When I was growing up we ate dinner every night at 5:30, and dinner always consisted of a meat, a veggie and a starch (MVS). (Unless it was one of those rare occasions my dad was out of town on business then we had fun food like waffles and ice cream.) My mom made these meals, often with help from us, every night of the week. We rarely ate out and we rarely had take-out. And my mom worked and there were anywhere between 4 and 7 kids in the house at any given time (I have 3 brothers, my cousin lived with us in high school and my mom took in special needs foster kids), how she managed all of this and still got dinner on the table every night at 5:30 is beyond me.
And while I am in awe of her parenting and time management skills that allowed this precision to be possible I do not aspire to parent as she did. It's just not my style (don't ask me what my parenting style is, I could not tell you.)
But for, whatever reason; I cannot get it out of my head that all dinners should consist of a MVS (served with a glass of milk just as mom did). I can accept that the glass of milk will not be whole milk, as we've learned in the last 30 years it's not that great for you. But like I said before I am hung up on the MVS. I feel compelled to make all dinners fit into this mold.
I really need to get over this. I need to learn to accept that it's OK to serve fruit instead of a veggie. And that it's even ok to skip one of the MVSs on occassion. Meatless meals are OK and *shocker* they are GOOD for you. I don't need to feel guilty if I serve breakfast for dinner, which we often do.
Dinner isn't what is served on the plate, it's the meal we share with the people we love at the end of the day while we all catch-up and reconnect.
(And in case you are wondering my mom no longer serves dinner at 5:30 and no longer cares about MVS (so why do I?) - in fact she's an on again off again vegetarian that has a love affair with tofu and eating out.)
Tuesday, March 8
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3 comments:
Good grief, I grew up the same way! Only dinner was at 5, rather than 5:30. I am sooo over it!
Our meals are more like FVG (fruit, veggie grain), plus a protein (nuts, beans, seeds). But that's what I SHOOT for. A lot of times we just eat tofu pups (veggie hot dogs), or pancakes, or even cold cereal! LOL! But I do want to try to be better to serve healthy meals and have a sit down dinner as James grows up.
Our meals are taking on an entirely different way from what they were when I was growing up...Ours were mostly MS ;) and sometimes a V or F. And because of that I have become somewhat of a carb loader that I am trying to do more V and F than S. I saw do whatever works for your family.
And BTW we have Brinner all the time too :)
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