My kids used to like:
cream cheese on celery (de-string first)
sweet red pepper strips
peeled sliced cucumbers, salted

My younger son traded his ice cream to his brother for his brother’s cucumbers – when they were 3 and 5!

This could be genetic – their Dad was good on eating salads, but it could also be learning, as I have learned to eat a lot more vegetables. As a military brat, we traveled around and veggies came from the commissary in a can, usually. The boys’ Dad came from south Florida where veggies were fresh and plentiful year-round.

Cooked vegetables that I’ve fed my nieces and they’ve liked:

sauteed asparagus with butter, little salt
grilled eggplant (peeled, sliced across), brushed with olive oil and sprinkled on both sides with salt and dillweed (dillweed is a must!)
grilled zucchini (peeled, sliced lengthwise), also brushed with olive oil, salted, and dillweeded
spinach with butter and salt (granted this is probably not the healthiest way to serve it, takes a lot of butter and salt, especially when you look up the sodium content of 1 tsp of salt), but my sister’s kids who wouldn’t eat spinach before, loved this simple method of cooking (nuked it from frozen for about 5 min, stir, 5 min, stir and eat) – can also add parmesan cheese to the top and nuke another minute

The best thing may be to treat it like normal, eat it yourself, and as a last resort, tell them they don’t have to like it, but they do have to try it. Then if they don’t like it, have them try something else another night. Even rewards work – eat a bite of this, then you can have that.

Good luck!

@Scott I’m intrigued by the whole organic food thing. As was pointed out, foods with “organic” labels on them in the grocery stores are far more expensive than those without the organic labels. I agree that if you’re filling a grocery cart with cookies, crackers, and that sort of thing – and you stop buying those and buy the organic stuff the bill won’t go up much. Do you have special recipe books or a website you visit for ideas on what to do with all that organic food? How do you convince a 3 year old and 6 year old that the organic stuff is good enough to eat, and that they don’t need goldfish crackers with their peanut butter sandwich?

1. Scott’s advice (eat fresh food, with/without your garden), along with

2. The VA and/or Walmart Generic drug program (you DO insist on generics, whenever available … Scott: sensible option?), and

3. The Power of 10-1-1-1-1

… it will be interesting to see what holes in your trouser pockets we may be able to sew up

The next part of our journey together will help you decide what to do with all of this spare cash!

@ Scott – I know what you should be doing with some of your spare cash: investigating HOW you can create/market/deliver “Scott’s Total Rejuvenation Program”

… it may (or may not) be necessary for you to reach your Number. But, we should review this at another time, as this is Lee’s 101 post … in the meantime, please give it some thought.