| With two McDonald's-loving kids around, I rarely step up to the challenge to cook dinner. I can't even throw stones. I loved McDonalds when I was their age too, even though I am now horrified that my parents bought it for me. Typically, when I cook dinner, they hate it. Sometimes they only mildly dislike it, and sometimes they think it's OK enough to taste and eat a few bites of before giving their dad puppy dog eyes and getting him to make them something better to eat. But usually, I don't try. I don't have the parental authority to make them eat anything, so I just leave dinners to their dad. He knows 'em best, and he's a real chef so at least he's got a fighting chance of making something that is both healthy and not completely offensive to a kid's palate.
But today, I gave cooking a shot. I was inspired when I saw the most beautiful bunch of rainbow chard (truly in all shades of the rainbow, except blue) at the Archi's Acres booth at the farmers' market. Then I got yellow carrots, red and green lettuce, and a green bell pepper at Sage Mountain Farm. And then I called my room mate and told him I was making dinner.
When the kids got home, I told them we were eating rainbows for dinner. We began with a rainbow salad (at least, three of us did... the fourth decided that that many vegetables in one bowl can't be a good thing) made from cooked red and chioggia beets, cooked orange sweet potato, yellow carrots, green bell pepper, chickpeas, walnuts, red and green lettuces, alfalfa sprouts, and a hard boiled egg. Our chef made the dressing (I know when I shouldn't push my luck). We followed that with rainbow colored pasta (dyed with veggies) topped with a tomato sauce, and sauteed rainbow chard. It was a fun meal, although I'm sure I enjoyed it more than the kids did. |
