Getting Kids to Eat Vegetables...at a Party!?!

I have meaning to blog about this since before Christmas. Sorry for the delay...but I just have to tell the story of the vegetable Grinch.

I was assigned to bring a vegetable platter to my 2nd grader's class Christmas party. Coincidence? No, the organizer knows that I wrote Feeding the Kids. And, frankly I was delighted with the challenge. Would my vegetable platter be able to hold its own against holiday cookies and chocolate candy?

Well, that night as I read The Grinch Who Stole Christmas out loud to my kids, I came up with (in the words of Dr. Seuss) my own "wonderful, awful idea." I'd make a Grinch out of vegetables! My son was delighted with the idea. He helped me buy what we needed: guacamole for the face, red peppers for the hat, cauliflower for the white trim, snow peas for the scrawny neck.

The day of the party, I arrived a little late. I set the Grinch right next to some cookies and went to say hi to my son, who was busy with a party activity, then chatted with some other parents. Soon, the party was over. My son came to find me and asked, a bit accusingly, why I hadn't brought the Grinch.

"I did!" I defended myself, "It's right over there."

But it wasn't. It was gone. All that remained of the Grinch was a smudge of guac and a few snow peas. Even the cauliflower was gone. The kids had eaten the Grinch. They had eaten vegetables that were located next to cookies. And eaten them so quickly that my own child hadn't even had a chance to see his Grinch. He was somewhat heartbroken until I promised to help him make another one for dinner that night. And, I have to say, I got a little thrill out of eating the Grinch myself.