Feeding Kids Two Vegetables
Some kids apparently love vegetables. At least that’s what I’ve heard from a handful of parents. But I can’t recall ever seeing a kid greedily gobble up a salad with glee.
Presumably, if they truly exist, these kids are the anomaly. Or maybe I’m to blame for my own children’s eating habits. While I’ve overcome my predisposition against salad, I still find it unconscionable to try and compel a kid to eat one.
And I’m also not really crazy about the idea of conditioning youngsters to eat vegetables by offering them thick, creamy dressings or melted cheese sauces in order to disguise flavors and make the food group more appealing. Mrs. Fussy says that if I were left to my own devices, our kids would never eat any vegetables at all. I don’t think that’s entirely true, but I do recognize they would eat substantially fewer.
Encouraged by our weekly delivery of farm fresh produce as part of the CSA, I keep trying to feed the kids new vegetables and new preparations of old vegetables. Today I wanted to share some recent successes.
In other words, I’ve stumbled upon two things the kids don’t find entirely vile.
Free Coffee and Prizes to Ditch Dunkin’
People are addicted to their Dunkin’ Donuts. I saw pictures of displaced northeasterners, now living in California, sleeping out on the sidewalk in order to be among the first to have a Los Angeles Dunkin’ experience.
That’s what addiction will do to you. It’s not pretty.
DD has done a great job marketing itself as the anti-Starbucks. It’s just coffee. Coffee for people who work. Honest coffee. And the truth is that when this coffee is sweetened with plenty of sugar and enriched with a hefty pour of milkfat, it’s easy to get down and does the job.
The other truth is that it’s actually more expensive than Starbucks’ brewed coffee and the Dunkin’ Donuts coffee itself (minus the cream and sugar) really isn’t very good. Maybe you’ve gotten used to it. This is why it’s sometimes good to try and break the cycle of addition.
What if I told you there was a third option, that’s most likely just as convenient? You don’t have to go to Starbucks and become a person you hate. And you don’t have to buy into the marketing deceptions of Dunkin’ Donuts either. To make it easier for you, not only am I going to point you in the direction of a free (short term) replacement, but I’m also going to shower you with gifts and prizes.
Hopefully, you’re sitting down, because the following endorsement may be a bit shocking.
Unburdening: The Fallacy of Fresh Veggies
Cooking is work. Sure, it’s a form of work that I enjoy. But I don’t think it’s fair to suggest that everyone should be able to take pleasure or satisfaction from the task. For example, I know there are people who really enjoy ironing. I’m happy to let the dry cleaners press my shirts, and living in a house without an ironing board.
Yes, ironing is a life-skill that everyone should possess. However, living with wrinkled shirts won’t make your hair fall out, and outsourcing the job won’t lead to gout, diabetes or obesity.
Cooking is important. You may never love it, but maybe I can help to make it a little less awful.
There are lots of ways a chore can become a burden. Fortunately, some sociologists at North Carolina State University conducted a lengthy study. And in it, they identified many solvable problems. Unfortunately, their solutions had nothing to do with making cooking easier. So I’ve offered my suggestions for overcoming the demands of the ideal meal and explained how less expensive cuts of fattier meats can still be part of a healthful meal.
Today, we’ll cover the price and perishability of produce.
Funday: Cooking and Snacking
Believe it or not, but it’s been three weeks since the last Sell Out Funday. What’s Sell Out Funday you ask? Fair question. Well, it’s when I post the collected press releases of the week and share them on the blog. It used to be Sell Out Saturday, then it migrated to Sell Out Sunday. But when I stopped posting anything over the weekends, I renamed the feature Sell Out Funday.
Some weeks there are a ton. But there has been a dry spell lately.
These days I’ve been getting more sleazy solicitations for sponsored content. Everyone wants to write stories with embedded links to their clients, it would seem.
Actually, the two releases the follow have been sitting in my inbox for a while. But the first one is for an event scheduled for next week. The second one is for a series of cooking classes that run through the month of September, including a modestly compelling one scheduled for later today.
Hope you are sitting down, because we’re starting out in the Mediterranean.
Unburdening: The Tyranny of Lean Meat
Cooking healthful, affordable meals for a family doesn’t have to be a burden. I’ve been there. I’ve lived through the challenges. And for the most part, I’ve found ways to overcome them. Occasionally, one still raises its ugly head.
Thanks to a recent study from North Carolina State University, and the media attention it has received, the barriers to cooking meals at home have been painstakingly documented. My goal is to offer solutions to as many of these problems as I can.
Yesterday, I smashed the idol of the ideal family meal. Today, let’s tackle the tyranny of lean meat.
Unburdening: Ditch the Ideal Meal
Did you read that study which found that home-cooking disproportionately burdens mothers?
On my social media feeds, it has been the PBS story on the study and not the study itself that have been making the rounds. Given that this is an issue that’s close to my heart, I felt compelled to read the full study.
Granted, I’m the outlier here. I’m the father, yet these days I do the overwhelming majority of the cooking, dishes, and grocery shopping. I can’t say that I’m surprised these household functions are disproportionately fulfilled by women. I’m not sure what I can do to compel men to take on a larger role in the kitchen.
What I can do is try to lessen the burden for whoever is doing the cooking for a family.
The Changing Definition of Steak
Think you know what it takes for meat to be a steak?
I thought I did too. But we live in interesting times when food isn’t always as it seems. A steak is historically a solid piece of meat cut from an animal. For today, let’s not fiddle around with the fine differences between steaks and chops. Many chops are more commonly referred to as steaks these days anyhow. I can live with that.
Each cow has one tenderloin. If you order a tenderloin steak, you have every reason to believe that you are getting a nice slice of that one lean muscle.
However, definitions change. These days it seems to be the meat industry that is changing the definitions to increase its profits, with some hapless underfunded US regulatory body largely populated by industry insiders rubber stamping the change.
Once upon a time I thought ground beef actually had to start as solid meat that was mechanically ground. How young and naive I was. Well, I’ve got some bad news about what is now being passed off as steak.
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