Our Year of Food 2014

I have a little dream.

It's quite modest and unassuming.

In it, our family of two adults and four children decides to go out for dinner. We get happily into the car (or even just walk across the road), head to a medium-priced, Australian style restaurant and sit down. Then we look at the menu. And we order. When the food arrives, everyone looks happy. No one complains. And then we eat what's on our plates, lean back with satisfied tummies and say, "Wow. That was great."

If you have a raised eyebrow and a smirk on your face it's because your family doesn't struggle with food, eating or going out.

Mine does.

Not only do three of the four the children (and probably one of the adults at least) all have food intolerances, they are all picky eaters. The basics like meat and vegies get rejected night after night with tears, protestations and more anxiety than you can poke a stick at. I've had years of dinner-time angst.

Now that everyone's a little bit older and a little bit more able to cope with things like, I don't know, LOGIC and SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE, and they can see the results of blood tests and stomach x-rays and get the concept that if you only eat white food You Will End Up Sick and with intestines full of compacted poo (yes, it's true), we are going to change things.

2014 is going to be Our Year Of Food.

I'm on a mission to get vegetables and protein into these children. I'm on a mission to make mealtimes enjoyable. I'm on a mission myself to lose weight and eat more raw food and less sugar. 

Already we've started by adding vegetable juice every day this year - about half and half fruit to veg. (It's been nicknamed 'swill' because at first it wasn't happily received, but now they're used to it, mostly. Beetroot still isn't a happy prospect, but hey...) The wheatgrass in the photo is for juice. I'm soaking and sprouting my wheat grains and will hopefully grow and juice a tray a week.

I also give each child a plate of raw vegies to eat before they get their actual dinner. Eating greens is now tied to extra computer time. I try to add a tiny taste of something new every night. The eight year old has gone from crying at a carrot to now munching three or four carrot sticks happily every night.

I'm cooking our rice and pasta in bone broth instead of plain water. Meat is not something that's eaten happily, but I have managed to get egg and proscuitto mini quiches and almond meal breadsticks onto the menu of the *super* fussy Bright Eyes. All of it is done on the basis of 'you just have to try one nibble' for the really scary foods, and 'if you don't drink that all down you'll miss out on the movie later on'. The movie always wins, by the way.

I'll be posting more about our progress and foodie adventures.

And if we succeed and get to our restaurant by the end of the year, I'll be hosting a massive blog party!