Food hopes

As I said in an update to my last post (but I think too late for the Facebook feed to catch it), I realized that although I was feeling very negative about Jordan's food situation, the negativity actually has its roots in a positive wish for our children that underlies the struggle.  So here is my mission statement (again):  My wish for our children is for them to love real food; to be able to prepare it generously and lovingly for themselves and for people they care about; to use it to fuel their bodies, feed their souls, and build their relationships.  I want them to honor their bodies and souls with every bite rather than pursue market-generated addictions to factory outputs (something I struggle with myself, for sure).  I want food, for them, to be an intimate connection to the earth they live on, a way to bring their natural surroundings (the plants, the animals, the soil, sun, air!) literally into themselves.  I want food to be a gift they give to people they love, as in they make friends by inviting them to dinner.  I want them to know that no commercial product is better than what we personally make from what grows in the ground.  That's what I want to be working towards.

Thinking about that (which was a lot more fun than complaining about Jordan not eating, I tell you what) got me to realize how important it is to me that the kids learn to cook.  Aaron loves to help in the kitchen, as Jordan did at his age.  Jordan tends to be off doing his own thing while I cook.  But he is now old enough to really take the lead on some kinds of preparation, and I wonder if giving him that opportunity might recapture his interest.  I remembered that Mollie Katzen's cookbooks for kids have not only healthy food, but a presentation that would work well for a beginning reader - a sort of a comic-book style.  I dug one up.

Then, last night, I told the kids I had a present for them, but that it was not a birthday kind of present; it was a growing-up kind of present.  (I meant that it was not merely entertainment, but the distinction is pretty funny now that I think about it.)  I led us in a conversation about all the reasons I think food is so amazing and knowing how to cook good food is so great.  Then I presented them with the cookbook, and said now they are old enough to start learning to cook for themselves.  I invited them to choose any recipe they wanted, and I would get the ingredients, and they would be in charge of making it.  For Jordan, I will really try to let him be in charge and do everything he's capable of - which is a lot: read the recipe, get out the tools and ingredients, measure, count, stir, turn on the oven, the works.

Jordan seems to be enjoying this prospect very much.  He perused every recipe, putting post-it notes on the ones he wants to make first and helping Aaron do the same.  Tonight he makes focaccia (from dough we put in the bread machine this morning - the book uses store-bought pizza dough, but we make our own).

I'm still tracking what he eats, too, but I feel a lot less punitive about it.