Limited or Permitted?

Should you limit things, or not? Good question, I'm glad you asked. Most people (including us) place limits on what our children can eat and do. You can only watch 3 hours of TV on weekends. You can only have 2 snacks a day. You can only have 1 snifter of brandy before lunch, etc.

The idea behind this is that without limits kids will make insane choices. They'll join professional eating competitions so they can eat all the world's pies. They'll catch so many Pokemon that the RSPCA will formally sanction them. They'll eat all your crisps before you even wake up in the morning. They'll watch TV until their eyes fall out and they have to get a direct neural link to Nickelodeon so they can watch reruns of iCarly. You limiting them helps them see what choices they "should" be making, then when they grow up they'll make those choices on their own.

Does that work, though? I've known people who were raised to not use drugs, yet when they were older and could make their own choices they've become drug addicts or even drug dealers. I've known people who were raised with their food choices restricted to only healthy options who then made unhealthy choices for years and years after they moved out on their own. Clearly, just saying "This is what you should do" is not enough to get people to make good choices. In most cases, people (including children) want to find things out for themselves, they want to arrive at their own truth in their own way.

In addition, forbidding something makes it more attractive and also gives a use it or lose it mentality. If you say "You're allowed one soda a day" to someone, they're going to have that soda even if they don't want to, because it's their one soda a day.

Perhaps if you give kids (or anyone) free reign in their choices, they'll be free to make good choices along with bad ones. They'll have the amount of snacks that feels right to them instead of having snacks when you say it's snack time even if they're not hungry. Maybe they'll watch ten hours of violent pornographic television one day and become a Noble laureate the next, because people like to do different things.

At the same time, though, what if you don't forbid food choices and you wake up to find that your children have chosen to eat you? You're letting them make their own choices, so you can't very well say "Hey, dude, that's the wrong choice." You just have to accept it, let them gnaw off your leg, and get a prosthetic one. Welcome to being a parent.

What do you think about this? Do you limit your kids? If you didn't, what would they do? How will they behave when they're older and can make their own choices without you?

My Dad

My Dad just had his 60th birthday and so I decided to make him a book of photos, quotes and memories as a gift to commemorate it. I got a nice hardback scrapbook from Paperchase to use. Then I wrote a list of things I wanted to include and sorted through some old photos to use.

Next I made a mock up of each page so I knew how I was going to lay it all out.

Sadly I had to rely on my own dubious artistic skills for some pages and the front cover. I had a cover story ready to use saying one of the kids did the artwork if anyone questioned the quality. Haha! :D

After I was finished I was really pleased with how it turned out. I think it made a great gift, one that's really personal to whoever you give it to. I think my Dad enjoyed it. ^_^

Saturday Sandwich 5 - Pastrami on Rye

I'm looking forward to this sandwich. I love pastrami but I've never had it on rye bread. It sounds like a really American sandwich to me, the kind you hear shouted out in a new York Deli. :D

Ingredients: rye bread, pastrami, mustard and gherkins/pickles.

Spread mustard on the bread and then add the pastrami. I love how the pastrami fits the rye bread perfectly. Things like that make me happy inside. ^_^ The book said to have pickles on the side but we had gherkin slices in the sandwiches.

They were fantastic! I really enjoyed this sandwich. The rye bread was really grainy and dense but very flavourful. It felt like a healthy sandwich with no butter and mustard instead. Mustard and pastrami is such a great combination, I love how they taste together.

JD wasn't as keen on the Rye bread as me, describing the bread as more like a slice of pressed nuts. It was actually like eating a layer of solid rice or something similar.  He did enjoy the pastrami and mustard though.

Ratings: JD - 2/5 Emma - 4/5

Saturday Sandwich 4 - The Luther Burger

This is a weird one! A cheeseburger sandwiched inside a doughnut. I love burgers and doughnuts but I'm not sure about combining them. I'm willing to give it a try :D

The book says this sandwich was named after Luther Vandross who used to love this burger combo. He also had his with bacon inside too.

Ingredients: doughnut, burger and a slice of cheese

Cook the burger however you like, top with cheese and then sandwich between a halved doughnut.

I've never had a food experience like this before. I took a bite and instantly felt confused. It was like eating two delicious things but separately and having them mix together in my mouth. I almost liked it but it was just too weird. It was displeasing holding a sticky sandwich and I had to keep switching hands to lick my fingers. I think it just doesn't follow that two delicious foods will be delicious if you combine them.

