Getting through breakfast is a breeze, throw a bowl of sugary cereal, pancakes, waffles or bacon in front of my bunch and they go to town. Lunch is usually pretty uneventful with hot dogs, mac'n'cheese or a corn dog waiting to fill them up... but then there is dinner, the meal I actually put time and effort in to. The last daunting task of the day before I can finally relax.
Don't get me wrong, I love to cook and from what I hear I am pretty darn good at it too. I try my hardest to be creative and to stay clear of cooking meals out of a box. I spend a good couple of hours a week making a meal plan and a grocery list and we aren't even going to talk about the shopping trip it requires. Ugh! Point being, I work my ass off to make dinner!
I try to plan well rounded meals, a meat or protein, a veggie, maybe a dairy item or a grain and some sort of fruit to follow up. I don't make meals with crazy, unheard of ingredients and for the sake of all I avoid things like liver and onions all together. So it's not like I'm cooking disgusting meals. My kids would beg to differ though.
They are incredibly picky and I can usually count on at least one of them to complain about some or all of the contents of their plate. It ranges from "what are these red things?" all the way to "I'm not eating this, it's gross!!" It's frustrating and down right pisses me off. We try to stress to the kids that eating healthy will help them grow, etc... but it never works. We have resorted to making them a permanent fixture at the table until their plate is at least nearly clean. It's always "can I be full?" ("I don't know, ask your stomach" is my favorite response to that one, hehe) or "how many more bites?!" Some nights I fear they might end up sleeping at the dinner table. It doesn't end there though, an hour later (whether they ate their food or not) they all want a snack. Nope! I've considered putting the repeat offenders on a strict ham sandwich diet for dinner regardless of what I cook for everyone else. Trust me. The first night I cook something they really want to eat, that sandwich won't be their saving grace anymore. Tough.
It's gotten to the point where I seriously question why I put the effort in to make a decent dinner. The only thing stopping me from being a Hamburger Helper type of gal is that I appreciate decent food containing ingredients that I can pronounce and I am fairly certain the whole "meal in a box" type of dinner probably isn't exactly packed full of the nutrients a growing child needs.
So unfortunately for my kiddos, it looks like they are going to have to take a few extra bites of their meat loaf and choke down their vegetables. Hopefully one day my persistence will pay off and I will have a group of kids with a diverse pallet. Until then they are going to eat their broccoli!
-N
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