Mixing Up the Menu

Family dinner time is a priority at our house, but I have found creating the menu every week to be a chore. I would often end up repeating dishes because I had run out of fresh ideas. Inevitably, at the end of a long day, one of the kids would say, “Mom, are we having that again?”

My kids are accustomed to simple, healthy meals. Some of my staples are veggie burgers, rice and beans, pasta with an easy spinach-pesto sauce, and brown rice topped with flavorful len tils. On Friday nights, we traditionally splurge on pizza and cozy up together in front of a family movie. Saturdays used to be make-your-own-taco night, but even that has lost its novelty.

The next time my daughter began to complain about what was on her plate, I decided to turn the tables. “Hey!” I said. “I know a great way for you to love what we’re having for dinner! You can make the menu all by yourself!”

Her initial reaction was not to jump up and down with joyful anticipation, but I want my children to learn to participate in finding solutions to things they aren’t happy about. As adults, they will be more successful if things that don’t work for them inspire some brainstorming. So, we sat down at the table together and made a plan. Each person would decide on the menu for one full week. We’re a blended family of five, so this schedule meant I was only responsible for the menu once every five weeks! Yee-hah!

We created some basic guidelines to set them up for success. A vegetable must be a part of every meal. Ice cream sundaes do not constitute a main course, nor do cheeseburgers and chili fries if you plan to have them for seven nights straight.

As our experiment progressed, we had a lot of fun searching the internet for new recipes and remembering old favorites. My son loves salmon, and I had forgotten how much I do too! My step-daughter is a macaroni and cheese fan, but she can’t tolerate dairy products. We discovered a brand of vegan cheese that tastes like the real thing.

My husband is the best cook in the family by a long shot. He picked out some Thai recipes that were quick and easy, but sophisticated too. One bite of a mildly spicy peanut sauce tasted not only of peanuts, but also of coconut, ginger, and lime if it was savored for a few extra moments on the tongue. What fun to stop and notice the different flavors unfurl!

My son surprised us all by deciding he likes to cook as much as he likes to eat, and he’s pretty good at it. He can whip egg whites until they form stiff peaks for a tangy lemon meringue! My daughter, on the other hand, has discovered that cooking is not her favorite thing, and that’s valuable self-discovery! We learn what we like and what our strengths are only by trying new things.

Perhaps the most important lesson they’ve learned is that in cooking as in life, things rarely turn out perfectly, and that’s just fine. Life is more fun and more interesting if we are flexible enough to have a plan B. Plan B at our house is called cereal night, and as my husband always says, “It’s all good if it’s made with love.”