U - the kid. What did you do to avoid eating certain food?
When I was growing up we had boiled cabbage every Thursday night. Being southern, you know it was boiled to oblivion. I hated it! I was told to eat everything because of the starving children overseas. I decided that my eating that awful stuff was NOT helping those starving kids. My best way to help them was to give them my cabbage.
So, cleaver little 8 yr old me tucked it into my napkin and excused myself from the table. I left just enough of it on my plate to make it look like I was eating it. I went to my bedroom and put it under the bed. (I don't even want to know what it did to Momma's hardwood floor.)
The next morning when I was getting ready for school and Momma was in the bathroom, I got a big envelope and put it in. We'd learned to address envelopes in class, so I knew where to put my return address (stupid mistake). I addressed it to: "The Starving Children Overseas". I put a stamp on it. A whole 3 cents! Then I ran across the street and put it in the big metal mailbox and raised the flag. Oh, you should know that it was towards the end of May, hot and muggy.
I was so proud of myself. I told my entire class about it.
I got home and Momma was on the porch to greet me. All 5' 10" of Momma. She was holding the envelope behind her. When she pulled it out, it was dripping with cabbage juice and was REALLY smelly. She was not amused.
It gets worse. I went to Sunday School and told my entire class that my Momma, the deacon's wife, had an unchristian heart. I had 2 Sunday School teachers. How did no less than 5 women tell her about that between Sunday School and the regular service?
When I was a kid, the china cabinet sat right behind me and I had to stay at the table until my plate was clean. For an entire year, after everyone else left the table, I would toss rutabegas, chitlins, turnips, cabbage, neckbones, pinto beans, cole slaw, etc. (yes I'm also southern) into the big covered dishes that were kept in the lower cabinets of the china cabinet.
The lower cabinets doors were solid oak and the rotting food smell never came out unless you opened the doors and I was the only one that opened them - to stuff in more food. I never thought about the fact that each year at Christmas time, my parents emptied the entire cabinet to wash everything and polish the silver.
Well, when my mother opened the cabinet and the stench rolled out two things happened. She got immediately upset (moreso than I'd ever seen her) and she knew exactly who did it. She was so mad she forgot my name. Instead she went down the roster yelling out "Tim, Rick, Russ, Rod...you, you, THE GIRL!" I knew I was dead.
Nah, not a southern thing. I'm from Utah and my Dad preferred a couple dishes that were horribly offensive to the rest of the family and we always had to eat what was on our plate. Brussels sprouts is one--they are so bitter I still can't stand them. I'd always manage to spit them into my napkin. Another thing was what my Mom called hash. Not corned beef hash (that's good!) but she'd take a leftover beef roast (that's already been cooked dry) and add some cooked, diced potato to it and then bake it again. It was so dry and tasteless. Cups of ketchup couldn't rescue that dish!
I never did anything with food to get rid of it because I wasn't forced to eat what I didn't like. One thing I couldn't stand was spinach. It smelled so bad that I had to gag. It took me many years to actually try spinach later on. I like it ok, but it still isn't my favorite.
The other thing I couldn't eat (and still can't eat) are long stringy noodles. They make me want to gag. Spaghetti, Angel hair pasta and any other noodle that is round shaped and long. It is weird but my mom used to make this one dish when I was young with spaghetti noodles and I could only eat a few bites before I'd start gagging. The same thing happened with spaghetti and other pasta dishes. So she ended up switching to other types of pasta for me like shells and bows.
One night my mother made lamb chops and I refused to eat them. She made me sit in the kitchen by myself until I would eat it. I must have been about 10 or 11. It's the oddest thing, because she was so NOT the type to force me to eat. After sitting there for hours, I finally offered to take out the garbage and she fell for it - out went the lamb chops. I have brought up this story to her a couple of times recently and she still can't believe that she did that to me or that I tossed them in the trash. If she hadn't have fell for me taking out the garbage I might still be sitting there. I will to this day never, ever, ever eat lamb. I wish I would have felt that way about ice cream and ummm, anything fried.
