{"id":14639,"date":"2013-10-14T23:21:03","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T04:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crankymouse.com\/?p=14639"},"modified":"2013-10-15T21:54:52","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T02:54:52","slug":"menu-planning-with-the-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/2013\/10\/14\/menu-planning-with-the-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Menu Planning with the Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

The what, why, and how of getting your kids involved in menu planning and the discussion of daily meals.<\/em>
\n\"Menu<\/a>
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I am in the kitchen, bent at the waist with my head tucked inside the refrigerator. Our fridge is always stuffed full with the season’s produce, wrapped in plastic or teetering in bowls. Each week I tell myself I need a better solution for organizing the Tetris-esque contents of my chilled rectangle.
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On the shelf below the jars of yogurt and opened jams, amidst the lettuce, Brussels sprouts, and cartons of eggs, there’s a glass container holding a hunk of washed-rind cheese I purchased for an appetizer missing less than a third of its original mass. I grab it and a bunch of spinach that I neglected to use last week before grabbing a small container of prosciutto and adding it to my pile. Around the corner in the dining room is a bamboo bowl overflowing with the last of the summer squash, an overabundance of tomatillos, and enough shallots to last the winter, their purple papery husks crackling as I reach in to grab one.
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My kids have requested macaroni and cheese, and what they help me prepare and what I serve them is a Taleggio sauce that is more creamy white wine sauce than it is cheese sauce, served up over saut\u00e9ed greens and crisped prosciutto with a side of honey-drizzled roasted cauliflower. Decidedly not classic macaroni and cheese with thick yellow cheese sauce clinging to and coating the surface of each piece of pasta. Yet not one of four children protests the treatment of macaroni and cheese into this modified version.
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I do not believe I am a magician nor do I believe I lucked out four times in having kids who choose to eat their vegetables more often than I need to request for them to do so. In fact, my youngest politely told me after eating two pieces of cauliflower that “white broccoli is not tasty for me.” My oldest would be quick to inform you that asparagus is from the devil himself, and my younger daughter will recoil at the sight of coleslaw on the table. So why were slimy greens and roasted cauliflower so willingly accepted on the table for dinner that night? In part, it was because they were involved in the process.
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Why it is Important to Involve Your Kids in Menu Planning<\/h2>\n

Conversations about and around food are wonderful, but they don’t provide experience. I could tell my children that carrots keep your eyes sharp and spinach grows Popeye-like muscles until I’m blue in the face, but peer pressure asserted by children’s menus and advertising on television tells them a different story entirely. With both sides weaving different tales about what food they should choose to put in their body, who is your child to believe?
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The act of involving them in the process of planning what you should eat is an important step in raising healthy eaters and kids that accept what is on the table at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. <\/p>\n