Vegetable Medley

You might recall that my youngest, Avery, has decided to become a vegetarian. That would be fine if she actually invested in the idea by giving suggestions of things that she would like from the store and it would also help if she ate the food that I do prepare. The problem with this idea of hers is that she is already a picky eater and add to that the fact that she does not want to eat meat and you get a person that is going to end up starving to death.

 Last night I made a delicious salad and served sliced chicken on the side for the rest of us to add to the salad. I watched as my daughter took a tiny scoop of salad and put it on her plate. "Avery, that is not going to be enough food to eat for dinner" I said to her in my Mom is worried and annoyed voice. She replied "I just want to try it first". So I added in my worried and annoyed voice, "Look, this vegetarian thing is not going to work if you do not eat, I need some idea what you want to eat." "I also need some kind of list of foods you will eat". With that my daughter folded her arms and became very pouty.

 Look it is one thing when you are an adult and you make the choice to be vegetarian. You can shop for yourself and prepare what you want to eat, but when you spring it on your Mom and then look at her food presentations like they are poison, we have a problem. I am very close to telling her that she is going to just have to suck it up and eat around what I make for dinner, because it is no easy task trying to feed your family when you have one lone holdout. I am pretty sure that right now her main protein is coming from peanut butter.

 My sister tells me that I am way more patient then she would be with this life choice of Avery's. Apparently, I should be telling her "this is dinner, make it work or figure out something else to eat." My issue is I was trying to support Avery's desire to become a vegetarian; the problem is that Avery is making no investment in her choice. I am the one worrying about whether she is eating enough protein or wondering what I should do to accommodate her vegetarianism at dinner time. Avery is just sitting by singing her vegetable medley and I am the one doing the strumming. It is obvious that something is going to have to give. It has been recommended that I just cook my dinner and if it does not work with Avery's new life style she will figure it out. My sister tells me that Avery will not starve and that I need to let her take the responsibility for her own food. Now that I sit here writing this, my brain storm is to have her plan and prepare a couple of meals and maybe she will see that this is no easy task. Hmn…I like that idea I think I will give it a try. If nothing else, I could give her money from our food budget and have her use that towards her own food. Hey, this is starting to get interesting, I think we will have to run this up the bean pole and see how it flies.