I used to love cooking and pouring over recipe books for sport. I served my family delectable meals every night. Then for a year my life derailed and I just barely got by. It was the year of Styrofoam where we contributed our carbon footprint to the landfills.
As I am re-emerging and feel like I have successfully tackled a sembelence of routine in my own exercise/eating habits, suddenly my desire to feed my family wonderful dinners has been brought back to life in me.
So tonight I had a very large salmon steak in the fridge. I googled for some ideas of what to do with it and I presented this to my family at the dinner table...
I cut the steak into 5 pieces, sprinkled them with garlic powder, lemon pepper seasoning, and salt and then mixed a marinade of soy sauce, brown sugar, olive oil and water. They hung out in the marinade for the afternoon.
To cook them I set the oven at 425 and put each fillet in a foil packet and baked for 30 min. I put the marinade in a saucepan and boiled it for awhile and then poured it over the finished salmon fillets. I added brown rice and sauteed asparagus and onion.
Mady called it "Extraordinary!", gave it a thumbs up, and ate her whole plate.
Sarah, who LOVES salmon, deemed it "tricky" and "too sweet, dad makes it better".
I cleaned my plate.
Goo, who currently lives on orange juice, honey and butter toast, and candy, just stared at her plate and then when she got up from the table and I asked her if she had eaten any of it, said "Yes! and I HATED it!" alrighty, then.
Evie arrived home famished from a long swim practice and devoured two big helpings. Daddy, also, cleaned his plate.
So, all in all, a good meal when I only have one small portion leftover, good enough for someone's lunch or snack tomorrow.
Goooooose, Out.
Sounds great. I was going to be super impressed that Grace ate it but feel better knowing she won't even put it in her mouth and then tells you she hates it. They will start to eat soon...right?
ReplyDeleteOooh yummy! I would've eaten my whole serving too.
ReplyDeleteSo that Mady and Evie ate it up and thought it was yummy, mean that kids do grow out of the wierd picky phase where they won't even eat normal food? Please say it's so.
Our supper consisted tonight of...McDonalds. After a errand filled day where I even stopped off at the grocery store, purchased a meal for a family that just had a baby and the ingredients to make Gnocchi with Roasted Cauliflower and Sage. I got home where, inside 15 min, Caleb puked ALL over himself and the Pack n'Play. And while I was overcoming my shock and dry heaves Lilia calmly tells me that she has peed her pants and needs new clothes.
After I cleaned up both children and bleached out the Pack n'Play it was 6:30pm and we just threw everyone in the car.
I got a grilled chicken snack wrap of which I took two bites and decided that I was still too traumatized from the puking episode and threw it away...
I had to vent. It's been a stressful night... :)
Julia, those are definitely the days that make or break us...stand strong! Been there, and survived, you will too. :)
ReplyDeleteTo not paint Goo in too bad a light, for the record I have to confirm that she did indeed eat some of it before she proclaimed that she hated it...and she will devour two helpings of Tilapia when we serve that, as well as eat Pot Roast, so even though she would *prefer* her entire diet to consist of oj, honey toast, and candy, we do get enough proper nutrition in her to sustain life.
Yes, I do believe if you consistently serve good meals for dinner, they will eventually eat well. None of my kids like every single thing, what is ones favorite is another ones least favorite. But now that I am back on my cooking "A" game I will provide a rotation where everyone gets their favorites.
A crowd pleaser in our family for all six of us is ground turkey burritos...daddy makes them made to order so everyone gets what they want on theirs...no, we don't let grace have a sour cream and cheese burritto, we sneak in small amounts of the meat and lettuce, but everyone always eats it.
Another tip is realistic portions. Hmm, perhaps I will photograph the portions I put on my kids plates for their ages. I never give them much, that way they can have a little bit of everything and feel like they have done a good job eating what I have given them if they manage to eat most of their plate.
All in all, my kids are healthy, fit, and good weights, and with all girls, I have always tried to not put much emphasis on food or on what they are eating or not eating, I just try to provide healthy snacks and meals and don't stress about them eating junk either...although Mady would say I never buy junk...hahaha, I do!