Menu control

When I was a kid we ate the same meals frequently. There wasn’t a set schedule that I remember, but it wasn’t a huge variety of foods.

Things I remember having often:

In the “orange grease” category, there were sloppy Joes, spaghetti and meat sauce, and
Chili. While all these foods were great eating, it led to the dreaded “orange grease” dishes which caused the person doing dishes to whine “Why do I always get orange grease nights?”

We sometimes had prepared heat and eat food such as frozen pizzas, chop suey from a can, potpies, and mock chicken legs which were breaded meat food on a stick in the shape of a chicken leg. We loved that stuff and considered it a special treat.

Then there were the usual things: roasts, burgers, bratwurst, baked chicken, pork chops, etc.

And I remember looking forward to dinner on the days we had my favorites which were pizza and things in the orange grease category.

I’ve been thinking about how that compares to what we make for Sam. The poor kid never knows what’s going to be plopped on his plate because so much of it is based on what’s in the house, what we get in the share, and the whims of his parents. I’m trying to think back on the dinner meals for the past week for instance:

Today: Homemade chicken pot pie
Yesterday: Venison and white bean soup, cheese rollups, spinach salad
Sunday: Baked chicken, spinach salad, wheat berry salad
Saturday: Pasta w bacon and asparagus.
Friday: Spaghetti and meatballs and whatever with it
Thursday: Fish, scallops, cod. Asparagus tart
Wednesday: ?? I can’t remember that far back.

Ok, I know that’s not complete but my point is that we throw all sorts of things at Sam and most of the time it’s something he’s not had before because we’re just making it up as we go along.

Last week when he asked for spaghetti and meatballs it occurred to me that he might like a bit more standardization of the dinner menu although I suspect I wouldn’t care much for his desired rotation as it would be heavy on typical kid favorites, pizza, spaghetti, hotdogs, hamburgers, chili, etc. But I think I’m going to let him pick one night a week where he gets to set the menu because I don’t think I’d like to always have someone else dictating what I eat.