A learned a valuable lesson from my daughter recently.
Did you know broccoli is best fresh, right in the store, right off the produce aisle?
Yea, I didn’t know that either because I’ve never tried it. But apparently my 4-year-old was out to prove it during a recent grocery trip.
My daughter and son can not be more different when it comes to food choices. She’ll eat every color of the rainbow if it’s a vegetable: raw peppers, carrots, celery, lettuce, broccoli.
I’ve seen the girl devour an entire container of cherry tomatoes in one sitting.
My son has eaten salad probably a handful of times this past year. If you give him a carrot – and make him take a bite – he sputters and coughs, almost like he’s being choked.
When we hit the produce aisle, my daughter up to each vegetable, asking to take it home, almost like it’s a sad-looking puppy.
So this particular day when she spotted the broccoli she pleaded: “PLEASE!” I grabbed a crown, stuck it in the bag, put it in the cart, and turned around to get the peppers.
When I came back to the cart, my daughter was just standing there.
You know the look, parents: GUILTY.
Me: “What did you do?”
Daughter: No comment.
Then I noticed tiny kernals of green surrounding her mouth.
I saw the broccoli bag at the bottom of the cart. There was NO WAY she could have reached it.
Then I looked at the display next to her.
YIKES!
“Which ONE did you bite?” I asked her.
She pointed. It was apparently near the bottom of the pile, but I couldn’t tell which broccoli crown has been chomped on by her teeth.
Even if I could, I knew if I pulled from the bottom, the whole thing would come tumbling down.
So I got down on her level, explained that I LOVE how she enjoys vegetables, but next time, could she wait until we get home?