Children As Meal Planners

[SuzySushi]

From my 9 year old:

Breakfast:

Cheerios

banana

milk

(This is, in fact, the breakfast she eats every day.)

Lunch:

chicken noodle soup

milk

Dinner:

rice

char shu, "wonderful char shu"

carrots -- "No, dump the carrots." Me: "What vegetable would you suggest instead?" "Okay, let's keep the carrots."

milk

banana -- Me: "Two bananas a day?" Her: "Yes."

Edited November 20, 2005 by SuzySushi (log)

[torakris]

my oldest daughter, soon to be 10

Breakfast = English muffins

Lunch = cheeseburger

Dinner = mashed potatoes, nothingelse...

2nd daughter soon to be 8

Breakfast = bread with nutella

Lunch = curry rice

Dinner = a rice dish cooked with thinly sliced beef and scallions that my MIL makes

Son, he will 5 on Weds

Breakfast = pancakes

Lunch = curry rice

Dinner = meatballs

We are having a birthday party for my son tonight (the cake is in the oven ) and when I asked him last week what he wanted for dinner he said meatballs, hamburgers and chicken.

I am making Greek style tomatoes with bulgur and spinach in a tomato sauce...

[fou de Bassan]

Well, no surprises from my kids.

The 6 year old would have Pancakes for breakfast

Chicken noodle soup for lunch

Apples

plain spaghetti for dinner this isher white phase.

While the 9 year old wants Pancakes for breakfast

Sushi and sashimi for lunch

Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic for dinner

The 9 yr. old first said sushi all day please and when I asked him if he was serious he had to think about it and came back with modifications.

[Ling]

Ling,

What, no ribs? 

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I love ribs...I've had ribs three times this week already! My favourite rib dish when I was 9 (and still one of my favourites) is the Korean dish "kalbi". But there was only so much I could fit into my one-day menu...maybe I should've done away with the Corn pops, and added the ribs in there. Yeah, hashbrowns, sausages, eggs, and a side of ribs. Now that's a breakfast!!!!

[Ling]

And Ling, thanks for piping up, especially (I didn't know you teach!), not only because you got a response from a young student, but because you're adding things like cut up Spam and Chinese buns to the list.  I must say, the difference between your guess at your own childish menu and the dishes you list as a signature line are noteworthy.

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This is a really fun thread! I will be contributing more throughout the week...I teach about 15 different "kids", but some of the "kids" I teach are two years younger than me. (I tutor English...some of them are university students.) I will post a few more menus as the week progresses, but only from the kids, say, 13 years and younger.

[helenjp]

Son1, 13

BKF: Grilled toast with canned tuna and cheese, yogurt with raisins and bananas and a sprinkle of granola, hot milk

LCH: Cold somen (wheat flour) noodles and dipping sauce, tempura

DNR: Miso soup with pumpkin and wakame, plain white rice and takuan pickles, yellowtail teriyaki with finely grated daikon, natto with okra (and soy sauce), boiled komatsuna greens with soy sauce.

SNACK: Instant corn soup. Asian pears.

LATE NIGHT SNACK (not to be outdone by son2...): Grilled dried squid with a saucer of Kewpie mayonnaise.

Son2, 11

BKF: Yogurt with banana (or pineapple!), toast with whatever you want (that means Nutella), and porridge with syrup. Cold milk.

LCH: Spaghetti with meat sauce

DNR: Grilled salt saba (mackerel), miso soup with wakame, potato, daikon, and spinach, plain white rice.

SNACK: mochi grilled with cheese on top. Cold barley tea.

NIGHT SNACK on Christmas Eve: (This section added at son2's request....grilled steak, roast potato with butter, boiled spinach with soy sauce with Chanmery nonalcoholic champagne!...but if I got up in the middle of the night I would get out my Gameboy and eat a club sandwich while playing on my Gameboy...)

Edit: I should mention that things like "Night Snacks" don't happen here. That's the fantasy end of the menu!

Edited November 21, 2005 by helenjp (log)

[therese]

What are Dutch Babies, first?

