Can you win over a picky eater?

She wasn't always a picky eater.

As a baby, my 4-year-old daughter, Maya, loved peas and sweet potatoes and savory rice dishes and almost any fruit we put in front of her.

But, in retrospect, the signs were there. Avocado was a no-go, and she would turn her head from the nutrition-packed fruit. I could never get her to eat eggs in any way, shape or form, and green leafy vegetables were scoffed at.

As she grew older, her culinary repertoire grew smaller. Whereas she used to feast on green beans by the bowlful, now she picks at them. I remember buying an organic cookbook for kids and spending hours simmering a healthy beef and vegetable stew, only to have her spit it out.

Little by little, we gave in. It was easier to feed her the foods we knew she would eat, rather than have daily battles at the dinner table. Before we knew it, her menu was predictable and carb-filled: mac and cheese, quesadillas, chicken nuggets, pasta, peanut butter.

I take some comfort in the fact that she will still eat broccoli and green beans and peas, but never with the gusto that she shows for pizza. She loved carrots and bananas as a baby but now turns her nose up at the former and only tolerates the latter.

I can't help but feel responsible, especially because a recent study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that up to 78 percent of food preferences are hereditary. I eat a healthy, varied diet now that I'm an adult, but as a kid, it was rare for a green vegetable to pass through my lips. To this day, I don't like seafood and anything too mushy. So it feels hypocritical to force my kid to eat foods that just don't appeal to her.

Can Maya's picky eating habits be conquered? The California Milk Processor Board (known for the nationwide Got Milk? campaign) says yes. The organization teamed with children's culinary schools throughout the state to develop kid-friendly recipes packed with vegetables, protein and, of course, milk. When it offered to let me and Maya try our hand at making one of these kid-pleasing dishes, I figured it was worth a shot.

We met with chef Reba Lawless Berdakin at Piccolo Chef, a kids' cooking school in Culver City. She told us we would be making Mini Veggie Quiches, a real test for my vegetable- and egg-averse daughter. After washing our hands and tying a kid-size apron onto Maya, we sat down and got ready to get messy.

Maya enjoys cooking and baking, and I let her help me mix and mash and pour when we're at home. But Berdakin made it a hands-on, interactive experience. She pulled out a shiny red pepper and encouraged Maya to smell it, touch it and describe it. She showed her summer squash and zucchini, and had her brush the dirt off a large mushroom and pluck the stem out.

To my embarrassment, I realized that Maya had never been exposed to any of these vegetables. I figured if she wouldn't eat a carrot, there's no way she would go for squash. But she seemed intrigued by these new foods, and I made a mental note to make our next trip to the grocery store a learning experience, rather than a rush to get what we need and get out.

Berdakin whipped out a genius KitchenAid vegetable chopper, and Maya had a ball chopping the vegetables into tiny pieces without a knife in sight. I spilled some chopped mushrooms and was sheepish about making a bigger mess than my 4-year-old, but Berdakin was the epitome of patience.

"You're supposed to make a mess," she said with a laugh. She was right. Then and there, I vowed not to get uptight about the mess next time Maya and I cook at home together. I want her to enjoy it, and little kids and messes go hand in hand.

After watching Berdakin sauté the chopped veggies, Maya gleefully cracked an egg and mixed half a cup of milk in with a whisk.

Then she used a cookie cutter to cut perfect circles out of a store-bought pie crust. After pressing the dough circles into a muffin tin, I helped Maya fill each crust with the egg and milk mixture, sautéed veggies and a sprinkle of shredded cheese on top.

• MINI VEGGIE QUICHES

Serves: Six

Besides their size, what make these quiches so special are the sweet caramelized flavors that kids love in their food. Entice children's taste buds by inviting them to help make this colorful dish.

Ingredients

2 premade 9-inch pie crusts, made without hydrogenated fats

1/2 medium onion, peeled

1 clove garlic, peeled

2 ounces button mushrooms, about 4, brushed clean and stems removed

1/2 of a small zucchini, cleaned and end removed

1/2 of a small yellow squash, cleaned and end removed

1/2 of a red bell pepper, seeded

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

3 eggs

1-1/4 cups 1 percent milk

1 cup shredded low-fat Swiss cheese

Low-fat cooking oil spray

Salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking oil spray. Roll out pie crust onto a clean flat surface. Using a 3-inch circular cookie cutter, cut out 12 circles of pie crust. Gently fit the circles down into each of the muffin cups and place in the refrigerator to chill while preparing the remaining ingredients.

In a food processor, pulse or chop onion, garlic, mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash and red bell pepper until coarsely minced but not a fine mush. In a medium skillet, warm oil and butter over medium heat. Add coarsely minced vegetables and sauté until just beginning to caramelize or brown for about 10 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk to combine. Set aside. Remove muffin tin from refrigerator and scoop 1 tablespoon of vegetable mixture into each of the crusts. Top the vegetable mixture with shredded cheese, dividing it equally among the quiches. Pour egg mixture over the vegetables and cheese until it comes up to the edge of the pie crust.

Bake in oven until just set: center of the quiche no longer jiggles and crust is beginning to turn brown for 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to set for a couple minutes before removing from pan.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

• • •

The mini-quiches were done after 15 minutes in a convection oven. While they baked and cooled, Berdakin read Maya a book about rogue bunnies munching their way through a befuddled man's garden, and took her out to the school's garden so she could see radishes and peas pushing through the dirt.

The quiches were savory and flavorful, and a huge hit with Mommy. But now came the real test: Would Maya try them, much less like them? This is a child who regularly declares, "I don't like it," before she even takes a single bite.

To my surprise, she eagerly took a bite. And then another. And then came the verdict: "I don't like it."

I was momentarily deflated, but Berdakin was unruffled. "The key is that she tried it," she said.

Again, she was right. I think Maya was willing to try it because she had a hand in making it, and Berdakin had made it such a positive, exciting learning experience. Repetition is key, she told me.

Nutrition experts say it could take 10 to 15 tastes before a child will appreciate or accept a new flavor. So I will be making the quiches again, and having Maya chop mushrooms and squash again.

I learned just as much as Maya did, and will take Berdakin's advice to heart: "Don't underestimate your child and say, 'Oh, you won't like that,'" she said.

After watching my picky eater expertly crack an egg and try a quiche, I know she's right.