Thought I’d share my lunch with you today (figuratively speaking of course)… as its inception goes some way to explaining the reason why you’ll very rarely see me post a ‘recipe’ but more a ‘sort of idea I had’. This was also a lesson to self not to assume your kids won’t like anything till they (& you!) have tried it!
I opened the vegetable basket & saw: 4 beetroot with leaves still on, 3 carrots & a red onion. Pretty inspiring huh? 
It was past midday, & I had 2 pretty whingy kids already so figured there was no time to boil or roast (usually my favourite) the beetroot. I remembered I’d once seen a recipe in a Jamie Oliver book about a beetroot salad, so flicked through some tattered indexes till I found it. It was for ‘Beetroot, Pear & Feta Salad with lemon dressing’.
Delicious!
Slight hitch.
I didn’t have any pears, feta or lemons.
Undeterred, I had found what I was looking for, which was reassurance from a proper chef that it was OK to grate or slice beetroot raw, & an idea. So in the absence of pears I found an apple, my feta became a pack of halloumi cheese, & my lemon… 2 fairly tired-looking satsumas & a lime.
Beetroot & carrots scrubbed, topped & tailed & grated (or you could use a mandarin or chop into matchsticks), beetroot leaves washed & ripped / chopped, apple cored & cut about the same, & half the red onion thinly sliced… (this honestly took less than 5 minutes). I squeezed the satsumas & the lime, & put the juice in a jam jar (no jam 
. You knew that. Just saying.) with a few large glugs of extra virgin olive oil & some black pepper. Shake the jar, & then pour it over the veggies & toss. (Fairly frantic tossing by this point actually as 21 m.o. was hanging off my leg screaming).
I grilled the halloumi (it’s cheese… which of course you knew, but I’m making sure this really is food-phobe proof…) – put the slices in a hot frying pan or griddle with no oil, & turn after a few minutes – you want it just brown on both sides. Obviously the feta crumbled over would also have been fab, as would any other sheep or goats’ cheese.
So, back to my salad which is a very pink, crunchy bowlful of veggies, tossed with dressing & with grilled cheese on top. (Sorry Jamie, this is now bearing no resemblance whatsoever to your original, but you were the inspiration!).
On the side we had some fresh spelt bread dipped in the rest of the dressing. Dipping… we all know how kids love to dip. But this sort of dipping isn’t just for adults & gastro pubs you know – kids love it & extra virgin olive oil (cold- pressed please), with or without some balsamic vinegar, makes a nice change from fishfingers & ketchup.
My kids (21 months & 3.5 years) found it sheer genius that Mummy had made apple go bright pink, & thought the whole thing was delicious. The fact that they also had red teeth to bear at each other was an added bonus ( not to mention the *hysterical* red wee a few hours later).
Now I have to admit, I did think that even I might be pushing it with 2 very young tummies & my citrus-y, oily dressing & raw beetroot concoction, but with no ‘you probably won’t like this’ preamble… they ate it with gusto. If I’m honest, it probably wasn’t my finest culinary hour, but it was zingy & tasty, as well as being fresh, different & full of nutrients.
Don’t second-guess your kids, or assume they won’t eat something, until they have. I have seen parents nervously place something in front of a child, over-zealous in their cajoling to ‘just try it’ & with the fishfingers on stand-by…
…They can SMELL YOUR FEAR Dear Parent!! 
) And they will react as you expect them to – by rejecting it. Similarly, there is really no need for a carnival fanfare & promises of trips to Disney just because they DID eat it.
Calm down.
Eat.
Have a laugh.
Leave what you don’t want. (I know your grandparents said it, but I’m afraid the starving children in Africa really WON’T benefit by your clearing your plate… Give to charity instead.).
Please tell me about your experiments – the ones that do work & the ones that don’t!
Hello, I'm Wendy Powell, Founder of No More Excuses, creator of the 
hi I just saw this post on the WP dashboard so I thought I’d check it out! My kids are older now- 11, 14 and 16 but I fondly remember those toddler & preschool years!
I grew up with lots of tear filled negative meal time table battles (I won’t describe them).
As a young mother, I decided early on that I’d make healthy food the best I could, ( a meal with different items) put it in front of them, and that was it! They learned that if they were hungry, they could eat! I never made them eat what they did not like and I never assumed they would not like food. They all had (still do) their preferences, likes & dislikes and I just let them eat the food they liked and leave what they didn’t. I always made the same things for everybody at each meal. So if one just ate the eggs , one just ate fruit and one just ate bread, so be it. We were all happy during meals and now I have 3 very healthy (and big!) teens/preteens and all is well. I’m so glad I did mealtime this way.
ha, I should clarify that they all learned to eat a variety of food and have a positive attitude about eating and trying different foods. One of my favorite memories is that, living in the international community of the SF Bay Area, my kids actually were eating sushi, Indian, Mexican and Arabic food from their highchair and toddler booster seat! Again we just put food in front of them and acted like it was normal (no fear!) and they ate.
Thanks Loretta! Great stuff about the international cuisine – good for you for trying everything. Like you say, if we don’t make them think it’s weird… they DON’T think it’s weird!