I recently did a food demo at a local school’s Fall Festival. First time I did a cooking/food demo for the entire family. I’m used to speaking to adults when I talk about food, so this was something new. I have to say – the kids were spellbound. Especially when I talked about sneaking spinach into their fruit smoothies, and whole wheat flour into their morning pancakes.

After the demo everyone came up for samples. The Chai Tea Lattes were a big hit, hot spiced cider not as much. Pancakes and homemade jam went like hotcakes, spinach smoothies disappeared faster than we could blend new ones.

I noticed something that was very reassuring to me, as a mom. Some kids came right up and asked for the spinach smoothies and had no problem with the green stuff being in their sweet slurpee-ish drink. Others wouldn’t touch it. It’s not a kid thing. It’s an INDIVIDUAL thing. And in the same families, there were some siblings who threw back those drinks, and others who looked on aghast.

So in case y’all think you’ve done something wrong when your kids won’t touch salad, or that you’ve done something right if your kids eat greens, think again. Taste is in the eyes of the beholder and the be-taster.

Which is not to say you shouldn’t keep trying. Put something in front of the kids (or adults) long enough and they’ll try it. Keep being a good role model, eat your own greens, whole grains, fruit, etc… and eventually it’ll catch on. If not, don’t beat yourself up. It’s an individual thing. I promise.

Check out this sweetie who watched my cooking demo, and then drank down that spinach smoothie with delight. She was so cute, we had her pick the winning ticket to decide who got to take home a jar of homemade jam. Those Got Milk? ads have nothing on this little woman with her smoothie moustache.