Exclusive: Jessica Biel Says Her 3-Year-Old Is In the 'Beige Food Phase' & Toddler Moms Feel Seen

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It turns out that begging, bribing, and praising your kids to get them to eat veggies is a universal parenting experience. If your kids eat their broccoli and carrots without complaint, you’re very, very lucky — and Jessica Biel cannot relate. The Cruel Summer executive producer dished to SheKnows about the dishes her 3-year-old son Phineas won’t eat, and we’ve never felt more seen.

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“My kids are picky eaters,” Biel tells SheKnows about her kids Phineas and Silas, 8, who she shares with husband Justin Timberlake. “Or at least my 3-year-old is definitely going through the beige food phase.”

Ah, beige foods — you know, stuff like chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, bread. Delicious, but not exactly brimming with nutritional value.

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She went on to admit, “I struggle getting vegetables in my kids too.” Yay, it’s not just us! It’s not that we’re happy it’s hard for her, it’s just that we feel less alone knowing that even celebrity parents have a hard time getting their toddlers to eat greens.

Biel says that her and Timberlake have certain tricks up their sleeves to help: “We often try incentives to taste new foods or offer a fun experience at the end of the week if vegetables are consumed every day, things like that,” she explains. “And it’s fun to make it a really big deal when they do try something new and healthy! Positive feedback and reinforcement!” Yes, we love it!

Another way her home life is just like ours? “The morning rush is really chaotic!” the Candy star says, and every parent can relate. “And a rush it is. I feel like I am rushing my kids from one moment to the next.”

Of course, that’s a prime source of Mom Guilt, even for Biel. “I feel badly that they have to start their day under that kind of stress and am always looking to find a better balance around getting them to school on time, fed and dressed for the day and not feeling like a drill sergeant!” she adds. It’s such a difficult balance to strike. Obviously, we would love to have a peaceful morning, but kids have to get to school on time and for some reason, all kids turn into sloths on weekday mornings. (But it’s a totally different story on weekends … go figure!)

That’s one reason why Biel partnered with DoorDash to design Grab & Go Bento, which are bento-inspired lunches that “empower parents and guardians with convenience ahead of the back-to-school season chaos.” These limited-edition, pre-packed lunches help ease the burden of back to school (something we can all use!). It includes five days of healthy, delicious meals, like a bagel with cream cheese, sunflower seed butter and grape sandwich, baked tortilla scoops with salsa and guacamole, organic bunny fruit snacks, fresh apple slices, and more. It also includes five chocolate KinderSprout organic plant-based protein nutrition shakes.

“Packing school lunches is so hard for parents and guardians because you desperately want your kids to have nutrient-rich foods so they can feel satisfied and be able to focus and thrive at school,” Biel says. “But so often, the nutrient-rich foods are not what they want to eat for lunch!”

“DoorDash worked to create these meals to help parents and guardians like me calm that chaos and make Back to School easier,” she adds.

Go to the Grab & Go Bento shop on DoorDash to order five ready-made lunches for $25 ($15 for DashPass members with code BENTO10*) available for shipping nationwide, while supplies last. Orders placed from now-Aug. 9 can receive lunches for the week of Aug. 14, and orders placed from Aug. 11-16 can receive lunches for the week of Aug. 21.

And if you don’t have to worry about lunches, you can focus on other things — like finding that ever-elusive balance between motherhood and life. Biel says, “I find it endlessly challenging to find the balance between being a mom, having a career, and finding time for myself and my husband. I so often put myself at the bottom of my own list, and it never ever serves me.” Um, same, girl!

“I am a better all-around human in the world when I have prioritized my personal needs even for just a few minutes a day,” she adds. It’s good advice, even if it does feel impossible sometimes.

The Seventh Heaven alum also shared with us what her ideal day would be with her kids. “My perfect day as a mom would start with my kids sleeping in to 8am! Eureka!” she gushes. If only! “Then, we all eat a perfectly balanced breakfast with no screaming or negotiating, then we play and swim and watch movies together, and they’re having so much fun and being so kind to each other and reasonable that I don’t have to say no to ANYTHING!” Biel laughs. Oh yes, that would be the dream!

But in reality, a good day for Biel and her family is actually pretty simple. “Honestly, a great day would be a day that I don’t have to work, and we can play without any time limits or other household responsibilities that I have to attend to,” she says. “A great day with my kids is a day that I can give them my undivided attention.” It sounds wonderful!

Even when you’re famous, Mom Guilt is a thing, as these celebrity moms show.

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