(Non) Cooking for Ingrates

[pegkerr]

I stopped by the beautiful shiny new Seward Co-op on the way home from work, thinking I'd pick something up ready-made to feed the girls, since I didn't feel like cooking. Everything I saw looked incredibly delicious. I called up the girls on my cell phone and consulted. These were the various options I suggested, all of which were summarily rejected (reasons in parentheses).

From the grab and go cooler:
Turkey soup (black beans)
Tomato basil soup (cooked tomatoes, ick)
Broccoli cheese (broccoli)
Clam chowder (all seafood is verboten)
Borchst (beets)
Sushi (ha. You were kidding, right?)

From the hot bar:
Rotisserie chicken (it, uh, resembles something that was living once, which is icky)
Pizza (has mushrooms)
Spinach lasagna (spinach and onions)
Chickpea curry (chickpeas. And curry)

At this point, I lost my temper, told them that they could get their own damn dinner, bought the spinach lasagna and carmelized beets (I didn't even bother asking about those) and a carton of chocolate tofu mousse to smooth my ruffled feathers. Came home and ate it all, studiously, ignoring both girls. I feared I might say something unforgiveable if I spoke to them.

I have no idea what they had for dinner. Maybe cardboard, for all I know.

Comments

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

YAY YOU!!! You totally deserved the yummy-sounding spinach lasagna and mmmmmmm mousse!

[jeanineers.livejournal.com]

What you did sounds perfect to me. You get a lovely dinner, the girls learn that they'll have to fend for themselves if they won't eat what you're serving. I know that you keep healthy food in the house, so it's not like they'll fill up on junk.

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

(except, of course with parenting, you have to keep up hope)

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

There's more to parenting than repetition.
There's more to parenting than repetition.
There's more to parenting than repetition.
But NOT MUCH.

(paraphrase of the Flying Karamazov Brothers)

[febobe.livejournal.com]

Have they never heard of trying new foods or picking mushrooms off their pizza? :P MERCY.

Many of those options sound terribly delicious to me too. . . . I have a particular fondness for rotisserie chicken and pizza, and tomato basil soup was my standard fallback when we'd go to lunch at this little bistro-type place for work where they didn't have many things I liked. Oh, their tomato basil soup was LOVELY.

You gave them tons of nice options. Hey, I applaud you.

*claps and hopes you enjoyed the meal despite it all*

[moony]

Every time you post one of these stories I wonder, what do the girls eat? Because honestly, it sounds like the only thing they like is... air.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

That and plain white pasta.

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

Well I hope you enjoyed your dinner at least. They just need to learn to make their own food (even if it's PB&J) if they're going to reject perfectly healthy and delicious options. I used to be a super picky eater, and then a friend (who now happens to be my husband) convinced me to start trying foods and forget that I don't like them. Pretend they're some mystery food I have no preconceived notions about. And guess what, I actually liked most of the foods I hated before. (I still do not care for nuts or mushrooms, but am perfectly okay with picking them off of food).

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, spinach lasagna. And chocolate tofu mousse.

[snippy]

Yay for feeding yourself interesting, healthy food! And well done for letting the girls take responsibility for feeding themselves.

[aome.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you picked something for YOU! I've never tried caramelized beets so I can't comment there, but the rest sounds fantastic. I hope you enjoyed every bite.

[etakyma.livejournal.com]

Now I know I have food issues - and a number of those items I would have nixed because of them (onions, tomatoes, turkey-in-soup-form), but there were about four things on that list I would happily eat, and a couple others I'd crave. The chowder especially. I love seafood! Mushroom Pizza! Chicken, yum!

So even if I drove my mom crazy growing up with the things I would eat "around" - it was pretty explicitly put "you can pick out the bits you won't eat (usually onions), but you can't *not* eat what has been prepared." Funnily enough, if my mom had pureed the onions I wouldn't have had any issue with them, because it was a texture, not taste avoidance. I'm okay with the way onions taste just fine, but I can't be able to identify them - because otherwise I can's swallow them.

I am a much more adventurous eater since I've become an adult. And while I still tend to avoid onions, and tomatoes (still a texture thing), I don't actually actively refuse them.

As the hunter/gatherer I feel you were well within your rights to deny getting them anything. But you might find out what is so distressing about most foods. Is it taste, smell, or texture? I had a thing with lentils when I was about ten that was all about the color of them. Only the greeny grey ones. Red lentils were okay. I'm still not fond of any peppers other than green for some reason (no red, orange or yellow, for some reason I don't quite understand). And I won't eat peppers cooked - that is a taste-smell issue. But fresh green pepper? Yum.

Still can't eat fresh or identifiable bananas - its a wet/dry texture thing.

I tend to avoid anything pickled - that is all about taste-smell as well. And I don't take dressing on my salad, or my sandwiches - unless it is pesto - I will sometimes dress my sandwiches with basil pesto. But not mayonnaise and never mustard or ketchup.

I think I didn't have the ability to verbalize just what made something "gross" to me when I was a kid. Some of it makes no sense.

I hope you enjoyed your feast tonight!

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a delicious easy supper! I'm fascinated by the idea of caramelized beets.

[ebonypearl.livejournal.com]

Go you!