Second, I think it's interesting that she included THREE vegetables!

And one of them's green!

But no fresh fruit, unless there are berries or bananas on her gelato (how sophisticated!)

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The gelato would be a mix of one nutty or chocolate flavor and one fruit flavor, probably mango.

She eats fruit for snack, which I didn't include in my list. This time of year her pick is pomegranate, with an apple as backup.

Gifted Gourmet showed you a Dutch Baby. Not only are they delicious, but my daughter can make one by herself. She made me one yesterday, in fact.

[Pontormo]

8 year old son would choose the following

breakfast- pancakes and maple sausages

6 year old son would choose the following

breakfast- pancakes and sausage

3 year old daughter would choose the following

breakfast- pancakes or waffles with sausage

My 8 year old is something of a gourmet compared to his peers.

My 6 year old is kind of picky.

The 3 year old is going through a picky stage. She's allergic to dairy products and apples so a lot of typical kid favorites are a no go for her.

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MoLF: Looks as if there is at least one common favorite among your children, uniting them with other children who have spoken up here! I assume the waffles are made without dairy products, so that your daughter's choice is based on her dietary restrictions.

Now, when you say your sons and daughter would choose these things, are these meals BOTH the preferences that you know all too well AND the ones that they told you when you asked them to plan a day's menu for the family?

I am not sure if anyone here has children old enough to help feed you, spouse or siblings on birthdays or Mother's or Father's Day, except maybe those who can recall such experiences when their grown-up children were younger. How many are planning meals based exclusively on their own preferences and dietary needs? Judging by what is here, thus far, I am guessing at least 90%. (Those who said pizza! or sushi sushi sushi, three times a day, and then changed their minds were probably acknowledging their families.) Are any children including their mother's or brother's favorites?

Edited November 20, 2005 by Pontormo (log)

[Pontormo]

I just asked my 4-year-old son. 

A lot of these choices are based on what he's had the past few days.  The rice & lentils is something he used to eat at his old daycare provider, who is Peruvian. 

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This is the kind of thing it is interesting to know. I would have thought a lot of younger children would choose what they've just eaten....except then we have the three-year old who wants pizza for breakfast and dinner. I also like the fact that he's fond of something prepared by someone who cared for him, but isn't a part of the family.

Are older children more likely to assert personal favorites that set themselves apart from their siblings and parents?

Edited November 20, 2005 by Pontormo (log)

[Pontormo]

"Ooooh, Mommy do you know how to skin a gopher? Gimme some chili*pik*onn*tey that's chili pik*onn* tey sauce on the side! Grilled nunchuk! Phlem cakes! An' chili pik*onn*tey mmm mmm mmm. Can't beat that, mm mm."

Actually, Karen, the tired note of appreciation last night had an array of expressions inspired largely by your inspired son! I think Jamie Oliver would be impressed by the gopher, but would guide this child toward vegetable sides, whole grain rolls and maybe substitute apples for the errr...

Both children gave me full menus when I asked. The thing is, that I am sure the menus they "wrote" today will be different tomorrow when I ask. How long they could or would go on for with a new or altered menu each day, I'm not sure. That might be interesting to find out.

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It would be interesting! It's nice to know that the children of a former chef might be as varied or monotonous and certainly as whimsical as the rest of us.

Edited November 20, 2005 by Pontormo (log)

[Pontormo]

my daughter... a hardcore vegetarian ... Jessica is now living in the heart of organic central California and is making dishes appropriate to her milieu (and she hasn't a clue as to why I don't adore these)...while I envy her her proximity to the gorgeous produce in her area

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Melissa, first, thanks for the pictorial definition of Dutch Babies--why "babies" though?--which I thought might be like hush puppies or my grandmother's amazing dough boys. Second, I am sorry there's a culinary split, but, hey, you did your job right. She's independent AND passionate about food. And sigh, yes, California.

[Pontormo]

And before I dash, I wanted to add:

Karen C.: Will you see some of these nieces and nephews on Thanksgiving? I am especially curious about the broccoli lover and whether she's gotten more pedestrian or adventuresome in her preferences. If she's at all rebellious, at the the age of fifteen she just might find some subversive pleasure in planning to feed her entire family for a single day....