I did eat it all though >.>

Ratings: JD - 1/5 Emma - 1/5

Writing a Food Menu

One of the steps towards budgeting and being more organized has been writing out a food menu each week. It really helps us keep on budget for the food shopping. Usually on a Saturday morning JD and I will decide what we'll have for the week and write up the menu. Lately, since the kids have also been making a meal a week they've been helping pick things out too. Erin made Chicken satay this week and Leigh made Rancheros Pie for tonight (in the slow cooker). JD made a vegetable curry and I made Draniki from Belarus for my food blog.

When we've decided what we're having all week we then make up the shopping list sticking to what we need for each meal. When we go shopping we sometimes get good deals and then incorporate whatever we've bought into the next week's menu.

We have less food waste this way because everything we buy is to be used in a meal. That means when one of us goes to the fridge in search of a snack there's not much around that isn't already being used elsewhere. Which is a simultaneous bad and good thing :D

We can plan healthier meals when we write a food menu because we eat what's been planned for that day and not what we feel like eating right then (which is usually pizza or something equally delicious/unhealthy).

We're quite flexible with it though and sometimes switch days around to suit what we're all doing. Like this week we had the Greek salad on the Monday and swapped the Chicken and Bacon salad to Sunday because we'll have more time to prepare the chicken etc then. Here's the Greek salad in all it's glory:

 An added side benefit is that the kids never ask what's for tea anymore, they just consult the menu and go straight to complaining it's something they don't like, haha! Actually we've made some surprising progress with the kids trying new foods this week. They both ate the potato pancakes for my blog, they both ate the vegetable curry JD made and Erin tried our homemade muesli for breakfast this morning and almost ate it all. Long may it last :)

Sandwich Saturday 3 - Falafel Pita Bread

Another sandwich, this time Falafel in pitta breads. We've never made this sandwich before and have only eaten Falafel in a prepacked wrap. We got a box of Falafel mix to make it easier.

 Make up the Falafel mix using cold water and leave to thicken.

 The tahini sauce for this sandwich is made up of tahini, yoghurt and lemon juice. You also need some sliced cabbage to fill up the pitta.

 Make the Falafel mix into balls and fry them in oil until browned. I should have taken my own advice here but I got distracted and ended up with a few semi black Falafel instead :D

Ingredients: Falafel mix, pitta breads, sliced cabbage, 1 tbls lemon juice, 1 tbls tahini and 2 tbls of yoghurt.

The Falafel pittas were nice but making anything in a pitta is always a bit annoying. Maybe it's just me but the pitta bread never opens up properly to fit stuff inside. The recipe said to cut them in half which made them too shallow and they split easily. The sauce is delicious with the Falafel though and the crunchy cabbage goes well with the creamy sauce. I wouldn't count it in with my favourite sandwiches though, if it even is a sandwich!! The Falafel is tasty and smells lovely as it's cooking. I'd love to try it in a bread bun or some other reliable bread product so I can enjoy it more. JD has suggested we have them in wraps sometime which sounds good.

Ratings: JD - 2/5 Emma 2/5

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

The New Year has got JD and I talking about goals for ourselves and for the family. One of the goals we feel strongly about is bringing up the kids to be capable so that when they leave home it's an easier transition. We want them to already be proficient at cooking and cleaning among other things.

Last year we introduced a chore wheel for the daily jobs such as setting the table and washing the dishes. They've been fine with helping out and have already got much better/faster at doing it. Plus there are now days when I do no washing up at all, which has to be a good thing :D

So, now we've decided to introduce the kids to more chores. Things that we do weekly around the house. We've assigned all the jobs a value of points based on how much effort they take or how much no-one wants to do them. Cleaning the toilet is 4 points for instance and Dusting is just 1. We each have an amount of points we have to do a week based on age. JD printed off a handy sheet for us to keep track of it:

In addition to this the kids are each going to make tea once a week for us all. They have to decide what they're going to cook and then prepare it (with help if needed).

Erin cooked Bang-bang chicken for tea tonight.

Leigh prepped some vegetables ready for making beef stew and dumplings in the slow cooker tomorrow.

So far they both seem really positive about the changes. When we talked to them about what we were thinking of changing they both seemed keen. JD and I had both said we'd expected them to resist the idea of more chores. But it was the opposite and they both enjoyed picking out which chores to do.

Hopefully, they feel just as keen when it's time to do the chores. I'm interested to see if they want to keep going with the cooking too. Fingers crossed :)