Friday, October 10, 2008

Gather round the table...

My husband said that this needed to go on my blog so... here goes! This is what we had for dinner last night. It is a ginger/lime chicken stir fry served over coconut/jasmine rice, topped with sliced cabbage and cashews.

This is a very typical dinner at our house. I love to cook and have a very hard time when children come over and won't partake of any food that is not fried or covered in cheese. Below is a picture of my 2 year old son digging in. I think it is because they have never been given a choice of what they will or will not eat, that they are not picky. We exposed them to all the food that we love and welcomed them at the table with us. We eat together at the table for every meal that we eat at home. When we have guests, we try very hard to not have a "kid" table but rather, smoosh together around one.

The kids all like to try their hand at the chopsticks when we eat Asian or Thai. It is fun to watch them give it a shot. Jedi gave it up after about 5 minutes this time and went for the good ol' American fork!
I have tried very hard to teach my kids that when you go to some one's home for a meal, you are to eat it. Someone went to the trouble to cook for you and you will eat it and say a gracious thank you. Even the popular "polite bite" is offensive to me. Why would you tell your child to force down one bite of something (usually while making a face) and then "politely" refuse to eat anymore! I am blogging this because so many times I have heard moms tell me that their little ones would "never eat that" when we have tried to exchange recipes and it frustrates me! If they see you eat it and enjoy it... sure they would! I believe we create picky eaters by telling them what they "would and would not" like. Children are natural imitators. Raise the bar.. they will rise to meet it!

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6 comments:

MSB said...

I am so with you. Our kids eat what we eat... there is only a very RARE occasion when I know that they definitely do not like something that we do and I will make them something else (for example Livi does not like spicy things as much as we do).
But, my kids love salmon, shrimp, fresh mozzarella, feta cheese, broccoli, Thai food, and they only know whole wheat bread.
I agree that they eat what they see us eating!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tam said...

I don't think I would even eat that...HAHAHA!
Just kidding! It looks fabulous! The little bit that I've had of your food..it is amazing! I've never been disappointed.
I do cater to what my kids will eat. They're good about trying new things...but I don't eat things I don't like, so why would I make my kids do it? They've always been good about eating salad, and veggies...which is important. Anyway, I'll remember to never have dinner at your house for fear my kids would be offensive. :o) LOL. Side note: My kids also only eat whole wheat bread...in fact I bought white bread once and they didn't like it (but they still ate it)...I thought that was kind of funny since "white bread" was what we always wanted as kids...

Unknown said...

Wow! We think alike for sure. My kids are the same way. And if they really don't like what we have for dinner-there are no substitutes,and they will eat a lot of oatmeal in the morning!
Someday they will thank us for this!

Unknown said...

P.S. Will you be posting the recipe for all of us anxious to try it??

Anonymous said...

Tell me how you really feel! No...I totally agree with you! If there is one thing that drives me absolutely crazy it is when my kids say 'ewww...I don't like that' so beyond embarassing. And like one of the people that commented I know that each of my kids have something they really really dislike (as I do too)...but rule around here is you eat what is gicen or you starve until the next meal.

What I really want to know is why you deleted your hubby's comment!

Oh yeah...and can I have that recipe?? You need to make a cookbook of your most famous recipes and then sell it to your friends who are not as insipring!