S'more Reflections

August 30 was Toasted Marshmallow Day. S'mores for after school snack. No complaints.

Then I had to document this because I made a new recipe again for dinner and I want to remember. It was so good, I couldn't stop eating it. We ate Southwest Chicken Skillet from budgetbytes.com along with onion roasted potatoes and veggies with leftover dill dip. Still yumm.

Jr. said the main dish reminded him of the Southwest Chicken Nachos he gets at school and would love it adapted for nachos. Yeah, we can figure that out. I have made Southwest Chicken Stacks before which are basically nachos. Mmm, now I'm craving nachos.

I remember when I first started really cooking back in my college days, I only knew how to follow recipes. No adapting. No throwing together. I was a very picky eater when I was younger. I didn't like onions. I would only eat them on hamburgers and in onion rings. It seemed like all the recipes I had called for onions, though, so I started cooking with onions. And ever since then I've loved onions. 

Ask my kids how many times they've heard, "I used to be picky... and ever since then I've liked..." stories.

When I met Jeremy, he would just throw things together to make something good. Wow. He could follow a recipe, but he could do this other thing, too. Wow. I have obviously learned since then to throw things together and adapt recipes (including leaving onions out, but why would I now? I love onions).

 

So... yeah... anyway... we can figure out Southwest Chicken Nachos for Jr.

Backwards Day 2020

January 31 was Backwards Day. For dinner we had apple pie (I finally was able to make it) and for dessert we had chicken and stuffing "pizza." Jr. Jr. has been so picky lately that anything that is called "casserole" he refuses to eat, even try. Jeremy jokingly said that we should start calling everything pizza because he likes pizza. We tried it out for dinner that night. He was not amused. Everybody liked the pie, though.

Eat Your Vegetables, Kids

So yesterday was Fresh Veggies Day and today, June 17, was Eat Your Vegetables Day.
I may have picky eaters (and picky about different things), but they all like salad.  Well maybe not the youngest.  But he'll eat salad toppings.  He had cheese and onions and croutons and dressing and several other things.

Dinner success tonight.

Thursday

A little less crankiness on Thursday.  Still some.  One of the best moments, though:

Jr. Jr.:  Can I have some more cauliflower?

That is definitely something I want to hear from my picky eaters.  None of the kids complained about their vegetables at dinner.

The kids had a nice moment of reading together as I was making dinner, too.

Jr. Jr. and I were still both tired that day so we didn't get as much done as I would have liked.  This time I dozed on the couch while he watched a movie.  Oh well.

Not So Picky Today

Every once in a while, my children will actually compliment the food I make (my husband compliments it all the time).  And sometimes it is quite the compliment.

Jr.:  These are the best muffins in the whole world.  And they're homemade.

I'm sure glad I made oatmeal muffins to celebrate National Oatmeal Muffin Day, December 19th.  Those will now go on the list of foods my children will eat without complaining.

 
Nichole:  What kind of muffins are these?
Mommy:  Oatmeal muffins.
Nichole:  Jr., you have to try the muffins.

Nichole:  I definitely like the onion rings.

Yay.  Onion rings were a hit today as well.

And I made cauliflower macaroni and cheese, a recipe from the October 2012 FamilyFun Magazine.  Mmmmmm, I almost couldn't get enough of it. 

Plug Your Nose, It'll Taste Better

When I was younger and a picky eater, my mom would tell me to plug my nose when I took a bite of something I didn't like, as we know that taste and smell are associated. I got through so many bites of what I now consider delicious food that way.
My kids have gotten into the habit of deciding that they don't like something without even trying it. Well, I tried the nose thing with my kids. It worked... for the most part. Nichole ate all the corn on her dinner plate.

After taking a few bites, Jr. insisted that Mmmm, he liked corn (yet he never did finish what was on his plate). He did try, and I'll be honest, he ate more than I expected when we began the meal.

