Funny. I never would have thought that my children would eat pesto and when I read this I thought, yeah, right. However, my babysitter made pesto with my kids the other night. She brought the fresh basil and seemed to find my Cusinart, pine nuts, etc.. (which is no small feat in my it-makes-sense-only-to-me organized kitchen) and voila, I too have pesto loving kids now.

They love to dip the green beans in it.

ps I LOVE your Make Ahead Meal recipes, keep them up!

I found that a form of reverse psychology works for my two older kids (ages 6 and 3). We were talking one day about how I did not want them to grow up too quickly, and my kids, being contrary, argued that they wanted to grow too quickly. So when faced with healthy foods that are on the fence of their palates, I warn them not to eat it because it will make them grow. On occasion, I even threaten to remove the healthy food from their plates which prompts squeals of protest before they gobble the healthy food down and show me how much they've grown.
Julie Taiber

I have had similar success with Hummus. And with telling them to make crunchy noises with their carrots and then acting like they're blowing something up - three-year-old boys do get a kick out of an explosion. But alas it doesn't work with all veggies. Hungry for any more tips. Love the reverse-psychology idea. Wonder if they'll fall for it??

The pesto trick sounds so great - unfortunately my son has a nut allergy so we can't use that here. But, with 2 somewhat picky eaters (in very different ways), I admit that I resort to the ketchup trick whenever it works. I figure if it gets them to eat the protein then it's a plus. This way they'll eat pretty much any meat - which around here is often chicken in one form or another. (I often hear whines from the boys of "chiiiiccken again? Anything but chiiiiiiiicken!"

The other thing I do is try to name the dishes something that they like, with a little twist. It sounds silly but if I said we were having orange chicken lo mein with vegetables, they'd never eat it. But by simply calling it "chinese spaghetti" they eat it up happily. I know, it doesn't say much for the depth of my kids, but it gets them to eat it!

The last thing I do is let them pick their vegetable. They are not big vegetable eaters, and to make it worse they eat the opposite of each other (one eats tomatoes and cucumbers but no lettuce or carrots the other only eats carrots and lettuce. UGH). If they want fruit instead of a vegetable then that's fine too. Fewer arguments and they still get what they need!

Dinner art! My six year old daughter won't eat meat (if she sees it ) so dinner art is the way I go. I've managed to come up with flowers (a slice of ham as the center with tomatoes as the pedals, aspargus as the stem and so on), houses, kaleidoscope type art, butterflies and so on. My creations have been a lot of fun to do and she eats everything on her plate! And will even ask for more I've started taking photos of some of the art. It's amazing what you can do with turkey hot dogs, pepperoni, and ham slices!!

I love all these ideas.
Julie: Your "do the opposite of what I say" approach is exactly the kind of thing that would make my daughter laugh (and then eat what's on her plate).
And thank you, Kristin, for the reminder that fruit can be an excellent stand-in for vegetables at the dinner table (with less agita, too).
Two more dip ideas: Stonewall Kitchen makes a delicious Vidalia Onion Fig Sauce -- it sounds fancy but it's really just appealingly tangy-sweet.(stonewallkitchen.com). I often serve it with pork chops or broiled chicken. And there's always ranch dressing, which I just learned thousands of people use as a dip for pizza. (I know, I'm the last person in the country to hear about this.)

Beware of nut allergies! Pesto is one of those tricky foods because people forget that it contains nuts (I know because I'm an adult with nut allergy, and always on the lookout for pesto slipped into dressings and sauces.) If there is a history of food allergies in your family you should be very cautious about introducing nuts to young children. Check with your pediatrician; mine recommends waiting till age 3.
Otherwise, I'm a huge fan of enticing picky eaters with dips or anything else that gets them to try new foods. Once they get over the fear of some new taste or texture they will be more willing to eat it again - even without the dip.