A cute video with simple English that will help you learn the names of some vegetables and also give you some ideas to make your children fond of vegetables.

Lola will not eat peas. In fact, she won't eat carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, eggs, sausages, cauliflower, cabbage or baked beans. And she absolutely will not EVER eat a tomato. But then Charlie explains to Lola that these are not peas - these are green drops from Greenland. And those orange things that look like carrots are actually twiglets from Jupiter.

Charlie and Lola is an animated television series based on the Charlie and Lola books written by Lauren Child.

I will not ever never eat a tomato.

I have this little sister, Lola. She is small and very funny. Sometimes Mom and Dad ask me to give Lola her dinner. This is a hard job because Lola is a very fussy eater.
 
"I do not eat peas or carrots or potatoes or mushrooms or spaghetti or eggs or sausages. I do not eat cauliflower or cabbage or baked beans or bananas or oranges. And I am not keen on apples or rice or cheese or fish fingers. And I will not ever never eat a tomato."

My sister hates tomatoes, so I say: "That's lucky, Lola, 'cause we're not having any of those things. We are not going to eat any peas or carrots or potatoes or mushrooms or spaghetti or eggs or sausages. There will be no cauliflower or cabbage or baked beans, bananas or oranges. We don't have any apples or rice or cheese or fish fingers"

- And no tomatoes? not ever?

"...and certainly no tomatoes."

"Then why are those carrots there, Charlie? Carrots are for rabbits. I don't ever eat carrots."

One day I thought of a good trick to play on her. "But Lola", I said, "Those are not carrots. They're not carrots, they are orange twiglets from Jupiter."
"They just look like carrots to me," said Lola.
"How can they be carrots? Carrots don't grow on Jupiter."
"That's true. Well, as they're all the way from Jupiter. Mmm, not bad."

"Don't even think about giving me a pea. I don't ever eat peas. Peas are too small and too green."

"But Lola, those are not peas. Of course they are not. These are green drops from Greenland."

"Green drops!"

"But I don't eat green things"
"Goody! more for me then. Green drops! Great, green drops! Green drops are so incredibly rare!"
"Well, maybe I'll just nibble one or two. "Oh," said Lola, "quite tasty. Charlie, wait, wait!"

"I will not eat potato so don't even try, not even mashed."
"This isn't mashed. This isn't mashed. This is cloud fluff from the pointiest peak of Mount Fuji."
"Oh, in that case a large helping for me. I love to eat cloud."

"Charlie," Lola said, "they look like fish fingers to me, and I would never eat a fish finger."

So I said, "Fish fingers? They are not fish fingers. Lola, they are not fish fingers, they are ocean nibbles from under the sea. Mermaids always eat ocean nibbles."
"But I went to that supermarket one time with Mom, and I always eat what mermaids eat. Mmm, yummy! Now, my tummy is so absolutely full. I've already eaten twiglets, green drops, cloud fluff and ocean nibbles. I can't eat another single thing."

"Not even a tomato?"

"I will not ever never eat a tomato... But will you pass me one of those, Charlie?"
 And I said, "One of those? But, but it's tomato!"
And she says, "It is not a tomato. It's not a tomato, it's a moonsquirter. Moonsquirters are my favourite. You didn't think they were tomatoes, did you, Charlie?"

TOMATO= Careful with the pronunciation of this word. In AmE you say /təmeɪtəʊ/ but in BrE you must say /təmɑ:təʊ/.

FUSSY= A person who only likes eating a few simple things.

CAULIFLOWER= Notice that Lola says /kɒlɪflɑ:/ but later Charlie says /kɒlɪflaʊə/. This is a normal thing, in modern English the triphthong
/aʊə/ is usually pronounced /ɑ:ə/ or even /ɑ:/, but all three pronunciations are acceptable. /aʊə/ is considered more correct, /ɑ:ə/ more normal and /ɑ:/ more colloquial. For example, the word "fire" is supposed to be pronounced /faɪə*/ but people usually say /fɑ:ə*/ or even /fɑ:*/, the same as "far".

I AM NOT KEEN ON APPLES= If you are keen on something (or fond of something) you like it.

TWIGLETS= A British snack food for children (see picture). The suffix -LET is sometimes used as a diminutive (to make things small), so this word was created from "twig" (a small tree branch or stick) and so it literally means "little twigs", because of its shape.

ALL THE WAY FROM= An emphatic way of expressing distance. For example, you can say "Kiyotaka comes from Japan", but if you say "Kiyotaka comes all the way from Japan" you mean that Japan is very far away and he made a very long journey to come here.

RARE= /reə*/ Not frequent, difficult to find or get (don't confuse with "strange").

NIBBLE= Give little bites (like when birds or mice eat).

TASTY= Good to eat, of a nice taste.

MASHED= Mashed potatoes is a kind of potato cream made by crushing potatoes (see picture).

FLUFF= Something having a very light, soft, or frothy consistency or appearance. Clouds are just water vapour, but they look like something fluffy, like very soft and light cotton balls, so "cloud fluff" would be the substance clouds are made of.

A LARGE HELPING= A big helping. A HELPING is the amount of food they put on your plate when being served. If you like it very much maybe you can have another helping.

NIBBLES= We have already said that "to nibble" is to have small bites of something. Here "nibbles" is used as a noun, so they are the little fragments you bite. Ocean nibbles are little bites from the ocean.

MERMAIDS= A mythological being who is like a woman from waist up and like a fish from waist down.

ONE TIME= You have probably learned that "one time" is wrong and you must say ONCE. Well, both are used, but "once" is still more common.

YUMMY!= An expression children use when they like their food.

TUMMY= (kids' language) stomach.

MOONSQUIRTER= A squirter from the moon. A squirter is something that squirts. To squirt is to eject a liquid, like when you use an injection and the liquid is suddenly pushed out. That is why Charlie and Lola squeeze the tomatoes to make them squirt.