Kristin Yamaguchi: Thank you for participating in this thread. I was in fact thinking of you and the little I have been able to see of your blog. (My computer's memory is low. However, I love the packaging of Japanese food, especially, so looking at the groceries was fun.) It seems as if your daughter is the fussiest, the youngest more interested in non-Western foods & very youngest the serious carnivore....although I shouldn't jump to conclusions solely on the basis of your post. A "Happy fifth birthday!" to your son--I hope he enjoyed the tomatoes and the cake.

And Helen, I am glad you appeared at just the same time. I love thinking about family meals in transplanted households or homes where the parents come from different backgrounds (has anyone done a thread on this?). There seems to be an Asian influence in the tuna at breakfast. My g-d, what a lot of food, although the competitive spirit of your sons, as you say, is behind this. The insistence on a Christmas Eve snack intrigues.

fou de Basson: I am impressed by a nine-year's love of sushi. I hope the rest of the family shares the obsession to some degree.

And finally, Suzysushi: Love the double-take on veggies. Oh well. Had to look up "char shu" and when I did, I had to agree. That was one of my favorites growing up. As for bananas, I have some friends whose son would have happily lived on Nilla wafers and bananas when he was two. They had to stop putting the bananas out on the counter to avoid constant "Uhh! Uhh!"s with grabby hands. It got so they couldn't even spell bananas since he picked up on that word. "Are we out of Y-E-L-L-O-W-F-RU-I-T?"

Edited November 20, 2005 by Pontormo (log)

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

MoLF:  Looks as if there is at least one common favorite among your children, uniting them with other children who have spoken up here!  I assume the waffles are made without dairy products, so that your daughter's choice is based on her dietary restrictions.

Now, when you say your sons and daughter would choose these things, are these meals BOTH the preferences that you know all too well AND the ones that they told you when you asked them to plan a day's menu for the family?

I wouldn't say her choices are based on her dietary restrictions. She likes waffles because the kind I keep on hand are tasty enough to eat without syrup. They're frozen, organic blueberry waffles that are dairy and egg free (oldest son is egg allergic). I've yet to find a good recipe for dairy and egg free waffles.

When I ask the kids what they want for breakfast on mornings that we're not rushing out the door like maniacs, they always ask for pancakes and sausage without fail. When the kids spend the night with my in-laws, my in-laws know that by default, they'll have pancakes and sausage for breakfast.

My 6 year old will eat pancakes and sausage for any meal given the opportunity.

[Pontormo]

Your son wasn't a guest at the Shaw-Shapiro household recently, perchance?

Edited November 20, 2005 by Pontormo (log)

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

And Helen, I am glad you appeared at just the same time.  I love thinking about family meals in transplanted households or homes where the parents come from different backgrounds (has anyone done a thread on this?).  There seems to be an Asian influence in the tuna at breakfast.  My g-d, what a lot of food, although the competitive spirit of your sons, as you say, is behind this.  The insistence on a Christmas Eve snack intrigues.

I'm not Helen, but I grew up in a family of mixed backgrounds (Mom's family is Japanese, Dad's is European-American).

Breakfasts were very much Westernized in our house, but lunch and dinner went either way. We had sukiyaki, yakisoba, curry rice and tonkatsu just as often as anything Western for dinner. Lunches outside of school involved lots of ramen, somen and what I now call "sato joyu surprise", which is basically whatever canned meat (typically sardines, hot dogs or bologna).

My husband is from a Japanese-American family, and the foods he ate growing up lean a little more towards the Japanese end of the spectrum.

Typically what I cook at home leans a bit more towards Western because until last month, my oldest son was allergic to soy products. Now that he can have soy products again, I've been able to welcome things like soy sauce, tofu and miso into our home, and I'm getting used to being able to cook with it again, rather than have to sneak shoyu onto my food after it's cooked.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

Your son wasn't a guest at the Shaw-Shapiro household recently, perchance?

