My youngest was a picky eater when she was young. I don’t give much credence to picky eaters. I never coddled her when it came to food, thus not drawing attention to it. I did, however, have rules, which prevented dinner time battles. For my part, I made sure to serve one item she would like, she had to taste everything else, and her next eating occasion was in three hours. With that last rule, if she was hungry she would eat a substantial dinner, even if it was made up of only the one thing she liked. Irritatingly, she would like something one week, and not the next. She claimed she had never liked whatever it was and I was insane to think she had.

I am not the crazy one. I checked and rechecked my memories of dinners past and always came to the same conclusion – she did eat the white rice, pasta noodles, or broccoli the week before. She stretched the boundaries of my patience. I resisted the fight and wielded my parenting authority, told her when the next eating occasion was allowed, and left her hunger level up to her.

These days my youngest eats most everything. There are some foods she abhors and she’s not shy telling me about it. Celery comes to mind. When I use celery in a dish, I chop it very small so she has no idea what it is. If a chunk of celery escapes my chopper and ends up on her plate, you can bet it won’t end up in her mouth.

But now it’s not my daughter’s celery disdain that is making me question my sanity. It’s my husband’s odd eating behaviors of late. He is a meat and potatoes type of guy and I’ve always been one to experiment with foods. I know not every new recipe is going to get the “good cooking babe” seal of approval, but he avoids eating things I always assumed he liked. It started a few years ago after I brought home pizza from Costco. I usually pick up something quick for dinner on days I go grocery shopping. He claimed not only had he never like Costco pizza, but he didn’t like any pre-made food from there.

It’s funny, because he had never not eaten the pizza or anything I’d brought home and there he was, suddenly declaring his dislike. He also informed me he didn’t like tubular noodles, like they use in the chicken Alfredo. I tried to come up with easy dinners on shopping days that didn’t come from Costco, but the kids and I really like the food. After awhile I gave up trying to please him. It was only every other week and there was usually leftovers in the fridge he could heat up.

Then just the other day, my oldest was home when I was shopping at Costco and she asked if I’d pick up a pizza for her because she was craving it. I obliged. When my husband got home it was sitting on the table. I was chopping vegetables for my next experiment – vegetable curry, and he blatantly put a piece of pizza in the toaster oven. “Um? Should I stop making dinner? Are we having pizza?”

“No, go ahead. It’s just a snack.” It’s a good thing he liked the pizza, because though the baked salmon was really good, the vegetable curry did not get his seal of approval. Come to think of it, he didn’t complain about the Alfredo we had a couple weeks ago. See? I’m not the crazy one.

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. You can read more of her writing on her website livingwithgleigh.com, follow her on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh by Gretchen Leigh”or on Twitter @livewithgleigh. Her column is also available at maplevalleyreporter.com under the Life section.