I can remember some of the foods of my childhood. There are others I have consciously blocked out. Some of my favorites at the time were cheese from a can as well as a rectangle blue box of American cheese. Neither refrigerated. Also there were breakfast cereals called Sugar Smacks and Sugar Pops, which are now called Smacks and Corn Pops in an effort to balderdash. A can of Kool-Aid was a great improvement over the small “add sugar” packets enabling kids to stick their finger in it and lick it off. Also known as a fake pixi-stix at my house. And we would never, NEVER eat our vegetables.
We are in a different era. Kids now are happy to eat their vegetables and I can report there are a few kindergarteners in Olivia’s class that are vegetarians. Perhaps it is only in my happy little California bubble that this level of nutrition is so. Or should I further qualify it to be happy little San Francisco bubble. In a time where our nation is under a serious concern for elevated levels of childhood obesity and children diagnosed with diabetes (an adult disease) at near epidemic levels, it is common place for healthy eating at our San Francisco schools and homes. Parents do their part by modeling healthy eating for their children and the children become healthy eaters. We tend to feed our children “children food” like Chicken Nuggets when we should be feeding them chicken dipped in yogurt, rolled in planko bread crumbs and baked. Fabulous. It takes about the same amount of time, a tiny bit more, but it is worth it. It is so important to allow our children to experience quality food with a wide variety options. Olivia experienced her first Chicken Nugget at the neighbors house when she was 5. I am sure it was organic and baked not fried but none-the-less it was a Nugget. She took one bite and refused the rest. That made me happy when I heard about it later. She has developed a taste for quality food and no interest in “fast” food.
We were invited to our good friends house when my daughter was 3. They have 2 daughters, ages 18m and 6 years. We sat down for a lovely dinner and after some time Olivia asked Sam, the father, to please pass the bread. Sam asks while passing the bread, “Olivia, would you like butter too?” Olivia replied “No thanks. But….do you have any Brie?”