Cooking negative 101

I've been pretty lucky. Ever since day one, both of my kids have been good eaters. I was one of those extreme moms who made all of my own baby food. Looking back on it I can't believe I actually accomplished that. A woman will do anything to justify quitting her job to stay home with her new baby. My logic was "think how much money I'll save by making my own baby food." I laugh about it now, but it really was one of the ways I cut costs in order to stay home.
I never went through the "I'm not hungry stage". You know the one, your 18 month old all of the sudden decides that they are no longer hungry and somehow miraculously survives on one bowl of cheerios per day, nothing else, and yet they still have an enormous amount of energy and their body still grows. I was not fortunate enough to experience that. In fact my kids always seemed to be hungry, and I took comfort in that fact that they would eat everything I presented them. Both of my kids loved eating cherry tomatoes as a snack at school and actually even like brussel sprouts.

Unfortunately those glory days are over. Not the eating part. Daria and Dustin still have a healthy appetite. The unfortunate part is that all of the sudden almost every meal in my tiny bag of recipes, disgusts them. Yep, I've entered the "I can't' stand that stage". Now this might not be a problem for the average Super Mom, but it's a problem for me. Why? Well, because I truly lack in the "cooking" arena. It's taken me 17 years to really become a good cook, and "good" has a lot of imagination in it. Cooking is not my favorite thing to do. Some of my friends love to cook, love to bake. I'd rather have some sort of set up like the Jetson's did, where you push a button and some homemade gourmet meal pops out of the wall. Since that's not an option, I find myself constantly struggling to find healthy, cost efficient recipes, and NOW, recipes that most the family likes. Meals that Daria LOVED she all of the sudden can't stand. The same goes for Dustin. Or better yet, Daria might like a certain meal but no one else, or Dustin likes what Daria doesn't. One thing I just can't succumb to doing is making a variety of options for one meal. I cook it, you eat it (sounds a little strict but seriously people, what do you do?). For the most part I try to cook what Ken likes. He's the one who works hard every day so we can even afford food, so I figure he should get first shot at the menu, and he never complains.

So the conversation usually goes like this. "Mom, what's for dinner tonight?" (I fantasize responding by saying "a knuckle sandwich" but due to better judgment withhold that comment). I then list off what I will be cooking. "Do we like that?" "Have we had that before?" or the most dreaded "Ohhh, I hate that " "But you used to love that" "well I don't like it anymore." Then, being the mom, I get the fun opportunity to be the "mean mom" and give the age old lecture of "when you are 18 you can cook what you want" or "people all over the world only get a bowl of rice every day, you should be thankful you have this dinner" Ok, actually I've not used those replies. I'd love to but haven't. I have however used the "when you start complaining about choices there's a big problem" (this is usually my response when Dustin looks in the pantry and complains that there isn't anything to eat for breakfast. There are always things to eat for breakfast, just not what he wants. Or he will say he's tired of the same old thing. I then find myself fantasizing again imagining myself feeding my kids oatmeal for a month straight so they can actually then appreciate the meals we do get to eat.......) I suppose I will just have to take a big deep breath and remind myself "that this too shall pass"....