Vegetarian chili and placemats

March is National Nutrition Month so we wanted to do something based around food. I had thought to make something else, but would have been too time consuming for the kids. Plus we wanted to make something that was nutritional and included most of the food groups, so we decided on chili. At first mention I can say the children were less than excited. In fact, I did get a couple of, "Eeww yuck I don't like chili". I wasn't about to let that get me down. I have learned that if you include them in the process they are more likely to at least be more interested in tasting the food. At least that is how it has worked with my two daughters. Low and behold after all of the children were able to partake in adding the ingredients into the chili they each came over for a sample, and they all............loved it. One of my daughters even told me, "No, I don't like that stuff," and after telling her she had to at least taste it, she disappeared with the sample, came back and said, "I love this chili!" It was such a joy and might I say relief that the children undoubtedly truly liked it. We talked about eating a rainbow of colors for a healthy diet, and I read a book about vegetables. Then for the final project of the day we had all of the kids color in a placemat that had a empty plate in it. The plate needed to include at least two vegetable, one fruit, and a main protein item. Some of the kids had a little difficulty coming up with two vegetables, which is understandable, I don't think I had very many vegetables on my favorite list either. They all came through for us in the end and decorated some beautiful placemats that we then laminated for them also. It was a very satisfying day for me and I think the children as well.