Broh-ca-lie, Broccoli

Every night I ask myself what shall I make for supper. I have to take into consideration the following things.
1) What am I in the mood for?
2) Is it suitable for my children to eat? As in, is it nutritious and not too spicy? Can I mash bits up for my ten month old?
3) Will my husband willingly eat it?

I always thought it would be dreamy to find a man that cooks. Colin has his specialties, Mac and cheese, scrambled eggs, grilled cheese sandwiches and he's also mean with the barbeque. We are way too friendly with our regular take out restaurants. If we don't order Chinese food for a couple weeks, the owner starts to worry about us.

However, my husband is not adventurous with his taste buds. Every single work day, for as long as I've known him, he has a banana and a muffin with orange juice for breakfast. He takes a peanut butter sandwich and another container of orange juice for his morning break. Then for lunch it's a ham and cheese sandwich with a coke. Every. Single. Day.

That would drive me crazy. If I dare pack my lunch because I'm trying to save some money for something better than the boring food options around my office, I dread having to eat what I've brought. I will put off eating until I'm famished and then reluctantly devour my planned serving.

The way that men are preoccupied with sex, I’m constantly thinking about food. Yet I do go for long periods of time without eating, especially when I'm busy. I put it off until I can find the time to enjoy my calories.

I'd like to be able to try some new recipes that I've discovered but if it has any ingredient that Colin deems "salad food" then he will not eat it. That eliminates meals with tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach and mushrooms. I can certainly forget about including tofu in my stir-fry’s.

I do give Colin quite a bit of credit because he has expanded his narrow intake since I've met him. If not the man would have turned into a gigantic pepperoni and cheese pizza. He wouldn't eat many of the things that he now does. There was a time that he was hesitant to go to a restaurant that he had never been to before. It was cute the way that he'd ask me what he would like from the menu. He has come to trust me in his food choices and I have only abused this power on the rare occasion, like when I told him that edamame were peas.

Thank goodness children tend to follow the same eating habits as their same sex parent. If that is the case then our girls will have an open mind towards trying new delicacies. More importantly they won't eat all their vegetables, then their starch, followed by the meat on their plate. That ritual of Colin's drives me around the bend. No matter how many times I tell him that his method of eating is not normal and that I've chosen the items because the tastes compliment each other, he will not change. I've learned not to watch him eat.

Strawberry went through a phase that she only wanted to eat things that were green. Broccoli was her favourite food. Now she doesn't have a lot of time for sitting down to eat but we still manage to coax her to devour her meals. Buttercup on the other hand has turned her nose up at everything that we introduced her to except for pasta. She definitely prefers real food to baby food.

I find that I make the same meals over and over. I hate being bored with food. It's time to spice things up and bring some excitement back to the kitchen table. I better go rummage around the cupboards to find something for dinner.