I am feeling very low lately. It’s not like there’s any reason at all – my life is full of gifts and blessings. On top of the lowness, I find myself feeling frustrated at myself because I shouldn’t be feeling this way. And yet, here we are.
One small thing I can do to move forward is to post about this week’s dinners. Maybe not the most scintillating of topics, to read or to write, but it’s better than staring at an empty screen and/or dumping my very inconsequential whines onto the page.
We are about to embark on another period of extra busy-ness, as Carla enrolls in a new sports team. We will be back to having extracurriculars that run up against dinnertime nearly every day. This means that we need to focus on quick and easy. Probably a lot of the time, I will end up eating black bean tacos or salad, and my husband will end up eating ham sandwiches. In fact, “ham sandwich” has become code for “eat something easy of your choosing” in our household, even if the resulting meal includes neither ham nor sandwich.
Oh – that reminds me. There’s been a Disturbing Development: Carla was eating chicken nuggets the other day for dinner. She had eaten three and wanted something else, and I suggested that if she was still hungry, she should eat the fourth. And she said, “I think I’m tired of chicken nuggets. I don’t think I like them anymore.”
This is it. This is the horrible endpoint I’ve been anticipating and fearing for years, because she eats them so frequently. And I’m not even going to apologize for it, because there is protein in chicken nuggets and, more importantly, she EATS THEM. Or did eat them. I do TRY to shake up her meals – I do. But there are so few things she eats, and I hate mealtimes that morph into me coaxing/wheedling/demanding that she eat the thing on her plate. Plus, chicken nuggets are EASY, which is important too, and ready in under 10 minutes if I use the air fryer.
What am I going to do if she stops eating chicken nuggets?
(Carla’s suggestion, by the way, was that she would eat tacos every day. And, yes, fine, tacos are great and I am happy to make a big batch of meat at the start of the week so she can eat them as often as she likes. But she gets tired of those too, plus sometimes it seems like “eating tacos” is an excuse for eating multiple crispy corn taco shells and copious amounts of cheese. I get it, and crispy taco shells and cheese have their time and place. But I don’t think, in our situation of plentiful options, that they should be my kid’s MAIN source of calories, you know?)
Carla’s meals are never part of my Dinners This Week posts anyway, since she rarely eats what my husband and I do. But I am still fretting over how to get appropriate quantities and varieties of food into her. (She eats scrambled eggs and salmon and steak and – sometimes – pork tenderloin or teriyaki chicken or hamburger. She will not starve.)
Ugh. We also have HOLIDAYS this week. Well. I cannot get up enough energy to think about making anything special. Fortunately, we have been invited to a Passover Seder with friends, so I don’t even have to think about that. We can dye Easter eggs on Saturday. And maybe that will have to be that. My mother always used to make a ham for Easter dinner, but I don’t like ham enough to make a whole one. Although… maybe it would produce plenty of leftovers for my husband… and Carla sometimes eats ham (although usually in Lunchable form). I don’t know.
Despite having a wonderful list of reliably delicious dinners to pad out the meal plan each week, I still find myself wanting to try New Things, so I’ve got two oldies and two newbies on the list. Here’s what I am tentatively planning to make this week, keeping in mind that we might chuck it all and eat nothing but ham sandwich.
Dinners for the Week of April 3-April 9
- Ginger Chicken Asparagus Stir Fry: This is a new-to-me recipe, but asparagus is plentiful these days and this is a way of preparing it that haven’t tried before.
- Baked Gnocchi and Vegetables: On a whim the other day, I picked up a bag of cauliflower gnocchi from Trader Joe’s. I don’t particularly like gnocchi, and I’m deeply suspicious of cauliflower masquerading as foods that it clearly is not. But I own a bag now, and I need to do something with it. Maybe this is the solution?
- Chili-Honey Chicken and Sweet Potatoes: I have only had this once, so far, but it was so incredibly delicious. I’ve been thinking about it nonstop lately. Maybe it’s time to make it again. I am a little fearful that I loved it so much initially because a) it was novel and b) I thought I’d burned the sweet potatoes beyond recognition but they turned out to be deliciously charred. I doubt I could recreate the same conditions of uncertain anticipation and relief, you know?
