First off, let me just say that the Goofy family eats out. A lot. We don't always eat OUT, but we bring carry-out home pretty often, so I suppose I should say that we don't really cook at home a lot.
However, since neither of us is gainfully employed at present, we figured we should probably eat in a bit more.
Sigh.
This has lead to a War of Wills between Number One Son (Goofy Junior) and I about what consitutes a "good meal".
Goofy Junior is not a big eater. One day he ate an English muffin for breakfast, a hot dog bun (sans dog) for lunch, and then wanted to get away with only eating a roll for dinner. And getting ice cream for dessert.
VIOLATION!!!! Call the Nutrition Police. In other words, he didn't get dessert.
Eating is one of those Parent Topics that is frustrating. You don't want to give your kids food hangups, but you can not MAKE a kid eat. You just can't. You also can't make them sleep or poop, but those things eventually happen, like it or not.
So we struggle with selecting foods for dinner that Goofy Junior (aka Picky McPicky) will eat. He is very much into the "look" of food. We had a Mushroom Lasagna the other night and he was freaked out about the "black things" (um, they are mushrooms!) in the lasagna. Arg! And I REFUSE to make two meals. Mr. Goofy chides me for this. But no, I will not make one meal for one picky kid and another for the rest of us. Life is too short for this.*
But in a moment of clarity and brillance, Mr. Goofy came up with an idea: We will let Goofy Junior select the dinner menu every so often.
I have to admit...I was a little scared about this. Our only constraint was that it had to be a nutritious meal (no ice cream and cake for dinner!).
He chose pretty well: Macaroni & Cheese, Carrots** & Dip, and Garlic Bread.
A little high on the carb scale, but not too shabby. GJ's dinner menu is served tonight.
Bon Appetit!
*Can I just confess right here that I (yes, me) was a super-duper picky eater when I was little? And my parents supported my habit. I didn't eat a salad until I was 25 years old. Never ate peanut butter - still to this day. And I still order my cheeseburgers plain...no ketchup, mustard, pickle, onion, etc. If it's on there, I can't eat it. I really don't want to raise another Me!
**from our garden!! Yippee!!
3 comments:
I also refuse to make two meals, but I choose not to make meals that I know will be refused. Nothing is more frustrating to me than going to the effort to cook dinner and then no one eating it but me. We are slowly making progress with Lil D -- he even requested broccoli recently. Doing a much better job of introducing Lil A to a variety of foods hoping to avoid another picky eater. Great idea to let Goofy Jr. pick the menu. And I'm so impressed with your gardening skills!
I must say that it cracks me up that a foodie like you still eats her cheeseburgers plain.
I am surprised that you were a picky eater. You seem to be such a worldly eater now! Good move on letting him pick the menu, you could even compile his good choices into a list, so he could refer back to it later. For fun you could call it "Goofy Junior's Menu"!
That Mr. Goofy is brilliant...Brilliant I tell you!
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