conuly

Neither of them is 100% on the no-meat front, but they're sincerely trying to cut down on how much of that they eat. (Alas, my mother wants meat at every meal, and while I say "If I can't make everybody happy I'll have to settle for making myself happy instead", in practice I've started trying to alternate meat nights with no-meat nights, with the missing-out party having to eat the sides.) Today we had pasta with vegetables and pancetta, which is great because everybody will eat it and it's easy for me to just serve the kids first and then dump the pancetta in the pot for the rest of us.

Eva, perhaps predictably, ate her pasta, nibbled her peppers, and went to eat an orange. "Why'd you put spinach in this!?"

"Because spinach is good for you. It's got lots of iron, calcium, vitamin c, and fiber. Oh, and potassium too!"
"Blech."
"Well, you know, Eva, vegetarian means you eat vegetables."
"But spinach isn't a vegetable!"
"What?"
"You can't cut it, and anyway, vegetables are more fruity."
"More... fruity?"
"Like bell peppers and cucumbers. They have seeds. Spinach is leaves."

I don't know where she got this interesting idea from either.