- Lemon Garlic Pasta with Fresh Veggies: Pasta is one of my go-to comfort foods, and I loved this dish the last time I made it. It sounds springy and filling.
- Baked Ham? With what? The more I think about this, the less appealing it is. But my mom made ALL holidays special, and I feel like such a failure for not trying to make them special for Carla. I KNOW THIS IS DUMB. Knowing that it is dumb doesn’t make the feeling evaporate.
What are you eating this week? Any plans for the holidays, eating or otherwise?
North objects to cauliflower masquerading as other things, too, which is too bad because I have cauliflower rice most of the time I would have had rice, pre-diabetes. But when we get rice with takeout I just freeze the leftovers and give them to North when Beth and I are having cauliflower rice.
We have no special plans for Easter dinner. It’s not a thing we usually do, but I do tend to make egg salad with the Easter eggs the week after.
I hope you are feeling less blue soon.
I like cauliflower, I just want it to be itself. I do not eat egg salad, so honestly have no idea how it looks, but I am imagining the loveliest salad of pastel chunks of egg. Of course, I’m sure that’s not how it works. But the image is pleasing!
We make ham for Christmas (even though very few of us particularly care about ham!) and always make this along side it: https://www.thekitchn.com/dauphinoise-potatoes-recipe-23009449
It’s not healthy, but it’s very very tasty, easy to make, and always a big, festive, hit.
Oooh! Thank you for the link! We had Easter with friends a few years ago, and one of the family members made something similar to this and it was SO GOOD.
We don’t usually bother with an Easter meal but I do sometimes make ham just for regular and you should get the little ham that comes pre sliced and just put it in the oven and not make one of the huge big deal hams. And then you have made ham for Easter but not had to make a big deal ham. And get premade sides and heat them up. And then you have done the thing but not had to spend hours doing the thing.
I think there are plenty of reasons to feel blue, even if your own particular life is good right now. It has been a HARD few years. It’s okay to not be okay.
Jen, this is the kind of direction I appreciate so much. I will do exactly this. Thank you.
Carla is Cooper. I just buy whatever the most nutrient-dense thing he likes at the moment happens to be and cross my fingers. SOMETIMES THAT IS NUTELLA ON A RICE CAKE. I just cannot even. Kara Hoerr is a picky eating nutritionist and RD I know IRL who has a thriving online business. You can search her on IG Kara Hoerr nutrition. She is good at making meals stress-free.
LOOKING HER UP RIGHT NOW!!!!!
Well, that’s funny because I’ve been dealing with the same disturbing development for the past couple months- my daughter also got sick of her usual meals, and while I’m
glad she’s branching out, it makes dinner much more complicated. Sometimes she’ll eat what we’re having, but that means making certain modifications (she doesn’t like carrots, if it’s pasta it has to be white and not whole wheat, etc.) – things were actually a lot simpler when I was making two different dinners.
Yesterday I cooked a double batch of bean and vegetable burrito filling, and we’ll be having burritos for at least two dinners this week (possibly three) but I’m not sure if my daughter will like it yet. My husband isn’t a fan of the same dinner three nights in a row, but I don’t mind it. Your lemon garlic pasta recipe looks good- I might make that as well.
For Easter I’ll probably make something like lasagna? I haven’t really gotten that far in my planning. As I’ve mentioned, it’s not my favorite holiday and I’ll be happy to get it behind us.
Sorry you’ve been feeling low- I know, sometimes it just happens for no apparent reason. I hope you come out of it soon.
I don’t think you have inconsequential whines at all! We all have little (and big) things that annoy and weigh us down. So I’m here to encourage you to feel free to say you’re feeling low and to know it’s okay to whine/lament. Hope you find lots of rays of sunshine in your day today <3
Prepping food is SO stressful. I laughed very hard at this exchange in my household last week.
My daughter: Mom, is it fun being a mother.
