For some inexplicable reason, it seems socially unacceptable to serve your children a bowl of cereal for dinner and declare, “Meal’s ready!” Yet, I find myself on the verge of implementing a new rule: if they want dinner, they’ll need to figure it out themselves. I’m just so done with watching my kids push my lovingly prepared meals around their plates, insisting they’re full, only to hear them beg for snacks a mere half hour later.
They truly don’t understand that feeding a family is more than just stirring pots and pans. It involves tedious tasks like meal planning, where I wrestle to create nutritious options that they won’t just toss aside. I know they’ll devour anything that resembles beige or has that unnaturally orange hue, making it all too tempting to serve dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets and neon mac and cheese each night. At least those would end up as empty plates.
But then comes the mom guilt, whispering thoughts of “nutritional deficiencies” and “rising obesity rates.” Thus, I embark on endless Pinterest journeys, hoping to stumble upon a recipe that’s both healthy and palatable. I remind myself that vegetables need to be part of the equation. Are cucumber slices just crunchy water? Does tomato sauce even count?
In my efforts to broaden their palates, I introduce them to a variety of foods—risotto, radicchio, quinoa, kale, mashed cauliflower, and butternut squash. I’ve tried everything from drowning dishes in cheese to pureeing them into soups and disguising them under a blanket of pasta, since kids are always on board for pasta.
Despite my best efforts, the outcome is typically the same: a few polite bites (which we refer to as a “no-thank-you taste”), some lackluster nibbles, and the meticulous picking out of anything deemed “too squishy.” I’ve witnessed some impressive rearranging of food on their plates to create the illusion of a full meal, complete with scrunched-up noses and exaggerated grimaces. And there I am, clenching my fists and shouting, “You’ll eat a booger, but you won’t touch quinoa?!”
It only gets more frustrating. Their picky eating habits leave me with a mountain of leftovers, which let’s face it, are only appealing for so long. The amount of uneaten food I’ve guiltily consumed instead of tossing it has likely added at least 15 unwanted pounds to my waistline—at least.
And if that’s not enough, I’m left to clean up after a meal that my kids treated like something unpleasant. It feels like a slap in the face after all the effort I put into planning and preparing.
But still, I adhere to my eat-it-or-starve policy. It won’t harm them to have wholesome, unprocessed food once or twice a day. If they’re hungry enough, they will eat what’s in front of them. Spoiler alert: it won’t always be pizza and fries (though that would be pretty awesome).
So, I’ll continue my quest, scouring the internet for recipes that strike a balance between nutritious and tasty. Somewhere between kale chips and mozzarella sticks, there has to be a happy medium. Even if my kids never truly appreciate my efforts, I’m not ready to give up on convincing them that what I’m cooking isn’t as repulsive as they make it seem.
And you know what? They can figure out how to munch on a whole grain or vegetable—especially since they seem to have no issue with eating boogers.
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Summary
This article discusses the struggles of preparing meals for picky children who often refuse to eat nutritious options. The author shares her frustrations with their eating habits and the challenges of meal planning, while maintaining a firm stance on encouraging healthy eating. Despite the difficulties, she remains determined to find a balance between healthy and enjoyable meals.
Keyphrase: cooking for picky eaters
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