Get real!

It does happen from time to time that I get comments from my children's teachers about what they eat for lunch.   Most of them are about how "interesting" the lunches are, which I often think is just a hidden judgement for not sending PBJ or "lunchables" 5 days a week.  No, partly because Christopher has so many food allergies and sensitivities, "left overs" make a huge part of the lunch planning here.  Red quinoa usually draws the most curious looks, while my homemade chicken fingers usually gain praise.   But I had to laugh out loud the other day when my 3.5 year old very honestly answered her teacher's question about what she had for breakfast.  "Steak".  "No Karolin, not what you had for dinner last night, breakfast this morning".  "Steak."  At this point I was called in to confirm and earned the "Really?" And I said "Sure, you know,  the old fashioned breakfast of  cube steak, eggs, maybe toast or potatoes with fruit?"

The humor gets better though when discussing teenagers and babysitting.  I don't often need one, since we are still pretty well staffed here, but I loved the comment, "you have all that organic stuff at your house.  My kids like to babysit where they have "real food."

Really?

Back at Halloween -at one of my kid's schools, I was thanked for helping out with the festivities with a very nice note and one of the many pumpkin pies that the little guys didn't even get to tasting.  As is the unfortunate case these days, it was a commercially prepared pie of perfect proportions, instead of one of those slightly lopsided delicious creations from your own kitchen.  Of course I had the internal struggle of disposing of it uneaten, as the nutritional consequences of such an adventure are always disastrous, but throwing away food is not part of my moral fiber either.  Time to debate the classification of this entity as "food."  A slice would probably actually kill a child in an "underdeveloped" country.

So enter in the teenage son, who is always willing to help dissolve dessert dilemmas and we sliced and tasted.   And that is where that pie served its purpose in its poor over processed life.  Thomas' comment, "I have been so spoiled.  This doesn't even taste good."  He was right - crust with the density/texture of curing resin and a filling with zero loft, as if someone had skipped the egg.  And of course... way too much sweetener.  I swear if it had been a fruit pie, it would have been jelly.

Definitely not "real" food.  And I'm so glad that I've raised teenagers to know the difference.   I can't tell you how many colleges have dropped to the bottom of the list because the food services doesn't support their vision of eating.  Even Notre Dame, which has one of the highest ranking food services in the country sports a long list of things that Kaitlin won't eat because they just don't taste right.

Enough musing on the reality of food.  It is a truism that it takes time to plan, shop, and prepare really good food.  And I really need to get back at it.