A good thing coming to an end?

Every few weeks I try to spend an afternoon cooking and freezing. It makes those chaotic weekday evenings so much easier when I can pull a home made dinner out of the freezer and just warm it up. As it happens, one of my favorite things to do is to find new recipes and experiment. What tastes good? How can I make a recipe healthier? Will the kids actually eat it? Today was one of those wet, crisp, Autumn days that was perfect for doing just that...cooking. Outside of a trip to the gym this morning, and a bit of work while the kiddos were napping, I spent the day either in the kitchen or the grocery store. I made two types of home made granola bars (the jury is still out whether the recipes are blog worthy), my raw brownies (a family favorite, and probably one of the most nutritious items I serve) and home made veggie burgers. My 4 year old was her typical picky self. She asked me twice to read her the ingredients of everything in the granola bars and was skeptical when I assured her that no, the green bits in the granola bar was pumpkin seeds and not spinach (yeah, she's on to me). One passed her initial taste test (yet to be seen whether it comes home uneaten in the lunch box) and she turned the other down, despite approving of all the ingredients. She tasted everything at dinner (which is all we ask) and didn't like any of it so ended up eating the bun, the slice of tomato on the burger and the kiwi. I think a few bites of burger made it into her but only because she was famished. The only real surprise was she didn't like the acorn squash which was drizzled with butter, cinnamon and I even caved and sprinkled with some brown sugar. What I found shocking was the baby (who really isn't a baby anymore considering she will be 2 in a couple months) turned down everything (except the tomato, bun and kiwi) claiming, "I no like it." This is a kid who happily sucks down kale and spirulina smoothies, so I have to say her dissing the sugar sprinkled squash came as a huge surprise, especially considering I KNOW she was hungry. Needless to say, I think I see the writing on the wall....the picky stage is coming. The good news is I've been down this road before and I know that patience, persistance and time will persevere. Not that is makes it any easier. Not even for me.