Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>CC, just make one meal. Don't be a short order cook. If they don't like what you're serving they can make themselves a peanut butter sandwich or something. Your job is to put a healthy meal in front of them. It's up to them whether or not they eat it.<< I agree with this. Also, if you get kids helping with the cooking they might be a little more adventurous in trying a few things.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer We should use the technology that is available in every store to offer some sort of reduced price for staple foods to people using food stamps/debit cards. If you buy whole vegetables or fruit, milk, flour, sugar, eggs, baking soda, bread - pretty much anything non-processed - you get a 20% discount.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>We should use the technology that is available in every store to offer some sort of reduced price for staple foods to people using food stamps/debit cards. If you buy whole vegetables or fruit, milk, flour, sugar, eggs, baking soda, bread - pretty much anything non-processed - you get a 20% discount.<< That is a great idea!
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>Are you for hire? I can't decide how to make meals for my famly that will please everyone. It's freakin exhausting. My husband eats very little carbs, I'm trying to do that too, and get the kids eating healthier, but when the heck do you do when you have a 5 year old with a million food aversions, and when you try and force him to try more varieties, he literally starts gagging. Our food budget is always maxed and then some, and still it doesn't ever seem like enough. I'm tired of the whole process! 4 people, 4 different likes and dislikes, and diets. I give up.<<< I know that I am going to get blistered for this, but, coming from someone that raised two kids, granted in the 80's mostly, this is how their Mother and I dealt with that situation. We/she planned the meals for a week and based the grocery shopping around it. It was set up based on what WE LIKED AND/OR FELT NECESSARY FOR A BALANCED DIET. No additional things were prepared to adjust to a kids specific likes or dislikes. That was for special occasions. Otherwise they ate what we ate or the didn't eat. I know that sounds pretty harsh, but, bear in mind that they never didn't eat. Never! And if they did...it only happened once. No child of today is in danger of starvation if they miss one meal. But showing that you are serious, will usually limit it to once. I don't say anything to anyone that has more items available for a simple family dinner then the Golden Corral, but I do find that it must be quite a chore to make that happen. Expensive too! Different times, I'm sure that had something to do with it, but, it was a lot easier to be a parent back then. All we had to do was decide what was good for all of us, and that is what we went with. No picky eaters, or separate activities because they were "bored". They both grew up well adjusted and successful so I guess it wasn't all that harmful.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Yes, that is how it was when I was raising my kids in the 80's. We all ate the meal my wife prepared. We ate at the same time around the dinner table or we didn't eat at all. We even checked with our kid's doctor and he said that was fine... when they got hungry enough they would eat. And they did.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance "As long as there is one or two things on the table that your 5 year old or 35 year old can eat, don't worry about pleasing them with everything else." How did you know I have a 35 year old husband? lol
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance I agree with the eat now or you don't eat anything. It's harder to always stick to that, but for the most part I do. My son is so picky, (he's slowly getting better) often times he will happily choose not eating. When he does this, I will enforce that he gets nothing else but a small snack before bed (i know, i know, he shouldn't get that but I can't stand thinking of him starving to death), and if he didn't eat dinner, he has to choose a healthy snack, if he ate dinner, I'll usually let him pick out a small treat. Even being knowledgable and knowing exactly what is and isn't healthy for my kids, it is SO HARD to get out of the habit of rewarding kids or showing love by giving treats. It's how I was raised basically, and I constantly finding myself trying to do the same thing to my kids, even though I know WAY more than my parents do about healthy food/choices. It's so engraned in my brain, It's like an automatic reactive to show my love for my kids in the form of food. It's so bizarre.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Sorry for all the typos, I don't have the red line at work that alerts me to typos like I do at home
Originally Posted By ecdc I feel your pain, CC. Funny thing is, I was raised in the '80s. I recall being just as picky as my kids, throwing the fits, being disgusted at certain foods, etc. I have no explanation for why. My parents didn't feed me hot dogs, pizza, burgers, and fries until I was 8 then suddenly decide to switch. But I'm not naive enough to think that somehow, the things I've done have contributed to my own children being picky eaters, just like I was. It took me until my late 20s to actually lose that pickiness.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip My late wife grew up in a family of six kids where their father was a janitor in a Catholic school. I doubt he ever made more than 10K in his life. They all gladly and appreciatively ate anything that was set in front of them.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip They also all ended up overweight as adults. You can't eat that much pasta without packing on the pounds! LOL
Originally Posted By ecdc >>They all gladly and appreciatively ate anything that was set in front of them.<< I'm currently editing a history book about 1830s America and adding information on daily life on the western frontier. I read about the efforts people went to just to make their food palatable, to say nothing of eating johnny cakes day in and day out, and I commit to never complain about food again.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I took a walking tour in Provincetown once. As you're walking by the site of the original prison there, you learn that early in Provincetown's history, prisoners were given lobsters to eat all the time. Because they were plentiful, and cheap. Then you learn that America's first ever prison riot happened because the prisoners in this prison rebelled against getting lobster all the time. "Lobster? AGAIN??"
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 Also, because lobster was so plentiful then, it was considered food for servants. In fact, many servant contracts that were drawn up, specifically said that no more than 3 meals in a week were to be lobster. It's funny to think that now lobster is considered "fancy" and a "luxury" food for wealthy people...
Originally Posted By fkurucz I've never liked lobster. I've always found it to be rubbery and flavorless.
