Parenting skills

Ok, so parenting is starting to get more and more difficult as my kids grow. My daughter is 5 years old, and I'm starting to catch her in little lies, something that of course I don't like. People tell me that all kids lie, and ok it is understandable but how can I stop my daughter from doing it? Just because all kids do it doesn't mean that it is right? I firmly believe that the sooner you correct a "problem" the less headaches you will have in the future. You know this got me thinking...why would she lie to me? Have I given her reasons? Am I doing something wrong?

This was the scenario: I asked her if she was done eating, and she said yes, so I asked her to bring me her plate. She brings her plate and it was empty, so I said to her Good Girl! I continue cleaning the kitchen and when I go to my room I see all the rice and chicken wrapped in a paper towel....and when I say all of it, it was all of it. Now, someone would think that she did it because she was afraid of getting yelled at or something to that effect if she didn't eat. Well, no, that's not the case since I never force my kids to eat. So, why? What lead her to lie about it? Then of course I got upset not only because she lied to me, but because I hate to throw out food. So, I told her that lying was not a good thing to do and that throwing out the food is not good either because they are a lot of children just like her that don't have anything to eat and they go to heaven because of that reason.

How well did I handle this? I'm not sure, but later on I felt relieved because she came to me and said to me: Mommy, I'm sorry I didn't mean to lie, plus I don't want my nose to grow really big. :-) The fact that she came to me to apologize, confirmed to me that although I may be making lots of mistakes with parenting....I'm also doing good things and giving some example....what a little peace of mind.