When I was growing up we had our 'stand-by' meals- fried pork chops, spaghetti, steak with homemade fries, fried chicken legs, ham steak, etc. I can't think of all of them. My dad is a meat and potatoes kinda guy. The only spices we used were salt and pepper. Somehow I have decided and figured out that I like different flavors. I hate to say I 'experiment' because I am not an experimenter by nature. Give me a recipe and I will follow it to a tee. But I do like different flavors and I do like to try to make things that sound appealing.
Every week I sit down and decide what we are having for dinner. Adam will often ask me as I serve it, "Have we had this before?" because I make a lot of different things apparently. As I mentioned previously, my meals don't always go over well. Chip will eat anything. The kids? Not so much. So one night Chip told me, I think you make too exotic foods. And that made me sad and I thought, I am going to make whatever I want and if they are hungry they will eat it. But I thought that wasn't really nice either. After talking about food at a girls weekend, my friend Marji had mentioned she wrote down all of the foods that she makes regularly because sometimes she doesn't know what to make. So I did that one day, and wrote them all by type of food- beef, pork, chicken, other and then had Chip 'approve' if the kids would eat them. And so far so good. The only problem is I am getting bored with... ham steak, pork with sauerkraut, steak, spaghetti, repeat. OK, maybe not repeat but it feels like that. Last night I made baked pork chops with sauerkraut, boxed mac and cheese and steam fresh vegs. (Steamfresh vegs we pretty much eat EVERY night, they are the best things ever.) Oh, and the family thought that was the best dinner I ever made. Really?
Chip doesn't eat fish. I didn't grow up on fish so I don't make it. I eat more seafood than I used to though. Chip likes scallops and I will eat them and shrimp too. But I think that if kids aren't exposed to things, they will never eat it. It is my job to make different things and they can try it and maybe they will eat it. But then again, I eat different things and I didn't when I was younger. Here is a list of things that I can think of off the top of my head that I wouldn't eat as a child and now will: scalloped potatoes (really, look at them. What kid would want to eat that?), broccoli casserole, tomatoes, squash casserole, shrimp, any cooked vegetable except beans and corn. (I'll eat peas now and spinach) I still am not a fan of cooked broccoli, cauliflower, lima beans, beef-a-roni, Spanish rice, chili, goulash, and pepper steak. But I am thinking that hopefully someday my kids will come around and try different things too.
I feel like I always give Adam a sandwhich for lunch. And he's fine with that but I was looking for some other ideas (easy and healthy) so I asked at my cooking class and the next class she brought a whole list and they all sounded super yummy! I'll try to think of some off the top of my head- bean and corn salad with scoop chips, egg salad with crackers, tuna salad on bread, a bagel with cream cheese and jelly, fruit salad, a sandwhich with nutella, hummus with pita chips and raw vegs, cold chicken cutlet sandwich, I can't remember them all. I can list them if you want, I have the paper downstairs. I had Adam rank them (and he's my best eater) but he didn't want a lot of them. He isn't a fan of jelly, he doesn't like sweets. I gave him a bagel with cream cheese a lot for a bit, and of course he loves the fruit salad. One day I made him a yogurt parfait. I buy them from stewarts on my early morning meeting days and they are SO good- vanilla yogurt with real strawberries and a little granola (they have blueberry too but they aren't as good). So I bought some yogurt, fresh strawberries and gave him a little baggie of granola. He ate it, but didn't love it. A week or so ago I made this salad that she suggested- SO yummy- cold cooked pasta (I used shells), scallions, an apple and a red pepper tossed in a poppy seed dressing. I had it a few days and the apple doesn't turn brown, it must be the dressing or something. He didn't like it. I didn't think he would because he has mentioned before when I made the tri-color pasta that it's slimy (because it's cold and has the Italian dressing) but I thought I would give it a go anyway. I had a yummy lunch for a few days though.
I have heard that kids' taste buds are more sensitive than ours I think because ours are old. :) But I make this Italian bread from our cooking class that Chip and I love- cut the Italian bread into slices and put it on the baking pan, drizzle olive oil, I use garlic powder, salt, pepper, parm Romano cheese and red wine vinegar...there may be something else but I think that is it. And then you bake it. Delicious! The boys say it is sour. :) Which I think means spicy.
But I am going to keep plugging along. A few weeks ago I bought some pesto because I love pesto, and I dump it on chicken and bake it with a little mozz cheese. So I took a couple of pieces for the kids and baked it without the pesto. There was plenty for them to try if they wanted (which they didn't) but they had some plain with bread crumbs and dipped it in ranch dressing. Hopefully some day they will want to try new things. I came out of my shell a little bit.
1 comment:
I have to say that food is one of the biggest stressors in my life, at least as a wife and a mother. I think I am kind of a lousy cook, for one, and for two, my kids don't eat nearly the variety of foods that many kids do. I agree with you, though: I eat a LOT (a TON) more foods as an adult than I ever did as a kid, and I was a very picky eater as a kid. Hopefully my kids will come out of it. I do feel like we get into these food 'ruts' a lot of the time and it's a pain. I get tired of the same old things. And on the weeks when Josh isn't home for dinner I REALLY don't feel like bothering to make anything decent because the kids just pick at it.
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