I was cleaning out my youngest daughter’s room, and waded through her elementary school box, finally organizing items chronologically. I found an essay she wrote in first grade.

My Mom

My mom’s name is Nancy.

She has brown eyes and short hair.

She weighs 150 pounds and is really tall.

She is 43 years old.

I really like it when she cooks breakfast on Sundays, but I don’t like it when she cooks dinner.

She is funniest when she says something about Laura’s birthday.

I wish my mom would play with me all day.

I wouldn’t trade my mom for a different mom.

Why I Cook at Home

What???? I was/am a good cook! I cook all the time! Seven year olds don’t like vegetables or baked chicken or homemade bread. They like one-dollar pizza from a box. Brightly colored cereals with marshmallows shaped like unicorn-land treasures. Macaroni awash in powdered cheese. She was sold a bill of goods and wanted to taste that rainbow of fake-ness. It didn’t last. She came around.

Now she makes most of her own food at home. She asks for eggs from our chickens. We bring her produce from the garden. She compares prices. Considers carbs. Eschews sugar. Embraces homemade.

So, moms, don’t give up! Bake the chicken. Roast the vegetables. Knead the bread. Your seven-year old will pine for the rainbow but eat the chicken and vegetables one tiny bite at a time.

‘Cuz, “I wouldn’t trade my mom for a different mom”!

Be Blessed!

Vegetable Pizza

Today’s recipe is from the ‘70’s. Vegetable Pizza! You can sneak in some vegetables they aren’t familiar with. Because you use crescent rolls and cream cheese, it will make the various vegetables more palatable. Have your seven or seventeen year-old lift their head from their phones or stop that binge of Netflix or tear them away from the video game console and have them help roll out the crescent rolls onto a cookie sheet. They may think you’re making cookies! While their backs are turned rolling out the crescent roll dough, mix the cream cheese and mayo together with dill and garlic salt or onion powder. Don’t show the vegetables until it’s time to eat. They may feel hoodwinked, but they will get over it and will eat. Start changing your family tree!

This vegetable pizza could be cut into small pieces and served as an appetizer at your next book club soiree. When the old people in the group take a bite of this pizza, they will reminisce about the bell-bottomed jeans they used to fit in and the hair they used to have. Just nod politely.

Tools You’ll Need:

• Cookie sheet – if doubled, jelly roll pan
• Vegetable shredder
• Bowl & wooden spoon

Vegetable Pizza Ingredients:

• 1 tube crescent rolls
• 1 8 oz package cream cheese
• 1/3 C mayonnaise
• ½ t dill weed
• ½ t garlic salt or onion powder
• 1 C shredded cheddar

Shredded Vegetables:

• 1 carrot
• 1 C broccoli
• 1 C cucumber
• 1 tomato
• Radishes for color

Unroll crescent rolls onto cookie sheet. Press together to form crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool. Mix together cream cheese, mayonnaise, dill weed and onion powder or garlic salt. Spread onto cooled crust. Top with vegetables. Top the vegetable pizza with the shredded cheese.