Menu … Tuesday

Ah, what a lovely weekend! Glorious sun, warm to hot temperatures, the only rain happening Monday evening. Perfect.

And now here I am back, with this week’s lunches:

Tuesday: Ratatouille with ground walnuts

Wednesday: Lentil-beet salad

Thursday: Butter chicken, rice

Friday Southwestern bean salad

Some of you have wondered how I get the children to eat these things. Here’s the thing: I don’t. I don’t “get” the children to eat. I provide good, healthy, nourishing food. They can eat it, they can sit there and stare it down keep the rest of us company, or they can leave. This is not a punitive thing, unless they pitch a fit, in which case they go sit on the Quiet Stair until they stop. While the rest of us continue our meal.

It’s not punitive because, unless the child’s being truly obnoxious about it (or maybe if I’m particularly hormonal) it doesn’t annoy me. (Let me clarify here: it will annoy me if I’m particularly hormonal; it is exceptionally rare that I get punitive about it … because I don’t have to. Worse, because it’s counter-productive.)

So what do I do?

I’ve said this before, but really, there’s nothing much more to explain. I let them choose to go hungry. That’s it, that’s all. That is how I “get” kids to eat. I let it be their choice. When I let them make that choice, instead of coaxing, coercing, and (worst of all!) offering alternates, they learn that eating is better than not-eating. Eventually, they even learn that food of all sorts is good!

Really.