My son thinks any food that is remotely close to lukewarm is too hot to eat. I’m pretty sure it’s my fault. Basically, we are hippies – I’m like an L.A., I love yoga, free people, flip-flops and long wavy hair kind of hippie…but Micah is like a step away from tin foil hat, “they” are all out to get us and we can’t trust anything in our food supply kind of hippie. (I may be to blame for that one as well.) I eat clean and am an occasional vegetarian, and over the course of our relationship, I have “educated” Micah on the crap in our food and the toxic effect things like cleaning supplies, pollution, etc. have on our health. If you tell Micah something backed by research he takes it as gospel. Needless to say, we do not have a microwave. We haven’t for years. We reheat all our leftovers in the oven. It’s highly inefficient and takes forever, but we don’t have the space for a convection oven, and Micah thinks the radiation in a microwave will make Avery grow up with 3 eyes and a limp. (I can’t bring myself to break it to him that he and I most likely ONLY ate microwaved meals growing up…I think he would have to go to therapy if he knew that.) So. No microwave + hungry toddler that only realizes he’s hungry the second he needs to eat = cold food….often.
Basically, I’m too lazy to reheat anything, and it’s impossible to actually COOK something for lunch because, well, the little monster can’t be trusted alone. Ever. Avery’s lunches consist mostly of cold leftovers from the night before and random pairings of food – cheese stick, yogurt, some berries, peas and avocado…you get the idea. It’s equally strange and fantastic.
He’s basically a raw vegan – except he only really likes meat and cheese – so he’s not vegan at all. We’ve gotten so used to his pavlovian cold food preferences that I am often taken aback when my friends are perplexed that my son is chowing down on cold meatballs, tortellini and salmon. I think I’m going to have to start cooking/heating his food so that he isn’t that weird adult that can only eat out at sushi restaurants cause he has some odd phobia of a nice hot meal. Then again, maybe I’ll wait till he’s older to acclimate him to hot food…for now its SO. MUCH. EASIER.
What strange food quirks have you enabled in your little one?
