Menu Lifestyle
Tired of Cooking Meals My Kids Reject
For some reason, it seems unacceptable to simply hand a box of cereal to my kids each evening and declare, “Dinner’s served!” Honestly, I’m on the brink of letting them figure out their own meals because I’m fed up with them pushing my lovingly prepared dishes around their plates, claiming they’re too full, only to beg for snacks half an hour later.
They don’t understand that preparing meals for a family involves more than just stirring pots. There’s a lot of planning and strategizing involved, where I battle to come up with nutritious options that won’t end up in the trash. I know that anything beige or artificially orange will disappear off their plates, which makes it tempting to serve dinosaur-shaped nuggets and bright orange mac and cheese every night, knowing they’ll clean their plates.
But then the mom guilt kicks in, flooding my mind with phrases like “nutritional gaps” and “rising obesity rates.” So, I find myself endlessly scrolling through Pinterest, desperately searching for meals that are both healthy and appealing to my picky eaters. I remind myself to include vegetables; I wonder if cucumber slices are merely crunchy water. Does tomato sauce even count?
I try to broaden their tastes by introducing new ingredients—think risotto, radicchio, quinoa, and kale. I’ve even tried disguising vegetables in cheesy sauces or blending them into soups, serving everything over pasta since kids seem to adore it.
I go to great lengths, hoping that one day they might actually prefer wholesome foods over the processed varieties. But despite a few small victories, it often ends in the same way: a couple of polite bites (which we call a “no-thank-you taste”), some nibbling, and a lot of food rearranging to make it look like they’ve eaten more than they have. And there I am, shaking my fists in frustration: “You’ll eat a booger, but you won’t try quinoa?!”
It gets even trickier. Their finicky habits leave me with a fridge full of leftovers—let’s be honest, most leftovers are only good for a meal or two. And the amount of uneaten food I’ve guilt-consumed rather than tossed out has added at least 15 pounds to my waistline—at the very least.
As if that wasn’t enough, I also have to clean up after the meal I meticulously planned and prepared, which my kids treated like a plate of old vegetables, making it feel like a huge slap in the face.
Despite my frustrations, I adhere to my “eat it or go hungry” policy. It won’t kill them to eat healthy, unprocessed food a few times a day. If they’re genuinely hungry, they’ll eat what’s placed in front of them. Spoiler alert: it won’t always be pizza and fries (though that would be pretty great).
So I’ll keep searching for recipes that strike the right balance between nutritious and delicious—because somewhere between kale chips and mozzarella sticks, there’s a middle ground. Even if they never appreciate the effort I put into dinner, I won’t give up on convincing them that my cooking is not as bad as they pretend it is.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t voice my complaints along the way. After all, if they can manage to eat boogers, they can certainly learn to nibble on a whole grain or a vegetable.
This article was originally published on April 23, 2017. For more engaging insights, check out our other posts on home insemination and family life.
In summary, juggling meal preparation for picky eaters can be a frustrating experience. As parents, we strive to provide nutritious options, only to find our efforts met with resistance. Despite the challenges, it’s essential to remain persistent and explore new recipes that appeal to our little ones.