Toddlers thursdays - food

Parenting! Raises questions marks ... highlights exclamation marks ... brings up the occasional "..." Apparently the "Brangelina" couple is checking ponctuation too lately. Reason? Meat or no meat for the kids ...

Now being a foodie in the most broad sense of the word. Being married to one and being sure that this love of food is in my genes ... well food occasionally raises some exclamation marks too instead of serving it's primary pleasuring goals.

Luckily DH and me are on the same page when it concerns feeding our toddlers. Allthough DH tends to be more relaxed about food in general and I mostly am the stricter one. What do we try and teach our children when it comes to food?

Try and have a taste .. pretty pleaze ... but respecting a "no".
No seperate meal plans. (There are some exceptions when it comes to spicy food, seafood ...)
Fruit is a must eat!
Veggies must be eaten in order to get seconds from meat or grains.
Three cups of milk a day ... but recently this is becoming a problem I will need to work on more creative ways to give it to them ....
Dessert is only for those who eat a reasonable portion of the main dish.
Trying to trick them into eating things using songs, desserts, special playtime ... (not entirely happy with this, but it works)
Trying to replace unhealthy high fat high sugar desserts by more healthy ones and reducing them to 3 small portions a day.
And where do the exclamation marks come in? Well when dh gives in to the kids when they start whining they want their dessert without finishing their meal, when family members think I'm harsh expecting them to eat healthy foods and start stuffing them with sweets and chocolate while saying "at least they have something in ... " Hard to stay "Zen" ... very hard ... for me that is ;)