Mama is an evil genius

My son is picky!  Seriously food picky, and it drives me nuts!  Up until about a month or so ago, I could feed him chicken nuggets from the freezer.  But just one brand...he tried every brand we could find until he settled on Yummy brand chicken nuggets.  Every other one was yuck!  To top it off, I can only find them at Lowe's Foods.  I don't mind too much, since these seem to be better made than the others brands.

He willingly eats homemade chicken nuggets (the only form of chicken I cook that he will eat).  But I just don't have the patience to go through all the effort to make them all the time, especially for just a quick lunch.  So that left us with frozen ones cooked in the microwave when we needed a quick meal.

Then, it happened.  He got his first loose tooth.  What does this have to do with chicken nuggets?  Well, he was eating chicken nuggets when he discovered the wiggly little guy.  It freaked him out a little, but I calmed him down with some videos about loosing teeth and how it was normal and all.  Finally the tooth fell out.  Unfortunately, the tooth was not the only thing that was lost.  He lost his appetite for the last brand of store bought chicken nuggets he had been willing to eat.  He started to freak out if I even mentioned them.  We had a whole box left in the freezer that he wouldn't eat!  So his limited palate suddenly became even more limited!  This did not make me happy.  :(

So, here's where evil genius Mama finally jumped in....Today, I decided that I was so sick of making "tortilla pizza" for the umpteenth-thousandth time, and so I just did it.  I put the chicken nuggets in the toaster oven, hid the box, and lied to my son.  Yep, I flat out lied.  

"I got some new chicken nuggets for us to try sweetie."  

"Yeah, they are shaped like dinosaurs, but a lot of different kinds are." 

 "They are supposed to taste like McDonald's nuggets."  

Whatever I could think of to say that would convince him to just taste one.  And he did it.  He tried one.  

"Mmmm, these are good ones, Mama.  Make sure you buy more of these!"  

He gobbled down six of the little buggers very happily!

I felt a little guilty, but his palate was expanding (sort of)....then he asked "Do these come in a bag?"  

"Umm, yes, they come in a bag in a box....It's in the trash can if you want to see it."  

He ran to the trash can and popped up the lid..."MAMA!  These are the ones I don't like!!!!!"  

"You just ate them and said they are yummy.  Maybe, you just don't like them cooked in the microwave.  But you do like them in the toaster oven."

Thank goodness that he's amazingly logical for a 5 year old!  "Yeah, Mama, you're right.  I just don't like them in the microwave.  You can buy more if you make them in the toaster oven."

Whew!  One food back on the list.....only four kajillion more to convince him to try.  (This could take a while...)