Me: It sure is. [Being…quasi-truthful]
Daughter: What are the perks of being a mother.
Me: *Thinking*
Daughter continues: You know, other than the fact you get to decide what we eat every day.
Bless you, my child, you have NO IDEA WHAT'S COMING FOR YOU IN A DECADE.
Oh my gosh, Elisabeth — that is hilarious. Choosing the meals is AWFUL. My husband and I did this mail-order meal plan a year or so ago, and it was expensive and the food was revolting and I did not lose ANY weight (which was the whole point of doing this thing) but it was SO NICE not to have to plan our meals!
My 9-year-old goes through food phases, as well, and we are thrown asunder when she starts refusing a favorite. It is such an emotional imbalance because I want her to eat more variety but it’s so hard when we’ve been in a good routine for months and it sends me back into swirling about nutrients and needs and all that. But, I also know she’s opened up her mind to so many different foods in the past year or two, so there’s hope for easier days some day (a thought that I try to remind myself of when she suddenly says kiwis are gross after we bought an entire bin of them because she would only eat kiwis for the last 6 weeks)…
I gave an audible sigh/groan at the thought of those kiwis. I have been there, probably with kiwis! Definitely with bananas.
This may or not be helpful – when my 3 somewhat picky eaters started getting bored of the old standbys, it was the start of them expanding their tastes! Some. Like, I remember how glorious it was when, a few months after my pickiest decided that he was no longer really into chicken nuggets, he suddenly announced that he was ok with ground beef. Which was huge! Suddenly, he could eat a burger or a meatball, and all sorts of options opened up!
Oh, this is great to hear! I hope the chicken nugget rejection is a signal for more adventurous eating!
We will do Easter brunch with my husband’s family. It’s usually ham which I don’t eat, but the sides are usually good. We haven’t been told what we need to bring, but I’m usually in charge of a salad (a green lettuce salad, not a midwestern jello salad), so at least I can count on something I can eat. Plus, there’s tons of candy floating around, so if all else fails, I’ll be over there munching down on some M&Ms.
M&Ms are definitely superior to ham. I also really liked that you specified “green” not “jello.” But I do kind of wish that they assigned you something really regionally specific just so you could blog about it.
I love looking at your recipe ideas. Good inspiration for some new meals! Have faith that a picky eater can grow to love other foods. My youngest and most food-selective child has broadened her range of foods, albeit slowly. One fun thing we do once in a while is go to a groccery from a different global region (Eastern European, east Asian, Indian etc) and pick out some new foods to try, usually its snacks or desserts. Its a pretty low stakes way to try new foods and we’ve found a few things that she likes.
Oh, that’s such a fun idea!
I’ve been feeling low too. I get it.
I sympathized with your sadness that Carla no longer wanted chicken nuggets. It feels like the end of something. My youngest used to enjoy eating hot dogs. Then she decided she didn’t like them anymore. I was sad.
There are so many endings, when you’re a parent. (I suppose, there are so many endings, when you’re a human.) And so many are so unexpected, and so unexpectedly tinged with sadness.
Yes….❤️
I get that low feeling sometimes too, it does come from nowhere and is unrelated to how my life is going. The things that help are all the annoying things: food, exercise, going outside, light, blah blah blah. What is UP with kids and food? Should I make them watch a documentary about the Donner party so they can realize how good they have it?
Yes, all those annoying things. I haven’t seen any progress yet, but they are worthwhile on their own even if they aren’t the quick fix I want them to be.
Oh my goodness. I completely relate to this happening with my own kids and it always fills me with disproportionate dread, as if the next day and the next and the next, the few remaining easy standbys or routines will continue to be kicked out from under me! It’s rare that my two have equal taste in meals (except for plain cheese pizza) and so when I discovered a creamy sausage pasta they both loved a few months ago, I started making it so often that now one refuses to eat it at all and one eats it only begrudgingly. Of course I only have myself to blame for this…
I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if Carla just needs a little break from the nuggets and eventually they’ll be back in her good graces!
