Seven Days Of Eating: Because Making Friends With Food Requires That You Eat.
The purpose of these Seven Days of eating is to offer support, normalize eating, help you to incorporate a wider variety of food, and push back on diet culture. I became a dietitian because I enjoy eating and making food. I want to help others enjoy and feel safe while eating and making food, too. I do this work to give people MORE options, not less.
Feed yourself and those you love.
Can I share something with you? Often, when I sit down (or lay in my bed) to write this portion of my newsletter, my first thought is: how am I even going to come up with another Seven Days of Eating? I can hardly find the energy to make meals for myself and my family. I'll never think of recipes or encouraging words to go along with the recipes.
But {so far} the recipes find me and so do the words of encouragement. I don't know how long I'll provide this section, but I promise to try every week. Will you commit to trying to feed yourself? Something. It doesn't even have to be from this list. You may be working to reclaim a good relationship with food. That courageous act requires that you eat.
You can do it.
Sheet Tray Sausage with Grapes and Onion for when the grapes everyone said they wanted (and no one ended up eating) are about to turn. This dish is where wishful thinking meets small miracles. You might be thinking, grapes and sausage? Have you ever enjoyed turkey and cranberry sauce? It’s along the same lines. BUT BETTER. Serve it over polenta, with a side of rice, or pile it onto a hoagie roll.
Broccoli, Chickpea, and Sausage Skillet for when you need dinner in less than thirty minutes. Yes, this is a second sausage dish. Try chicken sausage for a twist. We ate this meal in front of the TV last week while watching reruns of SNL sketches. Sometimes the dinner table loses its appeal as the destination for family dinner. And when I say sometimes, I mean the times when your six-year-old has gotten ahold of the Mod Podge and decoupaged his artwork to the surface of your already grimy table and no one has the energy to (a) clean it or (b) make him clean it. Onward!
Weeknight Fancy Chicken and Rice for when you’ve been in your pajamas all day and you want to end the night with some class. If I’m going to use chicken in a dish, I almost exclusively go for chicken thighs. However, this dish promises the breast meat will turn out plush. And it did! This recipe takes a but longer (still under an hour), plenty of time to change into a clean set of pajamas while the flavors meld in the simmer-for-12-minutes phase.
Vegetable Beef Soup for when you miss your mom and dad. My mom makes this soup when we visit their home in Ohio. It reminds me of our county fair. For one hot and humid week in July, the highschool parent-supported booster group from our town ran a food tent at the fair. They served hamburgers, french fries, and this soup! It’s easy and freezes well.
Tuna Noodle Casserole for when you want comfort food. Also, for when you want your kids to reject you and your favorite comfort food. Reject away, haters! More for me. Pro-tip: our kids won’t always embrace the foods of our childhood. That’s fine. Make an effort to serve side dishes that you know they will eat - banana muffins (which can take up residence on the other oven rack while your darling casserole bakes). Apple sauce. A relish tray from the produce section. A basket of Ritz crackers and the jar of peanut butter. The trick is to put it all out on the table as part of the meal. The kids don’t have to take a helping (or even a “thank you bite”) of the tuna noodle casserole. Save yourself the battle. Watching you enjoy and delight in your favorite food has a NOURISHING effect. They are witnessing you (a.) connect in a positive way to food, (b.) make time for the eating experience, and (c.) prioritize the coming together of kin.
Sunday Morning Delight for when you want a coffee cake that sounds like a euphemism for weekend morning sex. I couldn’t find the recipe that matched the coffee cake my mom used to make in her effort to pull us from our warm covers on a cold Sunday morning. Because church happens even in sub-zero, Midwest winters. I kept the name she used and linked a recipe that resembles the one on the recipe card she gave me at my bridal shower twenty years ago. Mom - did you re-name this recipe because of some pre-dawn canoodling with dad? I hope so.
Take out. Because if I don’t explicitly say it, some of you might think I (a.) always make every meal in my kitchen (which I don’t), (b.) think I want you to make every meal in your kitchen (which I 100% DO NOT want for you), and/or (c.) am out of time and need to pick up a sponge to help my six year old extract his artwork from the tabletop.