Quinoa bowl, pasta bowl: adults happy, kids happy (and a parenting book review too!)

I have to redeem myself after the gazpacho post. I do care about my children--and even their taste buds.

A great parenting book is John Gottman's Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child: The Heart of Parenting. For me, the central theme of this book is very other-centered, that you need to respect your child and his emotions. (I only have boys, so this is not being gender-exclusive. I am sure you want to understand girls too, though I am beginning to think I wouldn't know how to.) 

Gottman says you need to have empathy, to imagine your child’s emotional world, and seek to understand him. You need to imagine how dependent he is on you and how he perceives your actions toward him. (He asks something like, "Would you like it if one of your co-workers were to treat you in a similar manner?") Gottman sees your goal as a parent as being able to help your child deal effectively with strong emotions and to help him be independent in that, to become a “self-soother.” 

So when I try to empathize with my children's taste buds, I think of my own taste buds as a child. Rhubarb was out of the question as were beets and turnips and other things I didn't even know I liked until I was 30. My mom didn't push the issue and now I eat almost anything (except Skittles, blood sausage, and sodium benzoate).

Children have more sensitive taste buds, and, according to at least one case study (our own), red heads have ultra sensitive taste buds. Before we adults congratulate ourselves on refinement, we may be able to handle more intense tastes simply because we have fewer taste buds (many of them being killed off by doing taxes).

This grain bowl was a hit at our house. It is more an amalgam of recipes that can be adjusted to taste than a single do-it-my-way-or-hit-the-highway recipe. I remembered a favorite dinner with friends--penne with pesto, green beans, and boiled potatoes. That inspired our choice of vegetables.

Everybody Happy Grain Bowls

Grains:

Cooked quinoa (favorite way to cook quinoa)

Cooked sea shell pasta

(Cooked brown rice would also be nice.)

Sauces:

Pesto

Tomato-based sauce (I use America's Test Kitchen)

(A light Alfredo would also be nice.)

Veggies:

Sauteed mushrooms (shallots are a nice addition to this)

Cooked green beans (I love the whole green beans available at my Costco)

Boiled diced potatoes (or for an extra Wow level, try my favorite roasted potatoes)

(Cooked carrots or yellow summer squash or cauliflower would have worked well for my children)

Set everything out buffet style. You can either let your children go crazy on their own or act like that grumpy guy at the pasta bar they've been to. Act extra stingy about giving them vegetables--they will want them all. Something about scarcity inspires desire.