Kids Share Their Funny New Year's Resolutions About Food
Grown-ups aren't the only ones hoping to change their eating habits in the New Year. Children also have some interesting ideas about what they'll be ingesting come 2014—including applesauce, broccoli, and even alligator! Learning how to cook new dishes also tops the list of kids' food resolutions, so Mom and Dad take note: Maybe your resolution should be to let the kids mess around in the kitchen more.
1/14Zoe, 9, Minneapolis
I want to get really good at cooking. I already know a lot. This past summer, my grandma and I made my mom really healthy dinners when she came home after tiring days. What kinds of things did you make? A bunch of different salads, quiche with very fresh ingredients never from a can, and gluten-free stuff because my mom doesn’t eat that. She has diabetes. Do you consider yourself a healthy eater, too? Yes. I feel better when I eat healthier and I’m more proud of myself. Plus one time I had a burger and fries at McDonald’s and I felt like I was about to puke. I couldn’t even finish it.
2/14Grace, 13, Highlands Ranch, Colorado
I hope to learn a lot of new recipes. I started cooking when I was about 10. Now me and my friend Mallory do cupcake sales for charities. Which ones? Mostly Reece's Rainbow, which helps orphans with special needs. We’ve also done lemonade stands and cookie sales. One of my main New Year’s resolutions is to learn some Bulgarian recipes because we’re adopting a little 8-year-old girl from there in 2014. Wow, that must be very exciting! Any particular dishes you’re planning to make? I have a vegan Bulgarian cookbook, so something from that. We’re not vegan; it’s just the cookbook I happened to come across.
3/14Emma, 9, Cranford, N.J.
I’m kind of addicted to fattening food so for the New Year I’d like to try to cut down the sweet stuff to once a week. Are you only obsessed with sugary treats? Well, I really like bacon, too. I really just want to be healthier. My dad is pretty strict about what I eat, but my mom kind of like goes with the flow.
4/14Lili, 6, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
For next year I want more of Grandma Moosey’s applesauce. Is that a brand? No, Moosey is my grandma! We had her applesauce on Thanksgiving and it tasted great. I also want a mini refrigerator in my room so I can have Grandma Moosey’s applesauce whenever I want. What else would you put in your fridge? Pickles and cake and other sweets, too. I had pickles and cake today!
5/14Ixele, 12, Brooklyn, N.Y.
I’d like to do more on my school’s Cooking Crew. We get to make different snacks for the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades every Friday. We’ve made ham-and-cheese muffins and corn pudding. One time we tried to make custard tarts, but in the end we just cut madeleines and put custard in them. Do you cook at home, too? Yes, but I’d like to do more, especially make up my own recipes. Once I mixed garbanzo beans with yellow squash and dill and chili flakes in a pan. It was really good!
6/14Makenna, 9, Rehoboth, Massachusetts
My New Year’s resolution is to try more foods because right now we’re having a competition in my family. Whoever tries the most new foods wins a trip to Build-a-Bear! Who came up with that? My parents. They were sick of me and my sister and brother being such picky eaters. My sister is in the lead, but maybe I can catch up. Have you tried anything new that you really liked or hated? I liked shrimp. I’d have that again. But I hated mustard. I don’t like anything spicy. Are there any foods you’re looking forward to try? Yes: Alligator. I know there are people who eat it, but I don’t know if my mom’s ever going to make it.
7/14Regan, 7, Rehoboth, Massachusetts
I hear you’re beating your sister in the new foods competition. Yes. I’ve tried 24 new foods! I liked bacon and chicken and mashed potatoes and stuffing. Anything you didn’t like? Banana. I only ate one bite. It was disgusting. So do you see more new foods in your future? Yeah. I think I’ll keep trying new foods even if I don’t get a trip to Build-a-Bear every time.
8/14Tommy, 9, Media, Pennsylvania
I want to practice more baseball, football, basketball, and hockey in the New Year. And it’s very important for an athlete to be a healthy eater, too. Do you help out with any of the cooking at home? No, because I have too much homework and tests to study for! But once I cooked with my cousin Cole. He’s in middle school and reads Bon Appétit and all the cooking magazines. We tried to make monkey bread, but my cousin Jeff was with us and he’s not the greatest of the cooks so we ended up burning it.
9/14Dave, 5, St. Paul, Minnesota
I like to read food containers because I want to learn what’s in different kinds of food. Like I learned that in ketchup there’s two sugars! That surprised me. I thought it was just tomatoes. So in the New Year, more reading food labels for you? Yeah. And cooking with my dad. We make pancakes and I mix the batter. And we make pizza and bread, too. My mom’s usually not the cook.
10/14Gabriella, 9, San Diego, California
I want to try a lot more new foods. Not just eat them but cook with them too. I’d love to have a whole day when we could just stay home and cook. Is cooking a big thing in your family? Yeah, my parents met at cooking school and both worked as chefs. They make all kinds of different dishes for us, so when I see something that’s new and different, I think it looks appetizing. I think the reason why a lot of kids say “ugh” when they see veggies and stuff is because their parents only feed them junk food. If they started to give their kids good, healthy, fresh food at a young age their kids would like everything, like me. My mom is a vegetarian and she cooks Brussels sprouts and roasts cauliflower, and they’re so good!
11/14Madeline, 10, Coppell, Texas
I’d like to eat better foods in the New Year. I’m always eating cheeseburgers and my mom and grandma keep telling me they’ll make me fat. But I go ahead and sneak them anyway. So… are you really planning on eating healthy foods in 2014? Yeah, because I’m cheerleading now. I definitely have to eat more salads and vegetables.
12/14Maya, 10, New York City
I want to eat healthy and not junk all the time. Like, if I have a choice between broccoli and a candy bar, I want to know that I should choose broccoli. Sounds like you’ve made this New Year’s resolution before. How’d it work out for you? At the beginning of the year, like in January and February, I did great. Then I forgot about it during the summer. But then I started doing it again when I was back in school because I was reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. I learned all about how processed foods aren’t good for you, so it kind of reminded me of my resolution. In 2014, I also want to learn how to cook more. Because when you know what goes into something you have a better idea of what you’re eating. Like if you see how they make a Jolly Rancher you’ll probably never want to eat one again.
13/14Nicole, 9, Tinton Falls, N.J.
I’m a picky eater. I only like pizza, spaghetti, ice cream, mozzarella sticks, and chicken nuggets. My parents always say I need to eat more vegetables so I think that’s something I should do in the New Year. Don’t you eat any veggies now? Only potatoes. I don’t like green vegetables. Maybe I’ll try some.
14/14Vivienne, 6, Minneapolis
My favorite foods are mushrooms and mangoes, so I want more of them in the New Year. Do you only like foods that begin with M? No. I like dessert, too. And I hate McDonald’s. Why? It’s gross. The chicken nuggets have hair in them.
