feeding the hungry

One of my biggest chores is cooking dinners that everybody eats. Luckily I share it with Richard, he loves cooking and I think he prefers his dishes to mine (something he denies!)... However, since I am not working at the moment I do most of the chores. If have this weird sense of having to earn my keep just now.  

I like to be organised and usually note on the shopping list what I want to cook, adding the ingredients we need to the list as I go along. Unfortunately this doesn't necessarily work out: Richard frequently does the shopping and he prefers to shop with his eyes and with what's on offer in mind. This is good but doesn't work if I do the cooking...

So what do you feed a relatively fussy crowd? Not all of us are fussy. I am, but I am the cook so this doesn't count. I tend to eat whatever is on the table even if I don't particularly like the food but I don't eat lamb (the smell makes me sick). Sam is very fussy although he tolerates and grudgingly eats most foods except courgettes, mushrooms, cooked egg, melon, avocado and savoury creamy stuff (I am sure there are more foods but they escape my memory just now). James is unpredictably fussy and sometimes makes himself gag. Alistair is a terrible eater all round but not too bothered about what is on his plate. He usually starts eating when most have finished. Annie is a pleasure to feed as long as it isn't carrots. Richard eats everything but is not a fan of pasta or much other carb based food like pizza. If he is on his own, he mainly eats lamb, cabbage and spinach.

I know how difficult it can be to eat a food that I don't like, it just spoils the rest of the meal. We tend not to force any of the kids to eat what they really really don't like. No harm asking them to re evaluate their dislike from time to time though. If they choose not to eat a food, they won't starve and only rarely is there an alternative and only if it is convenient. This week for example I cooked courgette-spaghetti with pesto. Sam hates courgettes so he got the leftover pesto and some green beans that I cooked in the pasta water.

We tend to cook fresh and from scratch most days but there are days when I can't be bothered or when I am too tired. Ikea meatballs are great for such days, or fish fingers.

So here is what we ate last week:

Richard cooked the kedgeree. Sam and Annie are both good cooks and like to help or cook on their own. Annie cooked most of the chilli this week for example. Unfortunately the kitchen looks like a landfill when they do cook. How they manage to get the pancake mix on the ceiling remains a mystery, as does the need for four saucepans if they cook spaghetti with tomato sauce... I can feel a rant coming and better stop here.

It never ends, doesn't it? Today I did the shopping whilst James was at a birthday party at a softplay centre next to Lidl. I didn't know it was possible to do a weekly shop at Lidl, and cheaply, too. Having said that, I still have to get Puy lentils and salmon. On the menu for next week are butternut squash curry, minestrone, satay chicken, salmon and lentils, Hungarian stew and pizza. If all goes to plan that is.

To a happy week of cooking! Christina x