What's for dinner, mom?

My boys don't always eat what I dole out. But they like to ask, every day, "What's for dinner, mom?", and are my biggest food critics, no doubt!

As their mommy and personal cook, and not that I plan an elaborate dinner menu -- I don't, and I normally don't decide how I want to cook something until the day itself, I'm just happy if they eat (and eat up!) their portions!

Here's about a week's worth of dinner in our home, this month, listed in order of both boys' preference. It's a week's worth if you count that chicken soup in the previous post, and the beef stew we're having for dinner afterwards... hehe!

Orignially, I had a longer story behind each of these meals to tell, also the reason I'd snapped the pictures. But better this compiled version than none, right? Maybe I'll do a compiled lunch post another time? But I'm hardpressed for time to go finish some chores... and I don't mean just the laundry, and will it stop piling up so soon, already? Catch you later!

Too "la la"! ("la la" meaning spicy, in Chinese)


A one-dish meal I adapted from a recipe for honey-soy pork, this curry version looks nothing like the one shown in the magazine, because I'd substituted cumin with curry powder.

Personally, I liked how it turned out, but quite understandably, not the boys and their daddy, who can have as good as zero tolerance for spicy food!

A bit "la la"! More soup, please!


I used pineapple juice, instead of egg for the breadcrumbs to stick to the fish, hoping the sweet/sour juice would tone down the slightly spicy seasoning.

Good thing there was that winter melon soup!

Mmm! But hey, where'd those green pepper come from?


For our semi-homemade pita bread pizza, the boys pick their own toppings. Sometimes I sneak in some greens here and there, too.

Better yet, the greens show up in the form of soup, like this "ABC soup". Did it get its name, because it's as easy as ABC to make (not really, if you count how much peeling and cutting there is to do), or because it has some of these vitamins? Do you know?



Seconds, please!


This simple roast pork -- just marinade, and toss into the oven to cook, gets eaten up, quite as easily as it's done, too... most of the time!

Seconds, and thirds, please!


Our boys like our chicken grilled, too -- oven-grilled, that's how I do ours, and that's one thing that works for us a lot!

Next to that, this batch was extra special, because the dear husband eventually helped me cook it outside on the charcoal grill, on a crazy Sunday when I was running from place to place! And because we hadn't taken out our grill for half a year now, doing that was a rare treat for us all, even though it was a lastminute thing.

What works for us
While I usually don't dress up my boys' food to make it appear more kid-friendly, it does help if I pair something that isn't as popular with them, with something else that they are more likely to eat.

Or it can be as basic as serving it with the 'right' carbohydrate, like noodles or whatever shape pasta with stew (it gets eaten faster, I realised, than with rice), or mashed potato (for meat or fish cooked a certain way), or bread (of the baked variety, like dinner biscuits, garlic bread, and more recently, pita pockets, and usually when there's soup).

Are you, or your children, picky eaters, too? What are some ways that have worked for you, to help them, or you, lick the plate clean, other than eating out?