Menu Plan for the Week 8/29/11 – 9/4/11

When I was a kid, my mother’s idea of cooking involved removing an orange box from the freezer, popping it in the oven for an extraordinary amount of time and then peeling back the scorching hot foil to reveal something brown and lumpy, generally with a disturbing scent that reminded me of burnt Alpo. Mom never bought instant food that I might actually like to eat on the basis that it was either too expensive (like pre-sweetened breakfast cereals with the clever commercials) or “not healthy” (I’m guessing she didn’t realize how much sodium was packed into those frozen triangles of whipped potatoes and fried chicken).

As soon as I could read a cookbook, I taught myself how to bake from scratch out of sheer necessity to gain weight. From cookies and cupcakes and onward to vegetable side dishes and a million ways to prepare pasta, or spaghetti as it was known in those days. I loved the precision of baking and the creativity of cooking. By age 14, I could prepare dinner and dessert from scratch, including breads and pastries.

Lately I’ve been wondering how differently my children will relate to food since they rarely eat anything other than homemade meals. Will they crave McDonalds or the Krispy Kreme donuts that I only let them eat when a blue moon is present? Or will they share the same passion for food and cooking that I discovered at a young age? One thing is for certain – they are happy to leave the menu planning to me 🙂

Monday, August 29th

Breakfast: Cereal Bar

Lunch: Mac & Cheese / Leftovers

Dinner: Fried Chicken, Green Beans, Corn on the Cob, Homemade Fudge

Activity: Making Homemade Pickles