the stay home cookbook

Picky Eater Recipe

2007-12-21T12:09:00.000-06:00

Picky Eater Recipe
an interesting article from the chicken cookboo k.

I happened upon a forum for frustrated parents of Picky Eaters. Most were complaining that despite their most fervant efforts, their children were not relenting and in some cases becoming even more of a picky eater Some try to let their child eat the foods they like within reason and just try to offer other foods without forcing them, but palates are becoming progressively narrow. Often mealtime leads to major meltdowns with a screaming hungry tired child and frustrated tired parents. Many experts believe that a child will grow out of such habits as they mature; not true--they grow up to be a picky eater as an adult, a habit that can be socially debilitating.
They are grown-ups who somehow haven't outgrown the finicky food preferences most of us leave behind once we're out of the highchair. Or college, at least.Some find pasta and oysters too slimy. Others can't bear chewy meats, gritty berries, rubbery cheese or mushy tomatoes. There are those who shun "foreign" or spicy foods as a category, or all produce with seeds (especially okra, which when overcooked marries seeds with slime, making it a true picky-eater nightmare).

There are the dairy-averse (ice cream is often a notable exception) and condiment-phobes, who wouldn't consider defiling their food with mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise or relish. Some finicky eaters will not mix foods on the same plate, or they insist on finishing one item entirely before starting the next. Others refuse to eat anything at all with their hands, whether a sandwich, peanuts or pizza.They are otherwise well-adjusted adults with unyielding, often secretive, eating practices."A normal person might enjoy hundreds, if not thousands" of combinations among all the fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, fowl, grains, nuts, juices, herbs, soups, sweets, sauces, spices, desserts and flavorings in today's markets, says Marcia Pelchat, a food psychologist. "By contrast, adult picky eaters in extreme cases limit themselves to as few as 20 or 30 tolerable edibles." says Pelchat, who works at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, a research institute in Philadelphia specializing in taste, smell and nutrition.

Although it is not known how many American adults are picky eaters, a growing number are seeking treatment, there is a fear reaction [to specific foods], disgust, and it is affecting their lives. Picky eaters can become seriously ill or depressed. The line between food preferences and disordered eating is whether it hurts their quality of life. The chronically finicky often feel comfortable eating only in private, because at parties and restaurants the sight, smell or texture of foods they dislike can make them physically ill. They worry when they have to go out -- to a business lunch or dinner, or to someone's home for the weekend, where they cannot control the food. They're not just worried about finding something they'd like to eat, but there is someembarrassment admitting this to new people. Picky adults exhibit extremereluctance to try new foods." Pelchat says.

The author of Help! There is a Picky Eater in the House! claims to have "an incredibly effective and proven way to quickly & easily turn any picky eater child into a healthy food lover, giving frustrated parents of Picky Eaters everything they need, including picky eater recipes to help end the madness, giving their child a chance at a real life instead of a lifetime of mealtime agony. ...with step by step, easy to follow instructions and examples that explain exactly how to stop the picky eating battles or at least stop them from seperating the food on their plate like Fye, a Fairfax insulation contractor, who explains his rule against eating two foods that have touched each other as a kind of preference. He eats each food in sequence. His wife serves his food on a plate large enough to prevent the dreaded overlap. "I spin it around and whatever is in front of me is what I eat first. I realize that it all goes down the same hole and gets mixed up. But I don't like to do it that way. I can't help myself." In restaurants, he bypasses foods that have come in contact with each other. "I'll build a little wall with mashed potatoes and not eat the portions that touched."

Extreme eating habits almost killed the romance for JoAnn Polickoski, 35, who lives in a suburb of Columbia, S.C. In the early 1990s, her Navy boyfriend flew her to Spain for a vacation that was to include a marriage proposal. But James Polickoski, 34, did not fully comprehend his sweetie's ironclad culinary credo: "If it looks like what it is -- if it has a head, bones or scales -- forget it."When confronted by the day's catch in a quaint seaside restaurant, "she completely melted down," he recalls. The paella he ordered contained "oversize prawns and crawfish with heads on. She wouldn't eat anything; she wanted to go to McDonald's, to eat commissary food. We had a horrible time."

