As a vegetarian household, there are a few meals that are staples we have every week or so. I know many households have a routine with their dinner menu, but while our options are not as limited as many people assume, there can be a lack of variety when it comes to ease and speed for dinner preparation.
Spaghetti is one of those staples we have every other week or so.
Does everybody like it?
No.
Do I care?
No.
Here’s the deal – eat or go hungry.
The kids don’t really have much of a choice in their eating habits. I say “much” because there are currently two bags of chemicals disguising themselves as snack foods in my pantry.
I would never purchase these, or allow my kids to buy them. Laura went to the store and took a couple of the kids with her, allowing them to pick some snacks (or “snacks”).
Back to my original point.
I do the cooking here, and pretty much always have. This means I cook dinner, and I have never been a fan of cooking separate meals for individuals. Even before kids I would cook what I cooked, and would try to compromise for taste but overall I would cook whatever it was I was going to cook. Then kids came into the picture and I didn’t change my process.
One of the things we have always done as a family is having dinner together as much as possible, and at a regular time. The more kids we have had the more difficult it has become what with the various activities, but we always try.
Since I am not in the habit of cooking separate meals, I will cook one dinner and not everybody will enjoy it. There are too many people, currently 8 in the house, to worry about making everything suit everybody’s taste.
Take spaghetti for example.
I am not going to cook a bunch of different versions, but I will give Tevye a portion without (vegetarian) meatballs and dish Ciarán ‘s up with as little to no red sauce (which he hates, except for pizza – making him hate the nights I fix baked ziti).
While I’m not going to cook separate meals I will do what I can to modify what I am cooking to meet your (reasonable) needs.