Mommy Musings - Meals - Cooking and Eating Them

I am a huge foodie though I am not a fan of actually cooking it. Let me rephrase that – I love to eat but not cook. I have never felt interested in collecting recipes, buying ingredients or possessing the right equipment to even cook. Don’t get me wrong – I have been cooking since I was 21 and on a fairly regular basis since I have been married but it was more to subsist with the bare bones minimum and take out. My poor husband hasn't complained ever (and for this I give him credit.)

However, all this changed in 2011 when a little man came into my life and more when he started solids at some point in 2012. My little Veer has forced me to start reading labels and ensure that I get “clean” (less processed or unprocessed food) into him.  I don’t plan to turn into one of those vigilante moms and he does get treats like chocolates or popsicles and if I had the time I would cook his morning waffles from scratch, however I am ensuring that the popsicles are all fruit based and the waffles are whole grain or whole wheat.

Veer is an extremely poor eater and in the past meal times have turned into battles. I have now come to realize that I don’t want to make meal times about traumatic experiences and arguments because a toddler can and will push your buttons. (It took me only ~ three years to come to this realization). In typical “desi-mom” style I think my kid doesn’t eat at all during the day when he is in daycare. There are days when this is the case and therefore I attempt to feed him a proper meal at dinner.  Earlier there were Veer meals and there were mom and dad meals. Now that he is approaching three I think that it is important that we have more family style meals and eat together at the table. Getting dinner on the table at a reasonable time is no ordinary feat.  I have come to realize that it involves lots of planning - this is isn’t just cooking dinner but actually planning ahead on what meals need to be made and buying the required vegetables and other ingredients over the weekend. (I hold down a full time job and a toddler’s social life which includes swim lessons, pick-up and drop from daycare and playdates). But like my baby, I am learning and taking baby steps. I can now say that I have a good enough pantry to make most Indian food.

My goals for the next few months include

• Making my own yogurt
• Preparing some menu items over the weekend to enable spending more time with Veer on the weekend.
• Making some Veer specific snacks which will interest him in eating during the day and not waiting till the end of the day to feed him dinner.

Conversations

A lot has been happening in the last few weeks. Little Veer has begun making huge strides in terms of speech. Every day is a new discovery for me. For instance yesterday I was talking to my mother whom Veer calls “Ammamma”.

Me: Veer do you want to talk to my mother?

Veer: No. I want to talk to Naana’s uncle. (Naana calls my dad uncle)

Me: Ok, cool. Say hi.

Veer: Can I see my tata? (Veer calls my dad Tata.)

Me: No ma. You can’t see Tata on the phone.

Veer: How about on Skype???

I wasn’t even aware that he knew that Naana’s Uncle and Tata are the same person. And Skype will let him see his Tata.

Muddy Puddles - Puddle Jumping

Veer is currently going through a Peppa Pig obsession and everything he does is what Peppa does on her show. We are having some seasonal rain out bursts here in New England and sure enough when I went to pick Veer up he was coated in dirt and his shoes and socks were sopping wet. Without even asking him I knew the answer – Peppa and her family jump in muddly puddles when it rains!! I then asked him why he jumped in puddles without wearing rain boots (which Peppa and her family wear). This morning as I was putting on  his Crocs (to enable jumping in muddy puddles without wetting shoes) I asked him if he was going to jump in muddy puddles and he went into his closet and pulled out his oversized rain boots that he wanted to bring to school with him to jump in muddy puddles. For the first time in my adult life I prayed for rain so my baby can jump in muddy puddles.