The power of animation

My daughter is a tween-ager who actually likes many vegetables ... carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, green bell pepper, corn and more. (My strategy was to take my kids to the pool all morning when they were little, let them swim until they were starving, bring them home and place a tray of fresh cut veggies and ranch dip in front of them. They would scarf it up!) However, she has maintained after trying them several times that she does not like tomatoes, zucchini or colored bell peppers.

Yesterday, knowing she wouldn't be home for dinner, I made my first ever batch of ratatouille. If you don't know, that's a veggie stew of onion, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes and red bell pepper. When she arrived home from play practice and found out we had that, she begged for some. I put a bowl in front of her, expecting her to look at it and change her mind. She ate the whole bowl and asked for another.

That, my friends, is the power of Disney's animated movie Ratatouille, which she loves. If you haven't seen it - even if you're an adult with no kids in the house - I can recommend it. But I can't promise it will get your kids or your husband to eat veggies!