Dinner Deconstructed

Lots of our family dinners at this stage were what I call “deconstructed,” meaning I served all the parts of the meal, but not all together in one big pile.  We always had a protein, a grain, a fruit and a vegetable. My kids drank milk or water with dinner.

So, let’s take chicken parm and pasta for example. In my house, this would be the following ingredients, all in separate pots or bowls:

• A pot of cooked, drained pasta on the stove (with a little olive oil so it didn’t stick together)
• Chicken tenders that had been baked in the oven, plain
• A pot of warmed up tomato sauce
• Some parmesean cheese and some shredded mozzarella

The side salad would look like this:

• The salad spinner filled with freshly chopped and washed lettuce
• A cutting board on the side with other ‘optional’ veggies
• Choices of salad dressings. 
• And always a colander with some washed fruit.

This way, everyone could take what they wanted. Michael would eat the lettuce plain without any dressing, the pasta with the red sauce and parmesan cheese, the chicken tenders plain and the fruit. My plate might look totally different, but everyone could have what they wanted. Mikey loved to help make dinner! He still really enjoys food prep…these photos crack me up.

Being Real:

I did this whenever I could, because I’m not a huge fan of cooking two separate meals, but I OFTEN cave in and just cook two separate meals. Mikey’s tastes have stayed pretty much the same, but the rest of our family is more adventurous in terms of food and it gets boring for us to eat the same 10 things over and over.  Our compromise is we eat what we like and Mikey eats what he likes…it keeps everyone happy.