A Happy Family Cooking a Well-balanced Meal. DISCLOSURE: This is Not My Family.
Oh, I did the “I’ll never _________________ when I’m a mom.”
You know you said it. You know you can’t believe that you let your tantruming kid scream while you calmly stand in the grocery line or walk to the car.
Yeah, me either.
I also didn’t think I’d ever consider a bowl of cereal a complete meal. Dinner.
But I do that, too.
I didn’t think I’d prepare 3 meals for the 4 of us either, but I do that too. If you look at the list below, you’ll know why it’s possible to do it in just a few minutes.
My son spent a whole year eating cereal bars and scrambled eggs or he acted like he was in pain (oral sensitivity, ya think?). He occasionally ate a banana. It didn’t bother me because I have low standards and I picked my battles. Like the Year of Orange. Mac n’ cheese, cheese, Cheetoes (baked), eggs, chicken nuggets and sweet potato pie, just to name the mainstays. Don’t even get me started on the Year We Could Feed Him Out of a Gas Station/Convenience Store. That is completely true.
Since the Year of Orange and the Year of Gas Station Feeding he’s had a lot of cuisine changes. Here’s just a sample of the complete meals I never thought I’d serve, but have many, many times…
1. Goober Peanut Butter (straight from the jar)
Don’t judge! Why dirty plate or bowl with peanut butter? It’s hard to explain his obsession with this swirled, pre-mixed PB&J, but it does make this debate completely unnecessary because you get what you get with Goober.
2. 5 cheese sticks, apple sauce
In my defense they were breaded cheese sticks, so…carbs!
3. Gogurt, slice of cheese, 3 crackers
Well balance (mostly) and easily served partially out of a tube.
4. Toast with real butter
Um…some of my ancestors are Nordic and we love our real butter.
5. Cereal (both dry and not)
Chocolate Coco Puffs, Apple Jacks and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, if you’re wondering!
6. Mini quiches
Feed your kids instead of providing appetizers for your guests!
7. Raw broccoli dipped in ranch, cheese, peanut butter
Little output, lotta nutrition! Mostly nutritious I mean.
I know this list lacks vegetables and fruits; oh my how I know this. But these meals?
So damn easy.
About Julia Roberts
I don’t have kids. I serve half these meals to myself and for the same reasons. Easy to make, minimal clean up, mostly nutritious!
Twitter Name: Kizzbeth
Then you are totally welcome to come and have dinner with me! I’ll even cook for you!
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
Hey, do not beat yourself up. I was a nanny and fed meals similar to these. It’s like you said. You pick your battles. There was the day we fed all of the kids steamed broccoli and tempura shrimp because it was the only way we could get them to stay at the table long enough to discuss why we come in the house to pee instead of just wetting our pants in the sandbox no matter how much fun we were having.
Or maybe the day I fed a teething kid frozen mini bagel halves and frozen orange slices all day because it was the only way he’d forget about the agony long enough to ingest something.
I remember getting one little girl to eat yogurt covered raisins and craizins because it was the only way to get her to eat something besides cheese crackers (which she was convinced would not make her fat). I was only able to do that because I convinced her that yogurt was what people on diets ate for lunch.
Feel good that you can feed them well most of the time and that they are obviously consuming enough calories or they couldn’t throw a tantrum.
Well then I see I’m among a professional! If you can do it and get paid for it…then I can…without guilt!
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
I envy you the variety that your 7 meals offer!! If only my kid would eat that many different things! We cook penne noodles (it has to be penne, other shapes offend) EVERY DAY.
Oh yeah, the One Type of Noddle Time. That was not so much fun, but it was cheap. So there’s THAT!
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
My main goal with my twin three-year-olds is to serve at least one meal a day without ketchup.
Twitter Name: TalkIsPrimary
That is a very, very good goal! I’d say if you do it 3 days out of 7, you’re golden!
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
I gave up on trying to be culinary with my kids, or force them to eat exactly what my husband and I are eating, it’s definitely a battle I do not want to fight. Honestly, your list isn’t too bad at all. :)
My kids have never gone through an extreme picky eating phase, but some night cereal with blueberries on it is the fancy meal of the week.
Thanks for sharing!
Twitter Name: themommytherapy
I wish we could get fruit into one of our kid’s cereal. He thinks FRUIT Loops counts.
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
Meal time has become battle time in our house. I’m the chef of the house and I’ll make a dinner for my wife and myself. Half the time, our oldest (almost 8) will eat what we’re eating. Otherwise, it’s easy to find an alternative for him. For the little guy (4), though? He’s Picky with a capital P!
His “approved foods list”: Mac and Cheese (boxed kind only… if I make it from scratch he turns his nose up at it), grilled cheese, pizza (again, he prefers the fast food or frozen variety to my homemade version), peanut butter (especial Peanut Butter & Co’s Dark Chocolate PB) and sometimes chicken nuggets. If it’s not on the approved foods list, he WON’T eat it. He’ll starve himself rather than try something new.
When he’s in a particularly picky mood, he’ll ask for something, wait for it to be in front of him, declare he doesn’t want it and wants something else, fight us for 20 minutes, finally take a tiny nibble of it, declare himself full, and then declare himself ready for dessert. Like I’m really giving him dessert after all of that!
The only thing that keeps me going is that my oldest is becoming more adventurous with his food tastes. (He even tried and LOVED Brussels sprouts!) Perhaps I just need to wait out this picky stage and within a few years I can make one dish for the whole family.
Twitter Name: TechyDad
Oh yes, the “cooking” them 4 things for one meal? Not so much fun those nights but that’s for another post.
Brussels sprouts? Wouldn’t even occur to even offer it – because that is poison!
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
Surprisingly, I didn’t offer him the Brussels sprouts. We were eating it and he asked to try some. I was torn. On one hand, it was a guaranteed “yuck” moment coming up. On the other hand, I didn’t want to discourage him from trying new foods. So I let him try one and he wound up devouring a bunch. (Maybe it helped that it was covered in cheese sauce. Cheese sauce makes everything better.)
Twitter Name: TechyDad
I always love when “they” tell you how to get your child to eat healthy… when apparently they’ve never had a child.
I struggle to get my son to eat healthy and have at least one doctor on my back because he’s on the skinny side.
You can’t win either way.
Twitter Name: msmegan
We can only win if parents like us unite!
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
How about popcorn, yogurt drinks and apples? That was dinner one night here. Also? They eat leftover hamburgers and fried chicken and pizza for breakfast because I’m a lazy ass.
Twitter Name: thedgoddess
Loving all this – I am not the only one! Everyone’s kids must be picky sometimes – they just don’t freaking admit it. Thankful mine are starting to come around – but it is an uphill battle, when I choose to pick it :).
Twitter Name: skj424
My kid ate nothing but rice crackers and apples for a while. In fact, one week he ate nothing but apples. He eventually got better. Now he’s all about steak.
Twitter Name: thedgoddess
Yeah…me likey the popcorn as the entree! With real butter!
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
Please, for the save of all that is good, just DO NOT feed them the chopped hot dogs stabbed with spaghetti! Gross!
Twitter Name: fluteitup
If I even thought they would eat it, I would serve it.
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1