By Request: Nightly Meals

Please know that as I type this I am burning in embarrassment. This will not withstand scrutiny. You asked. You cannot send the parenting police. I'll sick White Dragon on them.

One of the many bits of information that parenting books (at least what I have read) neglect is the changing pattern of foods your child will eat. Take notice you of young ones or soon to be young ones. What you feed them at young ages takes a radical change around the age of two. You, the parent, are unprepared for the switch, the sudden "I don't like that." You did not fail at exposing your child to the wheat germ, the low sugar yogurt, the avocados, and other super nourishing foods. No. Don't think that. Your child became discerning. Perhaps he or she will regurgitate your words, "Taste buds change," at you. Keep at it. One day, perhaps twenty years from now he or she will meet a mate who eats a wide range of foods and discover that he/she truly loves chickpeas. True story. I heard it from a grandmother. The kid begins to eat for love of another.

Reading the above, you should have gained the knowledge that food intake is limited in our household with three very different palates. We have a few staples that work for dinner. Wait. Change that to one staple: macaroni and cheese. All of them eat that dish. I serve it with a side of fruit to increase the nutrients. I do not hide cauliflower in it. I won't do that.

The only other full meal that they all consume is breakfast dinner. Set a stack of pancakes with syrup in front of them, and I am assured that their bellies are full. The girls salivate if the pancakes come with a side of bacon. Finwe? Nah, not so much. A bit of fruit, and my children are fed.

I put together their dinners like a patchwork quilt. Phill and I might be having gumbo, but the kids get the pieces of what I have in the fridge. Cooked carrots are good. I chop them by hand, serving them as suggested here at A Veggie Venture. That's a great website. Inwe's favorite from there is roasted cauliflower. I suggest looking at her list of vegetables from A to Z for you or your kids. Put her blog in your reader.

My patchwork frequently features pasta, tossed with extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan cheese, or rice. I roast sweet potatoes (in the microwave, mostly) and top with butter and cinnamon and sugar. Along side that, I'll put a bit of hot dog, turkey, if I can find it. If not, baked beans work, too.

Inwe is growing the most in her tastes. She'll eat broccoli, okra, squash. She won't eat berries, but Larien and Finwe constantly want more berries than I buy. Larien's favorite meal is grilled cheese with tomato soup. She slurps. We must beg Inwe to eat that meal, although she loves quesadillas. With the exception of corn on the cob, Finwe recently decided that dinner is an optional meal. His size keeps us from worrying. The boy is not wasting.

Ethnic food, the safe ones, take center stage at least once a week. The kids like fried rice and noodles in a light soy sauce. We can even sneak, well not really, carrots into the noodles. Inwe will eat the bamboo shoots because pandas eat that. Mexican fare works for the kids. Mainly consisting of nachos, cheese, salsa, sour cream, and quesadillas, the kids eat well. We offer them black beans, which they eat every other time. Near Halloween, we use the term vampire beans, touting their effect at keeping vampires from the house. The kids gobble them.

If the kids reject a food, I put it back on their plate a week later. They must try everything more than once. Kids are moody. Larien routinely eats sweet peppers. She made a face the first time. However, her tune changed the next time she tasted from my chopping board. I didn't begin to like sweet peppers until late in college.

We stay away from routine pizza, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, and home cooked fries. They have to have something to cheer when we travel. My sister will tell that it works. At least, I think she will.

If I completely fail at some dinner, I keep cheese crackers, cheese sticks, apples, cereal, and mandarin oranges at hand. Those truly never fail.

I have hearty children. I know they will not fall over at school. My job is to ensure they consume enough calories and expose them to a variety of foods. One day, and you can bet I will shout it from the blogs, my children will suck shrimp and crawfish from their fingers. They will order fish at a restaurant. Gumbo will be comfort food. It might be twenty years from now, but I'll still be writing. I'll let you know.

Fruit

When I bought the pomegranates, I was pretty sure that it would be just Phill and I eating the seeds. Except I didn't count on Larien being open to eating those tasty bites. There she was, sitting next to TWA Pilot, busily eating seeds.

I also miscalculated as to the amount of kiwi fruit to buy. Larien and Finwe just finished eating one each. That left none for me.