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My boy? Noooo. Strangely he barely eats when he's visiting friends.

[FabulousFoodBabe]

If you don't mind sharing the ages of the child who plans his or her family's meals, it might be interesting to see how different the menus of younger and older children are.

Any thoughts of your own regarding their responses?

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Secondborn son -- If you called him a child, at 15 1/2, 5'11" and 160 ...

Viking dinner. Nothing but meat -- whole turkeys, pigs, maby a baby lamb. Absolutely no salad, no fruits (except for the apples in the pigs' mouths), and no cutlery or napkins. All meat would be ripped from the animal with the hands. The table would be long, banquet-sized. Either that or unagi sashimi.

Firstborn (17) rolled his eyes. His teenageritis is flaring up. He'll have an opinion soon, I'm sure. If it's printable, I'll post.

I don't think you want to know my thoughts Really.

[Marlene]

My soon to be 13 year old choices:

Breakfast:

blueberry waffles with syrup and bacon

Lunch: sushi, rice, and celery and carrot sticks

Dinner;

appetizer:

Herring and sour cream or crab claws

dinner:

Steak or homemade mac and cheese.

If steak, baked potatoes with real bacon bits please, and roasted asparagus

If mac and cheese (bowtie pasta please) garlic bread

Dessert, creme brulee or chocolate lava cakes.

Oh and i got this question:

Mom, do we get nibbles like when you are entertaining? I suggested he pick some just in case. he picked:

Baked brie in puff pastry

grilled beef rolls

shrimp cocktail

[Mooshmouse]

Here are the responses that my nearly 4 1/2-year-old son gave me this afternoon.

• Breakfast: Toast with butter and blueberry jam, green apple slices (his favourite is Granny Smith), smoked gouda cheese and pineapple juice or V8 (yes, he really does love both V8 and tomato juice).
  
• Lunch: Japanese noodles with meat and vegetables (by this he means beef yakiudon), tobiko sushi (he eats it by the spoonful) and apple juice.
  
• Snacks, either mid-morning or mid-afternoon: Japanese rice crackers, dried mango, chocolate or a yogurt smoothie.
  
• Dinner: Chicken (I'm guessing either chicken adobo or barbecued chicken as these are his two favourites) with either rice or orzo and roasted cauliflower with ketchup. Water to drink. Dessert would be strawberry gelato.
  

[Ling]

I had three students 13 years old and younger today (I'm kind of afraid to ask my teenage students for fear that they'll roll their eyes at me. )

*************

Boy, age 13 --he likes to eat. A LOT. We're always talking about food. His "snack" after school is a McDeal meal, super-sized.

Breakfast: bacon, eggs, sausage

Lunch: "That really expensive burger that you told me about a few months ago! The one with short ribs and duck liver!" (He means the ones offered at Feenie's and Diva at the Met--Vancouver's answer to Daniel Boulud's extravagant creation.)

Dinner: a large pizza with cheese, ham, onions, peppers, olives, anchovies, sausage, beef, and bacon

snack: Spicy Cajun Explosion Pringles, McDonald's french fries

*************

Girl, age 12--she likes it when I make her hot chocolate.

Breakfast: Teriyaki chicken wings, Pizza Hut personal Hawaiian pizza

Lunch: Coke, salmon sashimi

Dinner: fish, stir-fried Taiwanese cabbage, rice, ribs ("It has to be pork ribs!"), and a whole chicken (Me: "It has to be a whole one?" Her: "Yes. A whole one." Me: "A roast chicken?" Her: "It doesn't matter. As long as it's a whole one.")

*************

Girl, age 11--self-proclaimed "pickiest eater in the world". She never eats anything I offer her, except for these double chocolate cookies that I bake, which she absolutely adores.

