Making a Change: My Sous-Chef

Growing up I don't remember doing a lot of cooking, or even being interested in watching my Mom do the cooking.  At one point I recall we each had to cook dinner for the family one day a week, but I do not remember it lasting very long.  In fact, what I do remember is making spaghetti with a can of spaghetti sauce (gourmet, I know) and trying to make hot dogs but forgetting to put water in the pot.  These poor attempts at food creation could most likely be attributed to the fact that I have never really enjoyed eating food either.  Yes, I like food, and some food I like more than others, but food has always been more of a necessity than a luxury for me.  I eat because I'm hungry, not because I crave the experience of eating.  In fact, until I was married (and even on a great level, then) I could have eaten pasta or rice and a corresponding sauce day in and day out.  I was a lazy cook because I could be and did not desire anything more elaborate than pure sustenance.

Now speed ahead to the birth of Kai. I have always felt more accountable for Kai's diet than I even did my own.  Over the past 3 1/2 years, I have been on a slow and steady learning ascent to ensure I am providing healthy, balanced, earth-friendly meals.  This in itself has been a challenge for me: a challenge to find the time to plan and shop for the meals; a challenge to focus enough to be able to follow the recipes correctly while Kai is fighting for my attention to play with him; a challenge to make it interesting enough that the process does not become a chore.  It been inevitable that some days we eat perogies or pasta with Kai's 'favourite sauce' (alfredo) with a side of raw veggies or steamed broccoli, but he is happy with that and I keep my sanity, so it works nicely for us. 

Although it does not always appear this way, especially when Kai is demanding his time with me (which, honestly, I mostly feel he has a right to after a long day at daycare), I realize how lucky I am with Kai's orientation to food.  Mostly, he will eat or at least try anything.  Our rule of eating at least three bites of everything on your plate seems to work for him, and he eats almost every vegetable we put on his plate.  No, he isn't perfect, and I have yet to find a way to prepare lettuce or green beans in a way that inspires him to voluntarily eat them, but he is only three and has lots of time to grow into liking them (or not).  Let's be real, to this day I still cannot fathom the idea of eating peas.



Tastes aside, learning about growing food and cooking it seems to be a journey Kai has been on with me from the start.  From beginning to grow food in our own yard

to helping me with canning,

to picking fresh berries for baking together,
we are creating a good relationship with healthy food. 


This excites me.  After watching Jamie Oliver speak about the overall lack of knowledge about 'real' food, I am feeling confident that my child will be part of the positive statistics rather than the student who is unable to identify a simple vegetable.

However, last night was one of those moments that made me stop and fully appreciate how amazing Kai is.  After a long day, he came into the kitchen with me and walked through every step of making a salmon dinner.  He looked at the pictures in the cook book (thank you SO much for the photographs of each step, Jamie Oliver...perfect for cooking with a child), and told me which ingredient to use next, where to put it, and physically made the dinner with me.  Complete patience.  Complete interest.  Complete focus.  I cannot wait for more of these moments.  Somehow being on the journey with Kai makes learning more fun.