"It's so Bizarre"!

With all the new limitations on Henry's diet we've been experimenting with foods he can have and it's been fun.  The kids loved watching Andrew Zimmern every evening at Oma and Opa's house so eating new foods has become an adventure in which they can show off their bravery.  And it is always followed by a pile of adjectives, sometimes made up but always entertaining.

Here's Peter with a chicken foot

I have been studying the Nourishing Traditions cookbook for several months now but it is only very recently that I've had the "guts" to experiment outside my comfort zone.  The chicken feet were my first experiment.  I wasn't going to actually feed them to the kids, they were only purchased for a rich broth.  But when the kids saw me straining them they all begged for a nibble.  Why not?  my Dad grew up eating chicken feet and I even ate a few in China.  They had them right along side their breakfast of soaked millet porridge.  Henry couldn't get enough and begged for "more chicken feet" each time I opened the fridge.  I did not participate in the nibbling but the broth was amazing.  I was about to take a bite until Clara, age 3 in her cute little voice squeaked out, "they look like cute little hands".

Maryanna dug right in without blinking

So the rest of the chicken was to be roasted but after the preparing the feet I didn't think the liver, heart, stomach and neck would be so bad.  I consulted with my Dad then simply boiled them, salted them and presented them on a plate for my brave lunch time eaters.  There was barely enough to go around and the heart and stomach were the favorite.  The liver got very poor reviews when Henry who was the first to try it spit it right out and declared "yucky dog poop".

You may notice William is unrepresented here.  He squirms and leaves the table before we are through but at least foods like broccoli and avocados don't seem as scary to him anymore.  He can show off his bravery just by eating veggies.

Next experiment:  a whole fish.  This is a Lane Snapper. I forgot to get a before picture but here is the after.... you may notice the eyes are missing.

I told them in China the eyes were the special prize so they went for them

The bones and head have already been simmered into a yummy stock.

Now you may also wonder how Paul plays a part in this..... he's not been feeling well so I've been saving lots of broth for him.  I did however see several Jimmy Johns wrappers in his car today.  Still waiting for him to catch the vision of "traditional foods".