My best friend was just “accepted” by the local coop (the ONLY coop in our tiny, food-challenged community). She is on the A-List. I am on the W-List (as in the Wait-For-At-Least-Another-Year-Or-Two-Or-Maybe-When-Hell-Freezes-Over-List).
She will have fresh, locally grown vegetables, fruits, and herbs, even goat cheeses and salsas DELIVERED TO HER DOOR all summer long.
Meanwhile, I will be found scavenging the produce section at Safeway, digging through the bins in search of a flaccid celery, or wrestling fellow desperate Mom-shoppers for the only remaining semi-spongy zucchini or half-rotten avocado.
If I am not there, perhaps I am in a flirty sort of mood, and you might find me in the fruit aisle putting on my lipstick using a shinier-than-nature-ever-intended apple as a mirror. Ha!! I bet you can’t do that trick with your fancy COOP apples!
My “friend” called to inform me that tomorrow she will be receiving some freshly-picked organic Japanese Mustard Greens, lovingly hand-delivered by the farmer.
Well la-di-da! Who wants nasty old Japanese Mustard Greens anyway!! Give me pesticide and botulism-laden Iceberg Lettuce, or give me death. That is my motto!
(By the way…if you have any of those mustard greens left over that you are just going to compost anyway…could I have them…please???? …PRETTY PLEASE ?)Thanks to morguefile.com and photographer Scott Liddell (
www.scott.liddell.com) for this A-list quality photo!
While we are on the subject of picky eaters, I want to feature a cool book that teaches kids that the world does not revolve around mac & cheese. I have already written a post about this book, but since it is SUCH a great book, I thought I ought to write about it again.
The book is called Let’s Eat: What Children Eat Around the World
(author Beatrice Hollyer). Each chapter features a child from one of five countries: India, France, South Africa, Mexico and Thailand. Through text and numerous colorful photos, we see a bit of their daily lives and the food involved, as well as a festival or a special day involving food.
At the end there are also five easy recipes, one from each child: Condensed Milk Tart (South Africa), Tomato Salsa (Mexico), Thai Fried Eggs, French Chocolate Cake, and Coconut Sweet (India). None of these is shockingly exotic, but some might introduce a bit of a new taste to American palates. Reading a chapter of this book and then cooking the corresponding recipe could be a fun “Kids Cook Night” activity.
An added bonus: all royalties go to Oxfam, so by buying the book, you are actually helping children and families around the world too!
PS: “Great Diaper Challenge” update: Sorry we have not started yet. The baby is suffering from some sort of gastrointestinal bug so I thought it best to wait until her digestive tract and her mood have returned to normal before we try out the new gDiapers!
Activity Ideas, Book Recommendations, Everything Else!, Kids Cook Night, children's books, cooking, cooking, educational, food, kids' books, multicultural, multicultural/kids around the world, older children, photos, picky eaters, young children
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Beatrice Hollyer, Book Recommendations, Book Recommendations, children's books, cookbooks, cooking with kids, food, international children's books, international cuisine, international food, Let's Eat, multicultural children's books, picky eaters
I never planned on having picky kids. Before my first child was born I decided I would introduce her to French cheeses, garlic, and strong spices right away. When I lived in France I watched little French toddlers devouring Camembert and Brie as if it was peanut butter, in fact they thought peanut butter was a disgusting concept! Therefore children learn to eat what they are given. Therefore, my child would eat EVERYTHING! Right? Wrong. I had not anticipated food allergies: milk allergy, egg allergy, nut allergy. I was forced to abandon my French cheese toddler diet and my children became PICKY.
However, today I am going to share a secret. This may not be a secret to some of you, and as usual, I may just be way behind the times. But…I have just figured out how to get my picky kids to try and to actually LIKE new foods! My secret? Let them cook it themselves.
It all started several months ago. I was making crepes for dinner one night and the children wanted to “help.” I grumbled to myself because, as all seasoned moms know, it is always easier and faster to do things yourself than to accept “help” from the kids. But, I was in the mood to try and be a Good Mom that night and I put them to work. Much to my surprise, we actually had fun!
Cooking for me has become such a necessary evil. I no longer take pleasure in cracking an egg or stirring batter. It is simply a daily task to be accomplished as quickly as possible so that I can move on to something more fun. It sounds awfully sappy to say this, but that evening I was able to rediscover the magic of cooking through their eyes. Children are so excited about every new experience, even those that are quite boring and mundane to us grown-ups. My kids loved every task, every smell, every texture of our crepe-making adventure!
Since then, we have been trying to do a “Kids Cook Night” as we call it, once a week. At first we just did crepes. But lately we tried a Rachel Ray recipe of pasta with ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic, and broccoli. Saturday we made a creamy Tarragon Chicken recipe in the Crock Pot. The children announced that they wished we could eat Tarragon Chicken every night. That is when I had the epiphany: My kids would not have eaten the ricotta cheese pasta or the Tarragon Chicken if I had made it.
Of course I won’t tell them, but I think we shall gradually try more and more exotic dishes and see what happens. If I find a good recipe that I fear they will not eat, we will have it for the first time on a “Kids Cook Night!”
The “Kids Cook Night” is actually quite fun for all of us, plus I figure that if we do this once a week, by the time they are teens, they should be really good cooks. Maybe I could get them to cook ALL the meals! And clean the house…and do the laundry…
Thanks to morguefile.com and photographer Scott Liddell (www.scott.liddell.com) for this yummy photo!
"mom-ideas" that work for me, Activity Ideas, Everything Else!, Kids Cook Night, cooking, cooking, food, picky eaters, recipes
| cooking, cooking with kids, food, Kids Cook Night, picky eaters, recipes
This book might not transform your picky eater into a lover of exotic food, but it sure will interest him and open his eyes to the fact that kids around the world eat different things. I think that the best lesson is that although kids from different countries eat different things, they are really all the same, having fun with their families and eating their favorite foods.
Packed with photos, this book provides a fascinating glimpse into the daily lives of five boys and girls from around the world (India, France, South Africa, Mexico and Thailand). We follow them through their day, and their meals. We also attend an important celebration or activity involving food.
The book also includes one favorite recipe from each child: Condensed Milk Tart (South Africa), Tomato Salsa (Mexico), Thai Fried Eggs, French Chocolate Cake, and Coconut Sweet (India).
I find this book as enthralling as my children do. Hopefully you will too. An added bonus: all royalties go to Oxfam, so by buying the book, you are actually helping children and families around the world too!
(You might also be interested in my post about this other wonderful Beatrice Hollyer book.)
Book Recommendations, children's books, educational, multicultural/kids around the world, older children, young children
| Beatrice Hollyer, Book Recommendations, Book Recommendations, children's books, cookbooks, food, international cuisine, international food, kids cooking, Let's Eat, multicultural/international books, Oxfam
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