Day 23 of 40 - Three Little Things

First of all, thanks to my sister I'm now hooked on this blog. If you're at all fascinated by gorgeous, off-beat portraits, consider yourself warned: you'll be sucked in.

Secondly, I'm trying really hard to break out of my I-don't-feel-like-cooking-or-eating rut. This morning I spent a fair bit of time in the kitchen. I baked three packages of chicken thighs (some for friends for supper, some for our lunch), made my specialty rice (also for friends!), cooked up another batch of BBQ sauce (and played around with the seasonings - added some chipotle this time...), then I dry-rubbed two racks of ribs and braised them in chicken stock for a few hours. We were at a party until 5pm, so it was nice to be able to come home, slap some sauce on the ribs and prep some veggies, then just send Francis out to the backyard to grill it all up.

Third, someone asked me recently about what my kids eat, so I thought I'd share a little here. For breakfast, they generally eat either scrambled eggs, coconut flour pancakes, or occasionally Brown Rice Krispies. (They're the gluten-free ones. My parents got them hooked on the 'snap, crackle and pop'.) These options are always followed by either apple sauce, yogurt, or sometimes both. Lunches are usually quick - often leftovers, sometimes deli meat and veggies, once in a while I'll make them almond flour-breaded nuggets. Suppers are the easiest: They eat exactly what we eat. My kids are four and a half, three, and 18 months - and they only variation from what we eat is that Princess is never expected to eat cherry tomatoes, and Music Man is never expected to eat sliced cucumbers. My kids always are expected to try what's in front of them, and 98% of the time they like it. But there are some things I just don't like, even after giving them a fair shot, so it's only fair that there can be certain things that they just don't like. (You will never see me voluntarily consuming yogurt, cream cheese - except in a cheese cake! - or any kind of shellfish. Ever.)

Princess was a very picky eater for a long time. But right around her third birthday she started to grow out of it (with much encouragement from her exhausted parents...) and now she's pretty adventurous when it comes to trying new things, and there aren't many things she flat-out dislikes. It's pretty wonderful, actually, to just serve one meal after a long time of always having to make an extra grilled cheese sandwich...

Breakfast: Kale, eggs and cherry tomatoes. Licorice tea.
Lunch: A roasted chicken thigh and a big bowl of  coconut curry cabbage.
Supper: Ribs! Fall off the bone, melt in your mouth deliciousness! Honestly, this was the first time I really nailed them. (Okay, Francis gets credit for the final grilling...) And some grilled zucchini and red onion. A fruit juice freeze.
Snacks: Two strawberries and some fruit leather. An extra cup of tea before bed.