Growing up, my mom was all about making holidays special, especially with the meal prep, setting the dining room table with the china, etc. However, it was always stressful with 6 kids underfoot and as I got older I definitely picked up on the tension, although of course as we got older we were also more genuinely helpful. By contrast, my mother-in-law serves holiday meals on festively colored disposable plates, and makes a small ham or turkey (depending on the holiday), but also a crockpot of mac and cheese, or meatballs to put on buns, and lots of finger foods. I’m always amazed at how peaceful these holiday dinners are, and I don’t think they feel any less special. I also TOTALLY think that there may be a season or a particular holiday that you feel is worth the extra effort, but if this is not it, your family will appreciate you being present and less frazzled!
I could have written exactly the same intro – for no reason in particular, I’ve had a lot of spells of life being less than fabulous right now.
Kids…they eat what they wanna eat. My oldest stepson would eat only cheese and Ramen if we’d let him. Good luck transitioning to the new schedule and stay sane – that’s key! We’ve had a few weeks of light activities but I know things will be ramping up at any minute for Scouts.
I had a moment with the cauliflower gnocchi. It was good and you can make it in the air fryer if you want to. A bag goes pretty quickly so you won’t have it on your hands for very long.
Yes we’ve got the ham thing going on. As soon as “we” get tired of it (which will be after the first bite for me and a few days for the hubs) I’ll pack it up in the freezer and bring it back later in quiche.
The air fryer sounds like a good vehicle for cooking the gnocchi. I may have to try it. Good luck with your ham plan.
Don’t be too hard on yourself for being in a low period: it happens to everyone (no matter that some try to pretend it doesn’t). My brother called yesterday, and when he asked how I was, I said, “…fine?” Like, I am fine! Just, I don’t know, not able to summon much enthusiasm for it. But it’s a fallow period, I’ll come out of it at some point. Bask in the good moments when you have them. (I’ll shut up now–but I mean well!)
I like the concept of a fallow period. The good mood germinating below ground – very appealing.
No more chicken nuggets? Oh dear, maybe it’s a blip. I saw someone else talking about cauliflower gnocchi and I’m dubious, like you. I’ll look forward to your review of them. As for ham, we had it on Easter but I’m not keen enough on it go to the bother. Have no idea what we’ll eat on Easter, but not ham. [Yes, that’s my idea of meal planning.]
Not ham is an excellent meal plan.
Sorry to hear that you are in a blue mood. That isn’t easy. Hoping you are feeling more like yourself soon.
Good grief, NO! Not a boycott of nuggets. Well, I hope she discovers something else that’s easy to prep, soon.
Mini is coming home Thursday night and bringing 2 college friends home for Easter. I need to get my house in order before then. Mini informed me that her one friend is very stressed about coming to visit, because she is the pickiest eater alive. I told her not to worry. I’m not about to force feed her anything and my feelings won’t be hurt. I made barbeque pork in the crockpot today. I have a crockpot of chicken and potatoes that I’ll re-heat tomorrow. Beyond that? No idea. I am hosting Easter – going the brunch route. Egg casserole, ham in the crockpot, sweet and sour green beans, plus a dessert. Maybe one of which will be bunny cake, since Mini’s b-day is next week.
My already picky daughter has decided to be vegetarian, so I feel your pain at possibly giving up a standby! She won’t eat beans, but fortunately likes some of the fake meats and will tolerate tofu. Currently she is living off veggie burgers and eggs. There are worse things, and at least she likes salad!
I’m sorry you are feeling low. I hope you perk up soon.
Oh jeez – not liking chicken nuggets anymore! Have you thought about meal planning her meals with her? She might be more inclined to try something different if she is involved in it. (Probably not, but it doesn’t hurt to try)
Ugh, Easter…we haven’t even discussed it yet. The happy couple’s surprise engagement party is Saturday – so who knows? I suppose I should talk to my husband and bring it up to my son before he gets suspicious.
When I was a kid my mom always made ham for Easter. The perfect sides, for me, are always mashed potatoes, asparagus and deviled eggs. I second the idea of just getting a small one that you can just heat up.
