Starbucks, Jedis, and healthy food…I’m so proud!

I am so proud of my son right now.  Well, I’m always proud of him.  He surprises me everyday with how intelligent and responsible he can be.  But right now, my pride is two fold.

First, his memory.  This morning on the way to Starbucks (at his insistence…so proud!) I pulled out a McDonald’s Star Wars bobble-head (from their recent Happy Meals) and was playing with it with him.  He was asking about bad guys and Jedis, so I explained he could tell the bad guys from the Jedis by the color of their light-sabers.  I told him the bad guys always had red light-sabers, where the Jedis had all different colors.  He looked confused and asked, “but what about the big guy.  I thought he was a bad guy?”  He was, of course, referring to General Grievous.  I explained that General Grievous has the different colors because he steals the lightsabers from Jedis (leaving out that he does this after he kills them).  This made sense to the boy.  Then it hit me.  “You remember General Grievous?”  “Yes mommy, he’s the big one with all the arms.  He’s really bad.”  Amazing!  The boy has only watched Star Wars maybe once or twice, per episode, in his life, and he remembers these details.  Simply amazing! 

And the second fold…it’s been going on for awhile now, but still takes me by surprise.  The boy likes, prefers  healthy food.  He drinks water about half the time.  He tells me he doesn’t need soda.  He eats very little candy.  He prefers chinese takeout or pizza to nuggets and fries any day.  (Way different than his father…so proud!!)  When he was a baby, I made his babyfood*.  He refused the jar stuff when I started that.  And for the past two nights, he totally surprised me, again.  Wednesday night, I was not in the mood to cook, so I attempted to pass of dinner as a salad.  I figured if he didn’t like it I could heat up some soup, or suppliment with a sandwich.  But he did!  I got one of those pre-packaged Ceasar Salads to start.  I then found some of that MorningStar fake meat chicken strip stuff in the freezer, so browned that in a pan.  I put the fake chicken on the greens, and added croutons and a little ranch dressing.  He devoured it!  He actually ate more of the fake chicken than he usually does with the real stuff.  Personally, I don’t like it all that much.  It’s the texture, I think.  But, if he is going to eat it like that, it may become a permanent staple in my freezer!

Last night, I wanted to try Pho.  I love it in the restaurant, and found a good recipe, so we stopped at the store and picked up my ingredients.  (For those not in the know, Pho is a Vietnamese soup dish with rice noodles, beef broth boiled with onions, garlic, a cinnimon stick and some star anise, lean thinly sliced steak, with a garnish of beansprouts, scallions, mint leaves, cilantro, and lime wedges.  You can add chiles too, but I left them out for the boy.)  He devoured that too!  He liked that he could kind of make his own.  The way Pho is served, you put the blanched rice noodles in the bowl, add the raw steak strips, and pour over the boiling broth, sans the chunks.  The broth cooks the noodles and the steak the rest of the way.  After, you add the garnishments as desired at the table and enjoy!  He loved it, surprisingly. 

The boy is starting his culinary life out right.  It’s great.  I can get the girl interested sometimes, but she much more cautious with anything that isn’t familiar.  She always rejected the home-made baby food in favor of the jar stuff, and with her father’s eating habits, she always prefers nuggets and fries to anything else.  Ah, well…a little more work, but maybe I can bring her over from the Dark Side eventually. 

 

*Home-made baby food*

With any vegitables (usually baby carrots or greenbeans or cauliflower) I would start out at the farmer’s market for the best quality and least possibility of anything “unnatural.”  I would boil the vegitables until I could just smush them with a fork, then drain and cool.  Then into the blender/food processer, adding water little by little until the desired consistancy (which changed from puree to a little chunky as he got older).  I would dish out a couple servings into those mini tupperware things that you get in a set, thinking you will never use them.  The rest went into ice cube trays to freeze.  Once frozen, I’d baggie them up, three at a time, which made one serving which could be defrosted and warmed in the microwave with a splash of water.  Great for giving to the sitter!

A favorite of the boy’s (and me, and even the girl) is my “rice mush.”  I would boil some chicken, usually the drummets, skimming the top every 10 mintues or so of that foamy stuff that gathers.  (That’s the fat and bad stuff)  After the chicken was cooked through, I’d add one cup of rice to every three cups of water (usually just the leftover chicken water was enough) and a handful of baby carrots (or any other equally sweet vegitable) letting it boil until the rice took the consistancy of mush, usually about 30 minutes.  (adding more water as needed to get the right consistancy).  I’d let it cool enough to touch, and pull all the chicken out, debone and replace the meat.  Then, as above, all in the blender/food processer, adding more water if needed, until the correct mushiness.  Same freezing and serving method applies.  The kids still love this.  It’s an adaptation of what my mom used to make me when I was sick as a kid.  It’s still great on cold afternoons for a hearty, comforting, warming lunch.  Mmmmm.