Food Issues

   
We have food issues in my house with both kids. I picked up the kiddos from school and we are driving down the road and my 6 year old says, "Mom, you know what I couldn't stop thinking about at school today? Eating cake. Can we make cake?" I told her that we could make cake on the weekend. She didn't mention cake again after that. Fast forward to Sunday morning at 5:50 am, I am awoken to my daughter shaking me. "Mom, mom....it's time to make a cake." What in the devil? "We can make cake at 7 o'clock." I was hoping she would forget about it but at 7 on the dot, she is standing over me. "Mom, let's make a cake." I rolled out of bed and put on coffee and pulled out the cake mix. Yes, I have lost control of my life.

My little one was so excited, she was pulling out bowls and pans. I told her that she had to bake the cake and I would supervise. She did so good. She read the back of the box and I helped her preheat the oven. She got out the eggs and we measured the water and oil. She put it in the oven and turned to me and said, "Now, can I lick the bowl?" It was only 7:30 and she hadn't had breakfast yet and could possibly get salmonella but I let her. Bad Mom Award.

After it cooled, I let her ice it and gave her some sprinkles to decorate. I was doing the dishes and wasn't paying attention and she used all of the sprinkles. Sprinkles threw up on that cake. It was damn good though. Very sugary.

After we finished the cake, we planned a trip to the grocery store. I have been in a food rut lately. I usually plan my meals but we have been eating the same foods over and over again and I need a little change. I had tried to go to the store the day before but I hadn't planned ahead so I figured I would just go in and see if anything struck my fancy. I walked through the store and could not see one thing I wanted to eat. I began to feel extremely anxious. There were so many choices and not one thing that I wanted. Even though we had no food in the house, I left the store without buying a thing. So if you had any doubts that I was crazy before, this confirms it. I drove home and my husband greeted me at the door. "Where is the food?" I got all upset and weepy and I was like, "There were so many things and I didn't know what to get. I need to make a plan and try again." He looked at me like I had 3 heads. I should have just picked up Midol while I was there.

I need to plan my dinners because we have certain arbitrary rules about dinner. Meals can't just be thrown together. Dinner needs to have a protein, a grain and a vegetable. One of the vegetables needs to be green or orange or yellow. Potatoes can replace the grain but cannot replace the vegetable. I try to include a side of fruit whenever possible. These were the rules that were followed in my house growing up because those were the rules in my grand parents house. I call it the dinner matrix. It was probably learned by my grandmother in some home economics class in 1942 and it dictates my grocery shopping today. It just doesn't seem like a whole meal if it doesn't follow the dinner matrix.

So I was doing some planning for the next trip. I put together a menu for the week and was pulling some new meal ideas from online. I was asking the kids what they would like and we were throwing ideas around. My 8 year old was vetoing all of my suggestions.

My kids have never been picky eaters. I was always very conscious of what they ate as little ones and I gave them whole foods and lots of veggies. Their first foods were mashed avocados and bananas. They would eat anything. At 3 they were eating things like bok choy, lentil soup, hummus. It made my life easy. My youngest child is still the kid who will eat anything. She is a great eater. She loves artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, mushroooms, any and all seafood, all vegetables (except for raw carrots). She is willing to try new foods and she eats. My oldest daughter the past 2 years has regressed. She will decide randomly that she doesn't like certain foods. She might eat broccoli today and tomorrow declare that she hates broccoli. It is so annoying. She has a lot of friends that are picky eaters and I think that she thinks that's the cool thing to do. Like if she has a friend over and the friend doesn't like something she'll be like, "I hate tacos too." Then she won't eat tacos for 3 months until the day she forgets she is supposed to hate tacos and eats them accidentally and likes them again. We do this again and again. Another part of me thinks it's a control issue and she is rebelling against me and trying to show that she is control of what she does and does not eat. I try not to make a big deal about it. I don't want to fight about food, I never force my kids to eat food they don't like. I do not make separate meals for her - I am not an ala carte chef, but I try to cook foods that she likes.

I suggested this tortellini salad with shrimp, asparagus, artichokes, and sundried tomatoes in a citrus dill vinaigrette. That sounded so yummy. My 6 year old was like - make that! My 8 year old said, "Can we have macaroni and cheese instead?" No. No we cannot have macaroni and cheese instead. We cannot do a rotation of spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, tacos, and pizza every week for the next 10 years. I can't and won't do it just because she arbitrarily decides she hates certain foods. It's not fair to everyone else in the house. I turned to her and said, "Listen, when I make dinner - you don't have to eat it but you are going to have to make your own food that night. You can have a sandwich and carrotsticks and fruit or a bowl of cereal with sliced apples and peanut butter but you cannot just eat crap and I am not cooking you separate food." She said, "Okay." I didn't want to make an issue of it but I asked her, "You used to eat everything but now it seems like you are getting pickier and picker. What's going on?" She shrugged, "I guess my taste buds are changing." As long as she eats, I'm happy. Who knows, maybe she'll take a bite of the tortellini salad and like it. If not - she'll make a sandwich and I'll eat her portion. Seems like a win-win to me.