Food fights!

Does anyone find meal time a nightmare?

I would expect this is common but whether you're eating out, at home or preparing school lunches - it’s always a nightmare!

Not a nightmare for the reason of proper, actual food fights where you have a mass food throwing session covering yourselves and two thirds of the kitchen. No, this is the fight to get a ‘reasonably’ healthy meal that everyone can eat, enjoy and finish - together!

We know that Super Noodles (also now available in pots) is a winner but that is a challenge for ‘healthy’. As for home cooked meals, we’ve tried loads: fish, pies, spag bol, carbonara, vegetarian, all sorts of filled wraps, fajitas and tacos, different types of stews and other floaty meat dishes (my Mum hates stew and refers to anything like this as floaty meat).

Unless it involves chips, chicken or the only real winner ‘Sunday Roast’, they never quite work. Roast Dinner is even starting to wain!

We have also found things and then had a problem. My son loved 'mighty meaty pasta' from M&S. Unfortunately, as soon as my wife was pregnant with our second, she felt sick every time it was cooked (microwaved to be precise!!). Another example is when we find something our daughter likes, only for it to be discontinued - typical!

As for eating out - what a disaster that turns out to be - we might just as well take the food with us. I guess a ‘take-in’ rather than a ‘take-away’ would be the best description! I remember a time at Center Parcs when we used one of the restaurant buffets for kids. This was a complete ‘bunfight’ for those "other peoples' kids", with plates filled so high they look like a Jenga tower about to topple. Not for our two; one came back with a plate of fish fingers and the other - just chips! Or the time we went to a wedding and my daughter just ate bread rolls... Exactly the same as she did on the school’s 'residential', when they all stay away for the week at an outdoor activities centre - perfect for most kids but not ours!

As for the times we actually manage to get to a 'posh' restaurant, "no sir, I'm afraid we can't 'adapt' the menu to include chicken in a wrap with lettuce and cheese" . Whoops!

Packed lunches have always been a battle too. People say these should be healthy and contain fruit and veg - tell me someone who doesn’t fill this with: a sandwich, crisps and some kind of chocolate covered treat - oh we do put some cheese in too! My daughter said to me, just this week, “Dad, with the COVID-19 changes at school, lunch break is shorter and I’m not getting much time to eat all of it”. “And?”I reply. My daughter then responds simply with “I can do without the sandwich”. You have to be kidding me!!!!!

We all know about ‘the drawer’ too. The place the kids go to as soon as they get back from school. Some families have a cupboard but we have a deep drawer. This is the drawer you open slowly, look in quickly and then close again. You wince, look back in again and see the badness - biscuits!. There is ’some’ good in there... It starts with the good(ish) - those 'Go-Ahead' biscuits packed in threes, pretending to be healthy; there’s also digestives and rich tea. It then progresses through the not so good such as custard creams, Maryland cookies and Jammy Dodgers; eventually, much like the transition of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars, reaching 'the dark side of the drawer'. This is filled with chocolate digestives, Kitkats, Twix and those double cream stacked Oreos!

Nowadays, as they have grown up quite a bit, it’s a little easier but not by much!

My son is pretty good and will eat most things now, as it is simply seen as ‘fuel’. His most favourite fuel of all being pizza. He's also constantly hungry - he will say late at night - "would it be wrong to have a bowl of cereal, maybe Crunchy Nuts Cornflakes?". I think everyone knows, you can always eat Crunchy Nut Cornflakes anytime - they are just too delicious!!

As for my daughter, she remains a challenge to predict. With her, we now tend to stumble across something she likes and ‘do-it-to-death’. She then goes off it - obviously! This happened with curries, anything with potatoes, pasta, chicken pie and even sushi.....

To be honest, with my daughter, I’ve noticed that the main meal seems to be eaten less and less but we are getting through Ben & Jerry’s by the truck load!!!!

Food fights will only continue in this household!