The Dynamics of Feeding a Deca-Family

Feeding a family of ten can be a problem. Not that it's harder to cook for ten than it is for one or two; in fact, I think it's easier. (But I've cooked for the entire Relief Society before, and enjoyed it.)

No, the problems arise in considering who will eat what. Once again, this topic is spurred by my Body Image class. We are talking about nutrition right now. So I had to keep track of everything I ate for three days and then turn it in to my teacher. It was a bad three days: baked potatoes (which need butter), meatloaf, lots of salads (which need dressing, although I do use light, and I use it sparingly), missed breakfasts, late lunches, etc. As I talked to Dollie about my atrocious eating, I did make an excuse for myself by saying that it's been harder to do good meals since I've been in school—which is true. As we talked, she said something that made me answer that I only cook ONE meal for the family. Period. If they don't like it, then too bad. She suggested keeping a pot of soup in the fridge for the picky eaters—something like five-bean soup, or corn chowder, which are easy to make. Then they could opt out of dinner, and just heat up the soup.

Well, I still don't want to play restaurant. But, here's the real issue:

Over the course of my kids' lives I've had, all at the same time:

• one or two kids who won't eat any meat unless it is a hamburger
• five or six kids who won't eat any fish or seafood
• one kid who won't eat vegetables—especially if they're green; he won't eat most fruits either
• more kids who think the only edible veggie is corn or raw carrots, and if they see even the most miniscule piece of anything that looks like a veggie cooked into another dish (like a casserole), they will dissect that dish and remove even the tiniest bit of veggie matter
• a couple of kids who don't like rice, not of any color
• three or four who won't touch beans
• one who doesn't like the texture of pasta
• none who eat salad—unless there's twice as much Ranch dressing as veggies, and then I think they only lick off the dressing
• four who won't eat tomato sauce (and all of them prefer Alfredo)
• one who refuses to eat soup (it can't be called "soup" or look like soup)
• two kids who don't like milk; it's only good for wetting their sugary cereal
  
  That pretty much eliminates the entire food pyramid.

Now, if I'm trying to feed everyone, and keep them happy—and healthy—just what am I supposed to prepare? And if I did want to keep a spare, back-up meal in the fridge for them to heat up when I cook something nasty like . . . say, lasagna . . . what would that be? I will admit, though, that the boys get a lot more daring and a lot less picky when they hit about twelve years old. Then they'd eat just about anything—and a lot of it!

No, I will just have to stick with my mantra of, "If you don't like it, too bad. This is not a restaurant." :-)