Day 2: Beans and Bowls

Real food is pleasure. And it's work. Eating fresh and whole is time consuming and we're only 24 hours in. I spent the day planning the next meal and cleaning up from the last. Existence without a dishwasher makes this tough. I had to be on top of all the prep and baking throughout the day which produces a lot of big dirty bowls. I've got to get a better game plan on Sundays for upcoming weeks. I made a cursory list of meals for this week, but it was too loose. Since I'm working from home, I can find the time here and there to get stuff done, and Dirk's on laundry duty for the month. But if we were both working out of the house, this would be tough to swing. Ripping off a box top or opening a bag of processed food would be tempting and necessary. All I can think about is how we're culturally divorced from real food. It's been squeezed out of our schedules.

The kids are doing well. Patrick doesn't have a concept of time and thought Fresh Mouth was over this morning. He went trolling for Panda Puffs. I told him he could have bread, jam and berries of his choosing. When I offered raspberries, blueberries or strawberries, he screamed, "I don't know. I don't even know what a strawberry looks like." We've so stymied them with fruits and veggies, they can't tell what end is up. He ate everything I served.

Aidan is a perfectionist and doesn't want to be outdone. He had a meltdown at dinner over a single green bean. We're not force feeding or insisting on eating anything. The goal is to keep the meals relatively stress free. We're just offering because kids need to see a fruit or veggie 10 or more times before they'll even try it. We put one green bean on each of their plates. Aidan woudn't eat it. "Does that mean I failed Fresh Mouth?" he asked. We told him he didn't fail, but it's good to try new things. He bit the bullet and the bean and took a huge swig of milk. There was some gagging, but he swallowed it. Baby steps.

Menu

Breakfast: Homemade bread with organic peanut butter and natural strawberry jam, raspberries, strawberries and OJ with fish oil.

Lunch: This was a weird hodge podge of applesauce, cashews, oranges, milk and leftover chocolate chip cookies. I wasn't prepared. All the bread was gone. Had to make more in the afternoon.

Dinner: Stuffed chicken breast with sauteed spinach, mushrooms, onions, parmesan cheese and garlic for adults, baked chicken breast with garlic and lemon for the boys, homemade bread, couscous and green beans.

Nugget o' the Day: "It doesn't taste too filthy." - Aidan after swallowing a single bite of a green bean.