A Very Picky Eater

My boyfriend’s daughter from a previous marriage recently stayed at our house for the weekend. It is only her second time to sleep over and I am still getting to know her; as with most such situations, it takes some time before a child can build a relationship with their parents’ new partners, so we’re taking little baby steps (and those would surely require another post for another time).

Aside from making sure that the house would be clean and smelling nice from top to bottom (this has become quite an obsession for me ever since my boyfriend and I got a dog with moderate shedding and drooling tendencies), my other top concern was what to feed the little girl while she stays with us. OK, so she’s not exactly little — she’ll be turning 11 in a month. But you know what I mean. My boyfriend and I do our best to eat healthily and try to indulge on sweets, junk food or fast food only on weekends, but of course, there are times when we let our cravings and laziness get the best of us and just eat whatever is convenient, especially since we work at home and finding time to cook can be a challenge.

That, however, can’t be the case when the girl is with us. It’s a jumble of desires and worries that I want to tackle: I want her to feel comfortable with eating at our house. I want her to enjoy her meals. I want her to think that I’m a good cook (of course). I want her to tell her mom that I’m a good cook (OK, that’s a stretch). And of course, I want her to eat nutritious meals while she’s with us — not all junk food and sugary drinks and processed foods. Plus, her mother, grandparents and aunts will surely be asking about her time at our house and I want people to know that I am capable of making healthy and delicious meals (come on, that’s natural, right?).

So the first things I do to prepare for her arrival is to map out which meals she will be having with us and what foods I can serve. She’ll be staying one night with us and half a day with her grandparents, so that means I’ll be in charge of making one breakfast and one lunch for her at home.

I asked my boyfriend about her favorite foods. The list isn’t long — hot dogs, chicken nuggets, fish fillet, and shrimp. I figure the first two were staples in a kid’s diet because they were easy fixes, so I don’t mind getting those. For the other two, however, I had a bit of a problem. I don’t have a deep fryer which would make cooking fish fillets a breeze, so I worried that I might not cook them well. The shrimp, on the other hand, is something I have never cooked before myself. I love shrimp, but since my boyfriend doesn’t, I’ve skipped buying it because it can be expensive and wouldn’t be cost-effective for our budget if I’m the only one eating them.

So I wasn’t confident enough in my cooking skills to believe that I would satisfactorily pull off making her favorite dishes. I figured that could be done at a different weekend. So I wondered if I could serve something safer, like pan-fried pork chops or oven roasted chicken.

When she was finally here and lunch rolled around, my boyfriend and I served pork chops, salad with Asian dressing, steamed rice, and some chicken nuggets. We figured she’d at least try the pork chops. Unfortunately, she stuck to the nuggets. When we went out to the mall later, she only wanted McDonald’s for dinner because she wanted the Happy Meal toy. You guessed it — she chose the chicken nuggets meal.

Sigh.

The next morning, I made pancakes. She had requested pancakes, and I decided to make them the way I usually do when it’s just my boyfriend and I: banana pancakes with chocolate chips, with the choice of topping them with maple syrup or cinnamon sugar. I also fried up some maple bacon. Oh, the house smelled heavenly that morning. I thought she would get a healthy meal out of those bananas and cinnamon.

She ate only two pieces of pancakes, a lot of bacon, and half a glass of chocolate milk. I asked if she would like to bring home the remaining pancakes, but she said no.

Double sigh.

Lunch that day was to be at grandma’s house, so off we went. Of course, grandma made shrimp, and she ate up a storm — lots of rice, too.

Oh, well. The next time she comes over, I’ll have perfected my shrimp dish so she can eat a lot, too. I’ll also have her favorite milk drink ready, so she can still get her dietary needs even if she ends up eating a nugget or two the whole weekend.