For some inexplicable reason, it’s socially unacceptable to hand your kids a bowl of cereal for dinner and declare, “Dinner’s served!” Honestly, I’m on the verge of letting them fend for themselves if they want any food at all. I’m just so fed up with them pushing my lovingly prepared meals around their plates, claiming they’re full, only to beg for snacks thirty minutes later.
They don’t seem to grasp that feeding a family is more than just standing at the stove. There are tedious tasks like meal planning, where I desperately try to come up with options that are not only somewhat healthy but also won’t end up in the trash. I know for a fact that they’ll devour anything beige or artificially orange, so the temptation to serve dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets and neon mac and cheese every night is real. It guarantees clean plates, but then the mom guilt kicks in, reminding me of “vitamin deficiencies” and the “obesity epidemic.”
So, I find myself endlessly scrolling through Pinterest, hoping to discover something nutritious that won’t be a complete disaster. I remind myself that I have to include a vegetable. Are cucumber slices just crunchy water? Does tomato sauce even count?
I try to expand their palates by introducing them to new foods; they’ve sampled risotto, quinoa, and even kale. I’ve gone so far as to smother different dishes in cheese, puree them into soups, and serve them over pasta because kids will always eat pasta, right?
I go to great lengths experimenting with varied foods, hoping that one day they’ll prefer wholesome meals over processed junk. But despite a few occasional wins, it usually ends up the same: a couple of polite “no-thank-you tastes,” some nibbling, and a lot of creative rearranging to make it look like they’ve eaten more than they have. It’s always accompanied by wrinkled noses and exaggerated grimaces. And there I am, exasperated, yelling, “You’ll eat a booger, but you won’t try quinoa?!”
It only gets worse. Their pickiness leaves me with a fridge full of leftovers, which, let’s face it, are only good for a few meals. The amount of uneaten food that I’ve guiltily consumed instead of tossing out has added at least 15 extra pounds to my waistline—at least!
As if all this wasn’t enough, I also have to clean up after the meal I painstakingly prepared, only to have my kids treat it like a pile of inedible scraps. It’s a real kick in the gut.
Despite my frustration, I stick to my eat-it-or-starve policy. It won’t hurt them to have decent, unprocessed food once or twice a day. If they’re hungry enough, they’ll eat whatever I put in front of them. Spoiler alert: it won’t always be pizza and fries (though that would be awesome).
I’ll keep searching for recipes that strike a balance between nutritious and tasty. Somewhere, between kale chips and mozzarella sticks, there has to be a middle ground. Even if they never appreciate the effort I put into dinner, I refuse to give up trying to convince them that what I’m cooking is not as disgusting as they make it seem.
But until then, I’m allowed to vent about it! After all, if they can eat boogers, surely they can find a way to nibble on whole grains or vegetables.
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Summary
Parenting and meal prep can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to feeding picky eaters. This article discusses the challenges of cooking nutritious meals for kids who often turn their noses up at home-cooked food, despite the effort put into meal preparation. The struggle to balance health with taste is real, and the author shares her frustrations and determination to keep trying.