When my kids went through a phase where they hated everything I cooked, I offered them 3 options: Suck it up and eat it, prepare the next meal, or earn the money to buy what they wanted to eat. They weren't allowed to use house ingredients to make something different for that meal (although they would use house ingredients for making the next meal), and they could buy something to eat if they had money. I never gave them money.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

They didn't have pizza without disgusting fungus?

(But a lot of that other food sounds delicious to me. Well, at this house, if they don't like my dinner, there is bread, peanut butter, and jelly waiting.)

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

Gosh, ALL of that sounds really lovely. But good on you for taking care of YOU and no one else. Sometimes you just HAVE to be selfish.

[aerden.livejournal.com]

If you will adopt me as your daughter, I promise to eat all the tomato-basil soup, broccoli-cheese, spinach lasagna, and chocolate tofu mousse you care to provide. I will even help cook and clean.

But I would suck at karate.

Honestly, that all sounds so good--well, except for the beets. :P

Chantal :)

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Well it's not like you didn't try. You had options of all sorts there. The fact that they found nothing acceptable leads me to believe that they were just in the mood to be contentious.

Ramen noodles...4 packages for a dollar at Aldi's. Plastic forks in the second drawer. Bon apetit kids. Make sure to show 'em a picture of what scurvy looks like, so they'll know the warning signs.

[weaselmom.livejournal.com]

...show 'em a picture of what scurvy looks like, so they'll know the warning signs

Okay, that made me laugh so hard, I had to fake a coughing fit here at work to cover it up. Score!

::waves pompoms for Peg, thusly:: *\o/*

[ame-chan.livejournal.com]

Sometimes feeding kids is hard and frustrating, and it is perfectly ok to snap "Fine. Do it yourself then." and find yourself something yummy. I have done it on more than one occasion, and my girls are both fairly adventurous eaters (the most annoying thing is the vegetarian who expects a second, full vegetarian meal prepared along with whatever meat based thing that we're eating and bitches about "component dinners" wherein she is expected to make do with carb and veggie components of those same meat based dinners.)

Seriously mama. Get yer tofu mousse on.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Well, if the protein is primarily from the meat portion, she has a bit of a point; vegetarians need protein too!

[aerden.livejournal.com]

My response to that would be, "When you're 18, you can be vegan all you want. But until then, if you're living in my house, and I'm the one cooking, you will eat what I cook, and like it, or cook your own."

My Dad was a great believer in, "If your mother spent the time to cook it, you will eat it or go hungry." Fortunately, Mom was a good cook. (g)

Chantal

[irinaauthor.livejournal.com]

Your parents sound like my parents too. If I didn't like what they were having for dinner, I didn't eat. I still had to sit at the table with them until they were done, I wasn't allowed to make my own different meal, and I never starved to death overnight because I refused to eat crab legs or whatever for dinner.

[aerden.livejournal.com]

Hehe! We never had crab legs for dinner, but if we had, I'd have had to have asked my Dad, "And are you going to teach me the intricate surgical technique needed to actually eat this thing?"

I went crabbing once. I would never survive if I were a Cajun. (g)

Chantal

[irinaauthor.livejournal.com]

One of my mom's favorite stories happened when I was about three and she made crab legs. I wouldn't eat them because, duh, I was three, and she said, "Well, if you don't want your dinner then you can just go right to bed." She walked me straight to my room, put me in my PJs, and tucked me in right then and there.

The next day she wasn't really thinking and served the leftover crab. I climbed into my booster seat, took one look at my plate, and said, "Well, I guess I'm tired again," climbed back down, and went straight to my room. She felt bad about it happening two nights in a row, though, and let me have a peanut butter sandwich. That's one of the only times she made something separate for me, though. Usually the rule was that I couldn't get up from the table until I'd eaten one bite of each thing or bedtime came, whichever was first. It was awful sitting by myself in the empty dining room listening to my parents and brother have fun watching TV and playing games in the other room, so I always caved.

[aerden.livejournal.com]

The only foods my Mom ever cooked that I truly disliked were raw mushrooms, three-bean salad, string beans, and artichoke hearts. Anything else, I would eat, so I didn't have too bad a time of it.

Now that I'm married, my husband cooks, and he doesn't like so many delicious things! I don't know how he grew up to be the size he is. (g)

Chantal

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

It's pretty hard to implement that when the spouse of the cook won't eat it. I know lots of parents don't live by the rules they make their kids follow, but we try not to do that.

[nmsunbear.livejournal.com]

Caramelzed beets! That sounds yummy.

[satakieli.livejournal.com]

Mmm. All of that sounds delicious. Hope you enjoyed your dinner!

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I think there's something on that list that each member of my family would eat, but no one thing they would all eat.

And regarding how you acted in this situation: I hope you won't be offended if I say, "Finally!"

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

They turned down pizza?!? Haven't they ever heard of picking things off that you don't like? (My parents always ordered or made pizza with mushrooms when I was a kid. I loathe mushrooms with the fiery passion of a thousand suns (they're icky!), so I always had a small pile of mushrooms at the side of my plate. Or they went to my brother. Or were slid under the table to the dogs.)

[archmage45.livejournal.com]

That sounds really yummy! And good for you!

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Win for Peg!