Greek Feast

I think I have blogged before about my frustration with how food/eating is going in our family (really only with the kids).  I have listened to (a lot of podcasts) and read a lot (Ellyn Satter is a great nutritionist I've followed) about fostering good eating habits in kids. I struggle with the line between being overly permissive and letting kids have more choice/say in the matter (because it tends to be the path of least resistance and also because they will be in charge of their own meal-planning and choices one day!) and being overly controlling (because I am a health-conscious doctor, and I want my kids to be varied and healthful eaters especially as they grow, and, although I'm not sure it's totally based in evidence, but I think the tastes they curate as children probably shape their palates as they grow). I also do NOT enjoy cooking, and the fact that my food often gets rejected/wasted is triggering for me.

If my kids politely said "no thank you" to various parts of the meal and just ate what they felt they could, I would let a lot go but keep trying varied things (or at least cooking what Kelvin and I would enjoy eating). However, they tend to ask me what's for dinner and immediately reply with a "EWW!  Disgusting" about 75% of the time. I detest food waste, but I also don't want to relent to preparing only kid-friendly cheesy or processed foods, which, while it may avoid the "EWW!" reaction, feels wrong if I'm trying to encourage less pickiness and cook a variety of things.

In any case, we invited a friend (our trusty usual dog-sitter, Kelly) over on Sunday for a meal, both so she could see Pepper post-cataract surgery, and so we could talk about El Salvador (where Kelly vacationed over Christmas and which we plan to visit later this spring).  I decided to plan an elaborate Greek Feast complete with an oven version of gyros, tzatziki sauce, and air-fryer falafel, which I learned about from a podcast I've been listening to about feeding kids called "Didn't I just Feed You" (and which I hadn't made before). I spent a good amount of time in the morning prepping, which included a lot of grinding in the food processor as well as mixing spices.  

Unfortunately, Kelly had to cancel due to illness but we still had a great spread after the sauce was made and chilled, the lamb gyro loaf baked, and the falafel air-fried. 

Iver actually made a "falafel pita panini" in the Foreman grill (I'm not sure he had ever tried chickpeas and may have been tricked by the similar-to-chicken-nuggets appearance of the falafel but he even included feta cheese and added pepperoncini on the side!). He's actually been interested in his own food prep (after our friend's son Levi showed him how to fry an egg), which is thrilling for us (we LOVE to foster kid independence!), and which I've heard helps kids' buy-in with meals (i.e. if they help cook it, they're less likely to reject it. He doesn't like eggs, however). Niall ate three slices of cucumber, half of a pita bread round, no protein, and called it a meal. 

 Nevertheless, Kelvin and I really enjoyed the spread and I'm just sorry we didn't have guests to see one of my (pretty rare) proud cooking successes. Three out of four ain't bad for this house.