Tonight’s dinner, however, made them think of him like this:
Why? He bought the side dish at the healthy food store.
Now, I’m all for getting the kids to try something new. But you have to know your audience. For instance, I swapped the regular graham crackers for chocolate ones without a problem. And I do incorporate new vegetables from time to time, but they need to be smothered in something like butter, cheese sauce or ranch dressing.
But my husband brought home orzo salad with big chunks of roasted zucchini, peppers, mushrooms and … tofu.
Ubergirl elder looked at it and said, “I don’t want Chinese food with my hot dog.” She poked at it. “Ewww,” she said, “It’s cold and slimy.”
Ubergirl younger, who loves tomatoes, picked up a red pepper and munched on it. Horrified that it was not a beloved tomato, she spit it out and refused to trust anything else on her plate. Including her hot dog. She deconstructed it and spent the rest of dinner pounding her bun flat against the table.
My husband, whose intentions were entirely noble, was crushed.
I knew how he felt. After all, it was my delicious and nourishing beef stew that prompted Ubergirl elder to say, in a perfect Simpson’s comic book store guy accent, “Worst dinner EVER.”