They did enjoy having their pictures taken with their noses plugged and Jr. Jr. looking on.

My Picky Eater

Maybe my mom will know this one. Was I this picky in this way when I was younger?


I was so thrilled the other day when I was going to fix dinner and Nichole said that she wanted broccoli and carrots. Hurray. I hope she actually eats them. So, we went to the frozen vegetables- Normandy Blend from Costco- anyone else get that? It's so handy. All vegetables that I will eat. Nichole let me know that she only wanted broccoli and orange carrots, not the other things. I let her know, well I will eat the yellow carrots and the cauliflower. So, we put them in a pot to steam while the rest of dinner was made.
When it was time to eat, I neatly divided up food for her in different sections on her plate. She often doesn't like her food mixed, whereas I'm the person who, at a buffet or potluck, will have things piled on top of each other, cherry pie running into my mashed potatoes. So, neatly divided into different sections. She let me know where to put the carrots and where to put the broccoli. Perfectly satisfied... until she was about to eat. Then she got upset because the vegetables were warm. Of course they were, we warmed them so we could eat them. She didn't want warm carrots and broccoli, she wanted them freezing. Sigh.
Well, I made her wait until I was done eating my carrots and broccoli and cauliflower, then I got the frozen vegetables back out of the freezer and gave her a few pieces. She was perfectly content. She ate them that way. And she was happy. She ate quite a few, too. She was picky enough to care about which vegetables she ate and how they were prepared. In this case- freezing. Sigh.

But what can you say? She's eating her vegetables, right? This is the girl, who for a long time, refused to eat something if it was green. She's eating that green broccoli now... as long as it's frozen.

I Am Blessed

Here's how my dinnertime went. The kids told me they wanted spaghetti, so for dinner I made spaghetti. I like kidney beans in my spaghetti sauce (and Jr. likes beans), so I put kidney beans in the spaghetti sauce. The kids were hungry enough and as I was making the sauce I was also doing laundry, so I didn't really have time to make a side dish. I figured, okay- spaghetti, sauce, and parmesan cheese on the top would have to do. I sat the kids down at the table. I was afraid that Jr. would get sauce on his shirt so I wanted to put a bib on him. He did not like that idea, and Nichole did not like the idea of having sauce with her spaghetti. Nichole is a very picky eater. She refuses to eat vegetables and says she doesn't like beans (though later she said to me, "I like purple brown beans," and later changed her mind again). She was so upset about the plate I put in front of her that she shoved it away. Some of the sauce slid off the plate and onto the table. To spill something out of anger is bad manners, so it was time to send her to her room. In there she was screaming and hollering and carrying on. I went back to the table and tried to put Jr.'s bib on him again. He pulled it off and threw it on the floor- several times. Finally he was being upset enough that it was time to send him to his room. Same thing. So I had two screaming and hollering children and I felt grateful to have the calm and patience I needed to get through the situation even though I felt like crying myself at times. I didn't know how to get my daughter to really understand that the vegetables will help her be healthy. Telling her just doesn't do it. Jr. threw a tantrum while running around the apartment. Nichole calmed down enough to sit with Mommy for a little bit. I realized that it was too quiet in the other room. I told Nichole I needed to go see what Jr. was up to. He was sitting on a chair just being calm and quiet. I gathered both the kids on the couch and read them some books, then they decided they wanted some spaghetti. Jr. gave in and decided he would wear a bib when Nichole said she wanted to wear one. Nichole gave in and decided to eat her food when she realized I wasn't going to take the sauce off the plate. She managed to eat around the sauce, but at least she ate something. Jr. ate some of his food.
As I was sitting there with the calm children I realized that I am blessed to have an only picky eater. Although she doesn't like certain foods, she's not allergic to any. She doesn't have to have a strict diet of certain foods she can or cannot eat. Both children are healthy. I don't have to give them medications for any medical conditions. I am blessed that I only have to deal with picky tendancies that they'll probably grow out of.