I had to laugh when I read your stories. Mine was canned peas. I hated them then & I still hate them now. They aren't even the right color.
I grew up with 2 brothers & we loved all of our veggies. However, my brother, Tom & I hated canned peas. Disgusting! My mom knew that both of us hated them. Me, being the smart one, used to rolls the peas off my plate, into my hand, and throw them under the table under my brother. He always got in trouble. Recently I asked him why he never told on me, he said he threw his under the table too & it never dawned on him that mine were under him too. DUH!!!
I never could figure out why my mom made us eat them. We loved all of our veggies, so why she made us eat the one thing we hated, I couldn't figure out.
I didn't hide my food, I just refused to eat it and was willing to accept the consequences. I'd force down the mandatory 3 bites, but that was it. I was a very stubborn child. I was so skinny that Mom started letting me eat Spaghetti-O's for dinner, just so I'd have something in my stomach. However, she stopped that after I literally started turning orange from Spaghetti-O abuse
Tom still isn't the brightest bulb in the pack. However, as an adult & mom, I don't make my 14 year old eat food she doesn't like. She is a healthy eater & loves her veggies & loves to cook. So on the occassions that I make food she doesn't like, I don't make her eat it. Like last night, I made homemade veggie soup with corn dumplings. She didn't like it, so she didn't eat it. She had left over homemade (low cal) chicken pot pie instead. However, tonight, she is making curry chicken for me. Our theory is, if you don't like it, don't waste the calories on it. We take the time to enjoy EVERYTHING we eat. Can't stick to a diet if the food is gross (or that cereal that taste like twigs)
However, as an adult & mom, I don't make my 14 year old eat food she doesn't like. She is a healthy eater & loves her veggies & loves to cook. So on the occassions that I make food she doesn't like, I don't make her eat it. Like last night, I made homemade veggie soup with corn dumplings. She didn't like it, so she didn't eat it. She had left over homemade (low cal) chicken pot pie instead. However, tonight, she is making curry chicken for me. Our theory is, if you don't like it, don't waste the calories on it. We take the time to enjoy EVERYTHING we eat. Can't stick to a diet if the food is gross (or that cereal that taste like twigs)
AMEN to that! We had to eat it whether we liked it or not! That's why I tried to mail mine.
I had a rule when my kids were little. They had to try it. I told them they weren't born eating hamburgers and fries. They pretty much liked most stuff. They really liked it when we had a garden. The fresh corn on the cob, fresh peppers and tomatoes were wonderful. They both either grow their own veggies or shop farmer's markets whenever possible.
Some things I made my kids eat - staples like green beans, corn, broccoli, mixed veggies, collards - and others I didn't such as beets, lima beans and spinach. By age 4 they were used to the staples, even began requesting them, so if I made a veggie that they didn't like, I could quickly cook up some of the frozen staples and they would still have a veggie with dinner. I do have a clean plate rule with vegetables - if you eat all your starches and meats, you can't cry full and not eat the veggies. So far, I've found no food stashes in my china.
I have always maintained that the kids have to at least try a new food. There is no way that they can look at it and suddenly "know" that they like it or not. And one bite will not do. Two or three is the rule. I no longer have to enforce this because the kids dutifully taste everything and then report at the end of the meal whether or not they liked it and we should or should not have it again. They are very willing to try it now. (It took a long time to get this far!)
But I have to say that I will not serve them things that I do not like. I'm not fond of green pepper. Red, orange or yellow, sure, but not green. I also do not like lima beans (this dislike was passed down from my mom!) and I do not like Brussels sprouts and I do not like sushi. But, if I am served any of these foods I will eat them because I follow my own rules. But I don't serve them in my home.
My DS went through a phase of being a vegetarian and it really did a lot of good for him and us. For him, he had to eat a lot of veggies and he learned to like a lot of different ones. I'd cook up huge amounts that we'd all eat as well as beans or rice and the rest of us would get some meat with ours. He got extra veggies. For us, it taught us to find alternate sources of protein. We discovered Boca Burgers and Morning Star Farms products and we all love them.
U - the kid. What did you do to avoid eating certain food?
