakdown always happened so precisely at 5:05. But I do know that a child stretched out directly in front of the sink makes dinner preparation harder.
Seconds later, my six-year-old, looking extremely grubby, burst in from the back yard with our equally grubby puppy close at his heals. “What can I eat? What can I eat?” he chanted at top volume, jumping up and down. The giddy puppy raced between my prostrate daughter and my bouncing son, leaving muddy paw prints on each and every tile on the kitchen floor.
Bent over, swiping at the prints with a paper towel, I gave them my usual reply: “You had a snack just a couple hours ago. And, anyway, I am making dinner, see?” I gestured vaguely toward some raw chicken and a pot full of cooking rice. “But, we are hungry now!” replied my son. My daughter moaned in agreement. I sighed, wishing I knew a better way to handle this, “Well, guys, we just can’t snack right now. If we do, we won’t be hungry for dinner.”
Then, reaching awkwardly over my daughter to wash vegetables for the meal, I started worrying about something else. Recently, far too many steamed vegetables and salads had been going uneaten, pushed to the precarious edge of my children’s dinner plates, if not relegated to a napkin.
Suddenly, the answer came to me.
The next day, at the moment between “I am starving!” and my daughter’s collapse on the floor by the sink, I put my plan into action. “Carrots!” I announced, “Baby ones!” She paused, while I continued, “I will give you baby carrots right now… before dinner.” She looked up. “With dip!” I added temptingly. She smiled and walked over to the kitchen table. “Okay, Mommy.”
As if on cue, the dog and my older child came tearing in. “Hey, I want some, too!” he yelled, seeing his sister about to dip her first carrot. I put some carrots in a bowl for him to enjoy—after those filthy hands were washed.
The next thing I heard was silence. Or close to silence, anyway. My children sat quietly munching carrot after carrot. The puppy even held still momentarily, watching intently for drips of dip. I serenely wiped up the nightly paw prints, and ate some carrots myself while I made dinner.
A half hour later, at dinner, the kids pushed their steamed asparagus to the farthest regions of their plates and gobbled their hamburgers. But I didn’t care. They had already eaten untold numbers of baby carrots while waiting for dinner. I admit it, I felt smug. The cool thing was, so did they. They were delighted that they got to snack before dinner.
Since then, my family has had vegetables and dip before dinner almost every night. If I forget or am running late, my now five-year-old is always sure to remind me at exactly 5:05. Both kids generally eat an enormous serving of vegetables without me begging, bribing or turning to the old “no dessert” threat. They eat them because, as the old Swedish proverb goes, “Hunger is the best spice.” And my kids are very hungry right before dinner. Also, they are tired and at loose ends at this time of day, and dipping is a fun distraction that helps them wait for dinner.
Of course, we all got sick of baby carrots after a few days. But, we have found that lots of vegetables taste great dipped. My kids generally prefer raw vegetables: baby carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, pepper pieces, sliced jicama, lettuce leaves, snow peas, green beans and even broccoli. They certainly didn’t like all these things when we started our dipping experiment. But, over time they started nibbling, and then actually liking, some of vegetables they used to shun.
As for the dip, I discovered that plain old bottled salad dressings—ones made with “good fats” like canola or olive oil—work perfectly. Using salad dressing is quick and the kids can pick their own favorite type. I do occasionally make a dip using nonfat sour cream and the packets of dip mix sold near the salad dressings. Other times, we have hummus, salsa, guacamole or bean dip. But, the kids generally prefer just salad dressing.
On nights that my husband and I would like an actual salad—you remember, that offensive mixture of different types of food touching each other—I often serve the kids the same salad taken apart and displayed for dipping. For example, I might give them a plate of baby spinach leaves, cucumber rounds, apple slices, and walnuts—with a space between each item—and dressing in a bowl on the side. Somehow, this version of salad is much more palatable than having all those foods mixed together.
Besides adding lots of healthy vegetables to our meals, these pre-dinner vegetables had one other unexpected benefit. It turns out, vegetables are the ideal way to control portion sizes at dinner. By filling up on vegetables before dinner, my family comes to the table less hungry and, therefore, less prone to shovel down six portions of pasta. Instead, we tend to just stop eating because we feel full. That feels much better than stopping eating because we have eaten the “correct“ portion sizes for our various heights and genders.
So, getting dinner on the table is much easier now that I can cook without stepping over a child. And dinner is more relaxing since I don’t have to worry about whether or not the kids will eat their vegetables. Best of all, my kids are happy because they get to snack before dinner instead of “starving.” What more could I want? Well, maybe a puppy who wipes his paws before coming in the house!