Funny you mentioned ham sandwiches – as much as I enjoy a baked ham (and sandwiches made with that particular ham), I really don’t care for the deli lunch meat ham; I just realized this. I’m more complex than even I knew.
I’ve been feeling low lately, too, with no identifiable reason.
For the chicken nugget problem, I recommend Kids Eat in Color and specifically their “better bites” program that helps parents learn how to get their picky eaters to try more foods. I’ve been gradually changing how we talk about food and present food in my house as I’ve followed her Instagram page over the past several years, and I think it is helping my children to expand their palates.
I had one of those Dr appts yesterday when I got asked whether I ever felt down, or depressed, etc. I’ve been thinking of those questions as old person questions as it seems to have just started coming up. But now I wonder if they are signs of the times questions? At any rate I just looked at her, rather incredulously I suspect. Then I told her that I think that any person with functional brain cells who is paying attention at all feels these things. Geez All to say that you are far from alone. Do take care. Do something special for you. Taking care of family will continue to be second nature for the “you” that you show us. But you must refill your vessel, your spirit, whatever you call it in order to continue.
I’m sorry you’re feeling low and I do hope it passes soon.
I wish I had some sage advice about Carla and her eating patterns, or not eating patterns. I have no experience in this department.
Ham. *sigh* I’m not a fan of ham and the thought of making ONE giant ham kinda turns my stomach. That being said, my FIL and my girls always love ham, so it *might* be on the menu on Sunday.
I always love seeing your menu choices for the week and I’ve used a few for myself, so thank you for that!
Big hugs, and a couple of gentle suggestions – not even suggestions! just ideas! that you are absolutely free to ignore. First, whining on the blog is something I’ve done more often than I’m comfortable with, but in the end I often find that it’s both cathartic for me and helpful to other people who feel less alone for also feeling crappy. So yes, the dinner thing is a wonderful structure to hang blog posts on, but if some of the things you hang on the dinners are descriptions of feeling low, all to the good, I think.
Second, I also have a daughter who has a pretty limited palate – and she’s 20 now! A lot of it is texture sensitivity and her sensitive gut, and I have no idea how this relates to Carla, but I sort of realized as my kids grew that I had spent way too much time worrying about variety in their diet. If you’re confident she won’t starve (or get irremediably constipated), maybe turn the worry down a notch? Or not, or there’s that Ellyn Satter woman everyone seems very impressed by who does Children Eating stuff. For someone who reads a lot, I was very bad at reading things that might have improved my parenting.
I love gnocchi, and I’m curious about how cauliflower gnocchi would be. I’ve had cauliflower pizza crust that I liked, and there used to be some kind of Kraft Dinner that sort of smelled like cauliflower while you were cooking it but tasted like normal Kraft Dinner when it was done. I can’t do anything prominently ginger-ish after a bad experience with ginger chicken when I was ten.
Geez, maybe I should go write my own blog post. Blah, blah, blah. Hugs again.
LATE TO THE PARTY! But I’m here!
I’m sorry you’re feeling low. Your new schedule sounds frankly overwhelming – that is a lot busyness. Busyness? Sorry, that word looked weird to me but I think that’s right.
I hope that the end of chicken nuggets is the beginning of an expansion to the palate.
I haven’t even thought of Easter yet – my son is going in to work today and will have his schedule, so I’ll probably figure it out when I know when he’ll be here for dinner. The only thing I KNOW I’m going to do is make those little coconut nests for mini-eggs. But that is, alas, not a dinner.
Hello! Also late to the game! I hope you’re feeling better today. I KNOW the sads, you know we all do.
Ack, the chicken nuggets announcement. But yay, TACOS! I’d just run with it, you like them, she likes them: Done. 😉
Easter dinner: Was just planning it. I am going to try to pick up a HoneyBaked ham today. Not sure there will be any available, but I have hope. I don’t love ham, but HoneyBaked does them better than I can do. And I’m making deviled eggs, mac and cheese, and I guess asparagus (ho-hum, not that excited about it). And a lemon icebox pie, which is new for me but not difficult by the looks of it. I hope that will make the day feel special (I too feel that I don’t make holidays special enough, gah)!
