Dinners

*Please excuse the lack of paragraphing. I have tried to edit this six times, and every time I hit publish it reverts to this. Not sure what is going on.* It is the end of the month, and I'm really trying to keep myself to the cash budget. So pickin's are looking slim around here. Bean tostadas! Bean soup! Beans and rice! I did have about $6.50 left yesterday, so I went to the store and bought some coffee, four ears of corn, and one package of shredded cheese. The total wast $6.24. It is ridiculous how pleased I was with myself. Speaking of food, we are trying something new around here with dinnertime. We have generally approached dinner like this: I make something that all of us like eating, such as make your own burritos, or I serve enough healthy side dishes like brown rice and fruit and veggies that I don't feel bad if the kids won't eat the main dish (such as curry, which they won't touch.) A few times a week I will make them something different than what we are eating, like quick microwaved bean burritos or macaroni and cheese, if we are eating something they really can't stand. We don't force them to eat things, but we have forced them to try one bite of something, and we also make them eat all their veggies and whatever they are eating (brown rice) if they are to get dessert. And then we have some sort of dessert every night, which we have used for leverage to get them to eat the healthy stuff. It isn't a bad system, but I don't like a lot of things about it. I don't like that we set up the veggies vs. the dessert. I don't like that we force them to eat things to gain a reward, and I don't like that the reward is a sweet. I don't like that we have to serve dessert every night. So we have decided to have a treat in the afternoons instead (such as cookies and milk after school) and then follow this system for dinner. Basically, I will make whatever I want for the main dish. I will try to make something that the kids might like, but I might also make seafood stew or some other "disgusting" dish if that is what Craig and I want to eat. I will also make sure that there are enough healthy side dishes so that people can fill their bellies with whole grain bread, veggies, milk to drink, etc. I will serve it family style, and everyone will serve themselves as much or as little as they like. There will be no dessert, except for the rare surprise. They may not eat after dinner except for apple slices or carrot sticks at bedtime, which is the usual rule. We will try to model healthy eating and well balanced food choices, and that is it. We will talk a lot about "listening to our bellies." We have done this for one night so far. Luke ate a bunch of whole grain bread with butter and fruit. He is the pickiest and the one that is most likely to resist what he perceives as what his parents want. Henry ate bread, corn, fruit, and at the very end of dinner he decided to try a bite of bean soup. He liked it and then ate a small bowl. It was a very pleasant meal, and we just talked about the day, our plans for the evening and such. I'll report back on Luke again. I know he likes corn and bean soup, but he was obviously using his power of choice to the fullest.