Thursday, May 23, 2013

The reason I cook 3 different dinners each night

Lots has changed since I started this blog.  For one, I can't eat gluten.  I just can't.  I got a new life when I got rid of it.  Special meals for me.

My husband has IBS, he can't eat whole grains, legumes, whole corn, or chili powder.  Also, due to the randomness of IBS symptoms, he can't eat anything at all for dinner about 50% of the time, but I get no advance notice.  My kids follow suit, sometimes they eat a lot, sometimes they eat nothing and its random.  They skip dinner even if it is their favorite food sometimes.  I try hard to impress them, special meal #2

My oldest daughter has SPD and so she eats like she has autism.  No two foods can be touching.  No sauces of any kind allowed.  Many foods are only tolerated when using a familiar brand, no substitutions.  No sandwiches or casseroles ever.  Likes really, really salty stuff.  Texture, temperature, and color of food is critical.  No one else can eat the bland food she eats, so she gets special meal #3.

My oldest son is a picky eater--no chicken, potato, salad, green smoothie, or healthy looking stuff.  He just wants chips and salsa all the time.  I strongly, strongly suspect gluten sensitivity in this child based on vomiting, stomach pain, allergies, bowel issues, hives, rashes, high amounts of irritibility and mood swings.

Child number three is normal, she won't eat brown bread or crust, but I can work with that.

Child number four is normal, but won't eat rice (WHAT? my staple food!)

Child number five hasn't started solids, does breastfeeding count as a fourth dinner prep?

Got that?  No gluten, whole grains, legumes, whole corn, chili powder, chicken, potato, rice, smoothie, soup, salad, casserole, or sandwiches for dinner and 50% of the time no one will eat it even if it is their favorite food on the planet.

Cooking dinner is a real challenge for me, but I've gotten into a pretty good routine.  Make a small amount of gluten free main dish or two main dishes most people will eat, if husband decides to eat throw in another side dish.  Make a special SPD meal using similar ingredients to the other meal.  Let my picky-eater-oldest-son find his own substitute meal if he doesn't like what we're having and let my husband have a quesadilla or nachos about 9pm which he really prefers to anything I prepare.  If the little kids didn't eat, I have to find them something else.

It was working, but then my oldest daughter became a tween and started gaining the weight many tweens gain now days at that age.  Her doctor suggested she snack on carrots and she's followed his advice, but no carrot can save you from 3 poor meal choices a day everyday.    She requested healthier meals.  We've already tried 12 steps to whole foods and my husband started not coming home for dinner, so I knew I'd better get back to pizza, tacos, nachos, and bratwurst.  Well I found this great local blogger who has taken all the SAD foods my family loves to eat and healthified them.  Its called Simple Healthy Tasty, so now I'm going to try to swear off the junk for the nth time and only serve simple healthy tasty food.  It might turn into one more meal prep in addition to the others, but its my job around here.

I prepare at least 3 dinners per night.