Meal Dumb-Down

by Kathryn Henderson

The May issue of Parenting magazine recently arrived on my doorstep. I was initially excited by the article “Two-way dinners: Make it for kids, then tweak it for adults – and everybody’s happy!” This seemed like a great idea – after all, I spend a lot of time encouraging parents to put one meal on the table each night rather than making a different meal for each family member. The latter is time-consuming, reinforces the “eat what I want any time I want” mentality, and caters to pickiness. So I eagerly flipped to the article and was suitably…disappointed.

There are four recipes. The first is for pizza pockets. The reader is instructed to put together the pizza dough, tomato sauce and cheese, cook for the kids, then add artichoke and prosciutto for the adults. Mac ‘n’ cheese consists of pasta, cheese, and milk for the kids, with the addition of mushrooms and red peppers for the adults. Chicken nuggets are your basic chicken nugget, with the addition of spinach and cheddar for adults. Finally the basic brownie is “adultified” with dried cherries and pecans. So, to summarize, vegetables and fruit are adult-only fare. This would have been a terrific opportunity to introduce new foods (like vegetables) via familiar staples (like mac ‘n’ cheese). I think we underestimate kids’ ability to respond to new experiences and acquire preferences. Now, strangely, three pages later, the same magazine printed the following: “15: The number of times you may have to offer a new food to a child before she accepts it; 78: Percentage of moms who give up sooner”, paired with a picture of a child eating an avocado. These statistics at least suggest parents may wish to persevere with new vegetables (or at least avocados). Hmmm….mixed messages?

Comments

[Mara]

So - add the avocado in and see if your kid eats it. If not, take it out, & try again some other time. Maybe it's also nice to not always get into a fight at the dinner table. Some tastes take time to mature; not every kid will eat every vegetable. Trying too hard can set up battles around food. Kids also learn that it's not good to honor their own food preferences in what is being served at the dinner table - a mistake, I think. Kids need flexibility around food, yes, but also their own individuality and tastes respected.

[Noah]

Kathy writes:

"Hmmm….mixed messages?"

The magazine belongs to Bonnier Corp. (http://www.bonniercorp.com/). It sells to its readers' priorities and keeps them current.

What a great approach to family cooking, though. Come up with a recipe that's healthy and that your kids eat, then dress it up for adults.

Here's a healthy version:

"For kids, there's beans and rice with steamed vegetables and oil. For adults, just add chopped nuts and baby greens. Mm, mm, good."

I'm not very creative with my vegetarian combinations, (I tend to eat flourless, too). You need someone who:

* has kids of their own, or kids that they feed.
* is a good and creative cook.
* can experiment with family meals.
* can get other families to try the recipes.
* can share the recipes with the public.

Then all they have to do is share their recipes online, or in a magazine article.

[Jack]

Kathy - This is why I can't stand to read Parents magazine; why don't they just retitle it Dumb Parents?

Kind of amazing that article was considered an article and actually published.