“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”  ~J.R.R. Tolkien

I know our mums taught us not to play with our food. But where’s the fun in that advice? If we want to have our kids enjoy eating, we should let them do what they like best in the day…to play! Children learn by playing. So what better way to learn to like different foods, than to make a game of it?

Tasting new foods is a risky business for the fussy eater. Even the sight of something unexpected may start that jaw clenching shut. That’s why THIS game has a blindfold. If they can’t see it, they can’t make a snap judgement without tasting it. Tricksy, I know…but it worked! The kids in my home were begging to play this game again and again. I had meant only to try a few foods, but the more we played, the more foods they wanted to try to guess. Some of the kids surprised themselves when they saw what they were “liking,” and some of them surprised me!

We started out with spreads. The stuff most kids like on their toast. I hid them behind the bread pan so there could be no peeking when the blindfold was on someone else.

Each child had their own spoon for each spread. I blindfolded them one at a time, had them smell what was on their spoon to see if they could guess using only their nose. Then they got to taste. Of course, everyone could guess the peanut butter by smell, but none of the other ones were familiar until they tasted them. Only the apricot jam was left “unguessed” even with taste.

Next we moved on to the dreaded vegetable. I was not expecting much from this round. In fact, I figured the game would be over after the first bite of cooked carrots! But the children proved me wrong. They loved it.

I had prepared 4 different veggies cooked, and uncooked. I was curious to see which veggies were preferred in their raw state, and which ones were preferred cooked. I kept the lids on while tasting, so no one could see what was inside…

Most of the children preferred their veggies raw, with the exception of the potatoes. Now this is not what surprised me. What surprised me, was that some of them liked them AT ALL!! Usually, if these same kids saw a raw pepper or a raw carrot on their plate they’d burst into that all to familiar whine, “Awwww…do I HAVE to eat this???” Oh, that tricksy blindfold! Hehehehehe.

After the veggie round, they all voted to continue the game. So I brought out some all white food items from the fridge. For this round, we were not blindfolded, as the foods were unrecognizable all together on the plate…

Ranch dressing was guessed right away. The sour cream was mistaken for yogurt by some of the smaller children. The mayonnaise was the last to be guessed…and not by its name. It was, “that stuff you put on sammiches!”

“Let’s do more!! Let’s do more!! This is the funnest game EVER!”

So we did more. I brought out the fruit and the blindfold…

Everything was guessed, except one of the preschoolers was pretty sure the strawberries were pinecones! LOL!  Oh, and the lemons. Well, I’ll just let you look…

I encourage you to play this game with your little ones. It is a fun, hilarious, and non-threatening way to take a risk. You may be surprised with the responses you receive. I know I certainly was.

Once again, I have rounded up a bunch of links from fellow bloggers that may help you and your wee ones on this journey towards a more accepting palate.

Just click on the photo to link thru to their blogs…

The Educators’ Spin On It…Today We Ate A Rainbow

B-Inspired Mama…Free Printable Sticker Chart

And also from B-Inspired Mama…Green Food Taste Test

A Little Learning For Two…Fussy Eater Chart

Mommy With Selective Memory…Tricking Kids Into Eating Breakfast