Saturday, September 6, 2008

Food for thought

While the kids were in school today....yes today is Sat and the kids had a 1/2 day school to make up for the flood day we had a week or so ago, I went to the grocery stores. I say stores because I go to aldi and walmart. I only go to walmart for the things I just can't get at aldi. I love aldi...walmart is the necessary evil in my life. We are in an eating rut at our house. My kids are very picky eaters and Brian has to eat a low fat diet. He is fighting hard to not develop diabetes and has done well by losing over 20lbs. The challenge for me is to feed to picky kids and a husband I want to stay healthy and alive with me for a very long time to come. His mom died an early death at 64 due to complications, in part, from uncontrolled diabetes. We have a rule in my house that mommy doesn't cook "weird" food and therefore you have to eat what mommy cooks. It is a good rule, but it doesn't do for me to push it too much. If they just refuse to eat and I send them to bed hungry, I worry and they feel like crap. It is very much a challenge to do all this on a budget!

I hope I score big this week. Tonight we are having Sesame teriyaki. The kids love stir fry, so I hope the Asian theme will go over well. It is a box dinner with noodles with sesame teriyaki sauce and toasted sesame seed topping. I will add fresh chicken, broccoli and carrots to the noodles for a one bowl kind of supper. If it goes well, I will try to find a way to make something similar without using the box dinner. It is low in fat, but high in sodium. I am also going to try homemade vegetable soup and sandwiches. My kids don't eat tomato based sauces ie: no spaghetti, lasagna, etc. They eat very little pizza, usually with no tomato sauce on it. It is hard to make vegetable soup without tomatoes, so this will be one of the "mommy doesn't cook weird foods, so you have to eat it" nights. I figure home canned tomatoes isn't the same as spaghetti pizza sauce, and I will have sandwiches as well, so they won't go hungry. I am also making beef stew, which they have learned to eat. Jessie doesn't like her foods mixed together, so we just put hers on a plate and separate the items on her plate and she does ok. I bought "super trim beef" so it is better for Brian...more expensive, but healthier. We are also having a big salad with grilled chicken..Brian's idea. Bless his heart, he eats so much salad now I know he feels like a rabbit sometimes!! Well, wish me and my family luck this week as we try to get out of our food rut!

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