It’s been a long time coming with my kids, but I have converts. Finally I have kids who like nuts. I’ve tried every kind of nut you can imagine. Big ones , small ones. raw ones, salted and roasted ones, seeds and kernels. We’ve tried organic and horribly processed too. For years, the kids just thumbed their nose at them, “No Thanks, Mom.”, “Can you make Banana Bread with no nuts?”, and “I don’t like_______ (fill in the blank).”
But I persisted. I made Madeleines the old-fashioned French way with ground almond flour. I made Olive Oil Cake (another recipe based on an ingredient I want my kids to eat: olive oil) full of ground almonds. I made Banana Bread with (Flax), Pecans and Chocolate. I made it ALL the time. I made Ranger Chocolate Chip Cookies full of (oatmeal and) nuts. I added them stir fry. I made cakes and cookies, and anything reasonably appropriate for them, CHOCK full of nuts and asked pardon, not permission.
Ultimately I bought piles of the least objectionable candidates organic and raw and toasted them, plain. Intially we just added them to recipes. In our minds, toasted nuts make everything taste better. Before we knew it the toasted nut atop the Banana Bread were our family’s favorite recipe-- and the Olive Oil Cake, Madeleines, and Chocolate Chip Ranger Cookies were favorites too.
One school day morning there were bowls of extra toasted pecans and Scott tucked them into the kids’ lunches.
That day my kids ate toasted nuts alone---and liked them. After prolonged exposure, something finally took. My 12 year old son said , “Mom put extra pecans in the Banana Bread.”, “Mom can you toast pecans, cashews, pine nuts, _______ (fill in the blank).”, “Mom would you toast more nuts?”
It’s been a long time coming, but I can say my kids like nuts.
Now, onto the next challenge.
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