Cycling, food and me 4 is all about having a good variety and maybe taking a few chances to try something new.
While I often like the idea of new foods, or newish combinations coming from our kitchen, this does not always apply to teenagers who often have a more cautious approach. This was evident the other day when it was a case of “this bread looks a different colour, what’s in it?”
They were right to spot a new hue to our homemade bread, very observant in fact but they could not guess what the extra ingredient was. My two daughters sniffed and poked but still couldn’t make out what the extra ingredient was. They were suspicious; could it be spinach? Really? Perhaps prunes? Surely not. Chopped up figs? Please, no, not figs….
None of those. In fact it was nothing more dubious than dates and walnuts. Both had been ground and cut finely and the taste was pretty subtle. In fact if it weren’t for the tiny colour shift, you’d hardly notice anything as it was a subtle approach being taken. They enjoyed the bread and this was just as well, given the ingredients. One daughter doesn’t like dates, the other doesn’t like walnuts at all – and yet they thoroughly enjoyed the bread!
The same goes for home made soup, except this is even more extreme with a large number of vegetables, spices and other ingredients going in. Like jazz music, done well and it all comes together nicely. My daughters are accepting of this now. At first they were very suspicious but now they happily enjoy a bowl of hearty, healthy soup at lunch times. This is really helpful for all of us now. As I try to increase my vegetable intake, we can all do it together which saves work in the kitchen in preparing different foods for different people, which can, at times become tedious to say the least.
So what new things are we trying out? I’m not entirely sure but I do know that last soup contained garlic, spinach, red onion, parsnip and a number of other top secret ingredients. This is proving to be a brilliant way of getting these other nutrients into our system and also giving our daughters a taste for it. That is so good; it is all-too-easy for teenage taste buds to be out of synch with the rest of us but so far, so good.
Actually, me saying “…. so far, so good” could imply it’s unexpected. Its not completely unexpected as we’ve had this before and it seems to have worked well. Both agree they need to do all they can and eat a healthy diet as they grow up and this in turn makes it easier for us. We are trying out new recipies for new dishes based on a vegetarian diet and using foods highlighted as being good for me (and us). Please don’t ask for the exact recipe as each time it is slightly different but we can happily share the basic recipe and how to go about it, if that would help.
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