I am feeling generally down as well so I feel you. Mine is entirely related to work and being very worn out and overwhelmed. I know it will pass but it’s been 3+ weeks of a packed calendar and I just want to kind of curl up in a ball and cry… And then I feel guilt about everything my husband is shouldering on the home front while I travel as I’ve been gone 2 out of the last 3 weeks since I didn’t stagger my travel well in Mar/Apr…. Lesson learned.
Paul commented recently on how he eats the same things over and over and we were like – ok, please, tell us what else you could/would eat? We’d love to have more variety but when he eats as few things as he does, that means you eat the same things over and over. He did not have any suggestions, though. I would dread him not wanting to eat one of the meals we eat on repeat! Gah, these selective eaters are tough.
Easter. Wow, I am not prepared. And I waited to long to lean on Amazon for Easter basket goodies. I guess I will buy them sometime this weekend? Typically I would take the kids with me to Target but obv I can’t do that when I am shopping for them. I know my MIL has gotten them a lot of stuff so I will just buy a few things but I want them to have Easter baskets… Hopefully on Friday I’ll be able to sneak away to Target, maybe during quiet time. I am so glad my MIL is hosting. I usually prefer hosting so we are on our home base which is optimal for napping. But this time around I was like – have at it! I am so glad I don’t have to shop for and prepare a meal. And my MIL is thrilled to host and not have to drive to our place. So everyone wins.
Did my novel-length comment disappear? Did your blog deny it in disgust? Test test test
Oh. Huh.
Okay. It’s probably in everyone’s best interest that I don’t try to recreate my comment. Something about not being afraid to post a few whines, because I have found whining a bit to be both cathartic and helpful for other people who feel less alone with their whines.
As far as the kid eating thing… I am not in it anymore and feel free to disregard wholly, but looking back I think I stressed about variety in my kids’ diets way too much. I fed them both the same way, never made them ate stuff they hated (did a lot of staged prep, leaving their vegetables raw etc. ) and one grew up to eat almost anything and one still has a very limited repertoire due to dislikes, texture sensitivities and gut issues. Ellyn Satter is another name I’ve heard if you want to consult someone who has actual expertise rather than someone who lost her reading glasses for four days on a not-even-very-messy dining room table.
Big hugs!
Late to the discussion here–just found you.
I have come to detest all smoky-tasting meats, and yes, that includes the Darling Of The Food World, bacon. How does one have Easter dinner without ham? I am in the enviable situation of finally NOT HAVING EASTER DINNER. Hooray!
As far as the choosy diner, my sympathies. I went almost a year with my youngest not liking meat, period. And not liking any vegetable except corn. Sometimes. And not “eating edges.” I honestly don’t remember what I did to get us through it all. But I did, he did, he’s now almost 35, and no lasting effects. Hang in there.
Welcome, Nance! And oh wow — that anti-meat, anti-vegetable, anti-edges period sounds VERY challenging. Thanks for the reminder that even the most selective eaters do eventually grow out of it!
Reading the comments, it sounds like many people are just… down. Know that you’re not alone in your struggles… with food, or with life in general. I don’t have kids, but if I were you I would be practically catatonic due to all the twists and turns you need to navigate to feed your family. Sending positive thoughts that Some Source of Protein will appeal to Carla, and soon…
I don’t believe in this stuff but apparently everyone feels a but low so maybe we can all blame it o the aligned of some planets or so?
I have recently started to somewhat plan and prep meals because I am so sock of deciding and struggling and complains… and we have some tough and busy weeks coming up and I really don’t want to think about food.
Reading about gnocchi I feel like I want some. I love them but its been a while since I had some.
Can so relate to feeling down- for me that was February and March. Even my close friends were like “you okay?”
Now we are in May and I feel marginally better.
Food struggles: my son exists on 4-5 things. Bananas, yogurt, pasta, apples, cookies. I’m sorry, forgetting oatmeal. It is so frustrating and I worry about him a lot. My hope is that as he grows his palate would expand.