Breakfast: milk, and bread with anything you want on it

Lunch: cheese pizza, gyoza, and fried rice

Dinner: egg and ham with rice

snack: popcorn

Edited November 21, 2005 by Ling (log)

[I_call_the_duck]

And before I dash, I wanted to add:

Karen C.: Will you see some of these nieces and nephews on Thanksgiving? I am especially curious about the broccoli lover and whether she's gotten more pedestrian or adventuresome in her preferences.  If she's at all rebellious, at the age of fifteen she just might find some subversive pleasure in planning to feed her entire family for a single day....

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They’re all going to be there. It’ll make an interesting game. There are five of them between two very different sets of parents, and I can sort of guess what their choices will be.

The fifteen year-old is a great kid, and not at all rebellious. (OK, she isn’t a kid anymore, and she is taller than me—which actually isn’t that hard). She and her 10 year-old brother come from parents who are semi-health conscious and love ethnic food, esp. Asian cuisine. These kids eat almost anything. They had Malaysian for newphew's birthday dinner last week. Their meals may include dim sum (nephew can eat an entire plate of har gao if he could), sushi, pizza, turkey sandwich, and ice cream.

The other three, a nine year-old niece and a set of six year-old twins (boy and girl) have workaholic parents who are, to put it nicely, extremely indulgent. Their idea of a hot meal for the kids are mac n’ cheese (from a box) or chicken nuggets. Needless to say, their kids are really picky eaters, thus they’re in a way the meal planners anyway. One morning when I was staying at their house, my sister was a short order cook. One wanted scrambled eggs, one wanted pancakes, the other wanted cereal. And my sister appeased them all. But to give the 10 year-old credit, she does love my mom’s steamed ginger-scallion fish. She won’t eat the ginger-scallion part, but she’ll devour the fish and sauce on white rice, so that will most likely be her dinner choice. Other than that, her food preferences are pretty blah. And she hates broccoli. Choices may include aforementioned breakfast choices, pizza, paw-paw's fish, noodles and butter.

[lesfen]

After a bit of a rough patch, my two-year-old will eat almost anything that you set in front of her. She LOVES veggies, but I'd be willing to bet that if I asked her what she wanted to eat she would say "chick-en nug-gets... french fries". (You have to imagine this coming at you from a two-year-old princess with a squeaky voice... yet enunciated like Forrest Gump. )

[Chris Amirault]

Currently, the eight year old would most certainly dictate hard boiled eggs. I've no explanation. She hasn't seen Cool Hand Luke, either.

[annanstee]

My (four year old) son's choices were surprisingly conservative- he is usually quite an adventurous eater. However, he is sick right now, and presumably is therefore drawn to the mundane comfort foods.

Breakfast:

A peanut butter and jam sandwich with grapes and juice

Lunch

Cheese and apple and banana with milk (when asked what kind of cheese, response was 'normal cheese', meaning supermarket cheddar)

Dinner

Egg noodles with butter and parmesan.

Ah, the white food theme

Edited for puncutation

Edited November 22, 2005 by annanstee (log)

[Rinsewind]

I just asked my 4-year-old son. 

A lot of these choices are based on what he's had the past few days.  The rice & lentils is something he used to eat at his old daycare provider, who is Peruvian. 

←

This is the kind of thing it is interesting to know. I would have thought a lot of younger children would choose what they've just eaten....except then we have the three-year old who wants pizza for breakfast and dinner. I also like the fact that he's fond of something prepared by someone who cared for him, but isn't a part of the family.

Are older children more likely to assert personal favorites that set themselves apart from their siblings and parents?

←

I asked my 4 1/2 year old last night, and I think he took the question as what would he *make*. He said "bananas, oranges, salad, green beans, carrots, and banana bread." Now in recent days, he's had bananas, salad, and green beans, and seen me eat oranges and his sister eat carrots. He often helps me bake breads and cakes and prepare vegetables, so these may be the things he thought he could prepare. However, the bananas have a secondary meaning-- my husband was sitting with us when I asked him, and he loathes bananas. Judging by the grin on my son's face, I think he was trying to get his dad's goat with the bananas and banana bread.

I am surprised he didn't include any of his particular favorites (well, besides salad). I expected something like spaghetti, garlic bread and salad, but kids have their own way of thinking, I guess! Great thread Pontormo!