Day 14 – Something old, something new – a strategy for new foods at family meals

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Like last week, this weekend worked in my favour again and I was able to get some meal prep done today for our week ahead.

My process was the same:

1. Root around in my fridge and freezer for inspiration (aka what needs to get eaten up)
2. Put all potential items on the counter and start googling
3. Come up with a plan
4. Cook

I stopped to take this picture right in the middle of several recipes, but you can see here that I am working on two different marinades at once – both containing garlic but for two different things. I always mix my marinades in my liquid measuring cup because this way I don’t have to use as many dishes – I just use the lines on the side to get the right amounts.

The menu(s)

For tonight’s dinner I made:

1. Marinated vegetables skewers
2. Ground beef kebabs
3. Yogurt sauce (I had intended to make tahini sauce – but I was all out of tahini)
4. Banana bread (which will become tomorrow’s breakfast). Also this is totally my favourite banana bread recipe because it uses 4 bananas! For some reason, it feels like I always have 4 I am trying to use up)
5. Prepped pita bread for a quick warm up on the BBQ

For later in the week I made:

1. Broccoli Salad
2. Marinated Pork Tenderloin – this recipe comes from one of my favourite cookbooks.

Why I made these choices

I choose the vegetable kebabs because I had some zucchini that had been there since last week and I wanted to use them up. I also found some frozen ground beef way at the back of the freezer that looked like it had accidentally got pushed to the back and needed to be used. My older son had been asking for meat kebabs. So from here, I had enough inspiration to pick out my recipes. If you have never tried marinating and then grilling vegetables – try it! It’s so delicious.

As I have already alluded to above, I made the banana bread to use up the 4-spotty bananas sitting on my counter. The broccoli salad was chosen because I had two of it’s ingredients ready to go – left over bacon and broccoli in the fridge. I choose the pork tenderloins because I found three in the freezer and so I thought – why not.

When I marinate meat like this for another night – I will simply add the marinade to the frozen meat in the freezer bag and then let it sit overnight in the fridge. Tomorrow, whoever gets home from work first will turn on the oven and pop it in. Maybe make a pot of rice, grab out the salad and boom! Dinner!

Was tonight’s dinner a hit?

The meat kebabs was a new recipe and I hadn’t made the vegetable skewers since last summer, so I wasn’t sure if they would be a hit. My “peace-offering” on the table was the banana bread – that is always a hit at my house.

So, first and foremost as you can clearly see – I am not a food stylist. While my beef kebabs were super delicious – they, ummm, look like poop. I honestly couldn’t believe that my kids didn’t say anything. This leads to me to believe that our strict family policy of “No poop talk at the table.” must be sinking in. Because if I had it my way, I think there would have been poop talk at the table tonight.

Initially my little guy, opted just for the banana and pita bread. He decided to try the meat kebab, after letting me know that in his favourite video game, Zelda Breadth of the Wilde, Link also has meat kebabs. He liked it so much that he asked for more. He tried the zucchini but didn’t like it.

My oldest son started off with the kebabs, bread and banana bread. He ended up trying a zucchini but also informed me it wasn’t too his taste. He also liked the kebabs. Neither of them tried the yogurt sauce. Honestly, I have noticed that my kids often skip the condiments.

So what?

Well despite desperately needing to partner up with a food stylist, so that it doesn’t look like I am serving logs of poop for dinner, tonight was a success. We tried a new recipe and re-introduced a recipe we haven’t had since last summer.

When I am cooking a new recipe, my goal is always to combine it with something that I know my kids like. This way if they aren’t up for trying the new food today, there is something else on offer. I think it also gives my kids the time and space to try new foods, as the often start with the foods they know and then try the new foods mid-way through the meal. Sometimes its a hit, sometimes not so much – but thats OK!

How do your kids like new recipes? Do you feel like you need a strategy to increase the variety in your family’s diet? Did anyone else get some meal prep done this weekend – what did you make?

Thanks so much for reading. Leave me a comment or send me an email at contact@kellypicard.com – I would love to hear from you!