I have lost my will to cook. I think I am a decent cook, there are things I know how to make that turn out well. I love eating and I love food. But lately I have been out of ideas and willpower. My kids don’t like food. Mexican food = plain tortillas, Italian = plain pasta (Collin will eat alfredo sauce). Des and I have very different tastes, in the past I would make two separate casseroles with slightly different ingredients for each of us. I was the only one who ate the leftovers.
It isn’t that I haven’t tried; I made a list of all the dishes I normally cook and planned weekly menus. Now I look at the list and despair. My kids will only eat a couple things on the list and a week of mac and cheese can make you crazy.
What do people feed their kids? I have heard rumors of kids that eat real food, vegetables and all but I have no experience with it myself. Should I embrace “kid food” and feed them horrible non nutritious over processed junk like chicken nuggets, hot dogs, french fries, jello and whatever else kids universally eat? Or should I insist they eat what I eat and send them to bed hungry until they comply?
Friday, September 19, 2008
Time to start watching the Food Network again
Posted by Marie at 12:43 PM
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9 comments:
Hey Marie!
So, Hyde goes to bed hungry every night--unless we have hot dogs, pizza, or quesadillas. Or, if there's bread with the meal, he'll eat it. Anyhow, my pholosphy is that I don't force him to eat it but he gets NOTHING else after except for water. Will went through the same thing and eventually decided he was hungry enough or the treat he would get after was worth eating his dinner. And I know Hyde will too. He's slowly tried new things. So, they do come around. You just can't force them. And I'm not about to eat hot dogs, mac & cheese, pizza, etc. for dinner everynight!
I agree with Maren. I have no problem letting my kids be hungry. If they're THAT hungry, they'll eat. I do make them at least try everything though.
That's not true, I ate leftovers too!
The truth is that Collin can be very picky, just like his parents!
I don't like olives and celery, Marie doesnt like any meat(maybe highly marinated chicken!), any fish, anything greasy or too sugary.
Collin doesnt like food if its the wrong color or has specs of green in it!
Peter is normal, as far as I can tell.
If not eating cheese, all sauces, all meats, all vegetables and any combination of the aforementioned products is normal than Peter is the normal one in our family.
I wonder who feeds our kids. Can you tell?
I make the girls try at least a bite of something brand new. We had a "no thank you portion" rule in my house growing up, so this is a variation on the same idea. But if they won't eat whatever I am serving, then it stinks to be them. I did once get really frustrated with Sydney and offer her her dinner for three meals running. She was not a happy camper that day. I can't say I was either! Emily is funny about textures of food, so I do try and be somewhat understanding about a few foods that just cause massive meltdowns. Sydney hates her food mixed, so I try and serve say the ingredients from the soup on a plate separated instead of in a bowl. For the most part, they eat what we eat though! Good luck changing habits!!!
Have you look at the Deceptively Delicious cookbook? I haven't tried it but several moms in my ward are big fans. It does seem like a lot of work to make the purees (and a willing husband to go along with the plan :)) but maybe it's worth it?
Sorry Marie, I know this is difficult for you, especially since you have skinny boys. Haley gets kids friendly foods for lunch, but has to eat what I fix for dinner. She usually doesn't eat dinner, but then she doesn't get dessert or anything else. As a result, the first thing I hear when Haley wakes me up in the morning is "Mommy, I want breakfast!" She does occasionally eat what I fix for dinner, and some nights I don't cook, and then Haley gets more easy kids friendly food, and I eat something else.
At our house everyone has to try at least two bites of everything, and if nothing is appetizing then there's always cereal (oatmeal or Cheerios).
We like doing breakfast for dinner about once a week, Brian grills one night a week (and I'll eat anything he cooks - I'm grateful for the night off, and he's a brilliant griller), and on Friday nights we have chicken dipper dinner - chicken fingers and any fruits/veggies that can be dipped.
Liam and Ella love breakfast - especially pancakes - so I've learned how to load those babies up with oatmeal or flax or pumpkin or peanut butter or cottage cheese or wheat flour - whatever! Liam especially loves dipping his foods, so if we put ranch and/or ketchup and/or bbq sauce on the table, he'll eat almost anything. And if we put out toothpicks for the dippers, he's in food heaven!
I've also noticed that when we're happy/excited about what we're eating, then they're happy about what we're eating - even fish and brussels sprouts (dipped in ranch, for Liam :)
Finally, our kids tend to eat bigger earlier in the day - they eat big breakfasts, big AM snacks, medium lunches, small PM snacks, and a light dinner. I don't know why that used to bug me - but it doesn't anymore and it's been a lot less stressful lately. Whatever we don't eat up at dinner gets recycled into lunches/future dinners - I get cranky when food gets wasted. I won't cook special foods for picky folks - allergies, yes, attitudes, no. Everyone can develop more coping skills. :)
Thanks for all the ideas! I have tried cracking down a bit more this last week with some success. I got BOTH boys to eat pasta with cheese and red sauce in order to have ice cream for dessert and they have had to go hungry a few nights.
The problem I have with the deceptively delicious thing is that if you hide the good stuff and they don't know the difference they will never knowingly eat the good stuff.
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