He waited a year to give her a ring. and did so only after she promised him "to try every food at least once. She can't just look at it and freak out. I told her I can't eat this way and if we're going to have kids...they are not going to grow up to be finicky. It was hard for her, but she agreed."
Picky Eaters Recipes
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Excerpts taken from The Picky Eater Files,For Some -- You Know Who You Are -- Meals Are aMinefield of Phobic Flavors and Terrible TexturesBy Annie Groer, Washington Post © 2006 The Washington Post Company

huevos habeneros salad

2007-12-16T01:05:00.000-06:00

I like almost anything crunchy and salty together--fries, nachos, hot nuts--add grease and mmmm...daddy.

So of course. it's late night. I get an itch for huevos habeneros, which is divine. I usually take the directive of this Gourmet magazine version...very good. simple. with this recipe there is no need for the exotics as is standard practice for most Gourmet magazine recipes. The challenge is I am also trying to incorporate more green things into my diet. get healthy? no. More like gain an appreciation for the condition of health that I'm presently in. Gratitude is the key to the universe brothas and sistas. I bought this big, HUGE container of wild greens from Whole Foods. I had never been inside a Whole Foods before. It has always been a dream of mine, to shop at a local Whole Foods of my very own.

Living in the suburbs for almost thirty years, with an aspiration for culinary greatness growing inside me, taking any old thing the local commercial grocery would give. Not that Whole Foods isn't commercial, anyone could make an argument stating otherwise, but Whole Foods has always seemed like the dream supreme for me. And now that I am back in the city, and now that a Whole Foods has opened up less than a mile away, my dream is almost complete. now all I need is an affordable yoga/pilates class within walking distance.

My first venture inside Whole Foods hallowed walls was overwhelming--the lighting, the zen-like energy--I had to buy something, anything. I had barely covered two square feet of the place before becoming whoosy with delight, so I grabbed the first thing I saw, a super tub of wild greens and a six pack of Abita Purple Haze Beer (something I haven't had since new orleans in my twenties) just to steady me for support. I said I was feeling whoosy. I would have bought more, but I hadn"t made the necessary budget allowance prior to my inaugural visit. Yes, I do believe one needs a budget allowance to do the weekly shop there, that or millionare's bank account. What did I care, throwing caution to the wind has become my compulsory sport of sorts. I guess everyone within a twenty mile radius enjoys a little compulsory or shares in my dream or just has shares in Whole Foods cus it is superpacked all the time, instant traffic congestion on the weekend. Since I am the only one in my family of two who likes ingesting ruffage, I have to find a myraid of ways to do so, so not to let my little impulse buy wilt within the cool, clear confines of the Kenmore produce drawer.

Salad:

1 large plastic container of Whole Foods salad mix or

1 head of romaine lettuce, washed and diced

3 corn tortillas, cut into strips, fried crispy, lightly salt while hot.

an egg or two-

scrambled or boiled, salt and peppered and diced.

a fist of cilantro, washed and chopped.

for the dressing:

4 Tablespoons olive oil

4 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 plum tomatoes, diced.

2 ancho

mexican hot sauce to taste.

Mix the olive oil and vinegar in a bowl with the ancho, then add the diced plum tomatoes.

late-night munchies.

2007-12-13T23:44:00.000-06:00

It is almost midnight, the television is stuck on ESPN, and not a creature is stirring, but my stomach won't shut-up. I run through a mental inventory of what's in the kitchen, covering all the bases--the fridge, the cabinets over the sink, the pantry...there's spaghetti sauce, but no more noodles, there's a bite of kale and collards (the best tasting I have ever made. I wish I had written down what exactly I put in them, tangy and spicy and good). There's cornbread and Sunday's roast with potatos and carrots and a freezer filled with a frozen assortment of useless.... Maybe spaghetti sauce over polenta? Mmmm. or. maybe. skip the stovetop cooking altogether and go straight for the oven. Just put everything in a pan and throw it in on 400 degrees and wah-la!
ground turkey spaghetti sauce over oven-toasted cornbread.