Chomp!

By Ron Aiken

On occasion, Chomp! gives his family grief about their dining proclivities, specifically when it comes to those things people buy in the frozen food aisle of which I am forbidden to mention by name under threat of harm. As a result, we have taken upon ourselves to eat healthier; at least the adults – after all, kids should be allowed to be kids from time to time.

With a busy household of three children ages 9 to 18, private time between adults is more a punch line than a reality, which is why it was SO NICE to come home the other evening to a “picnic” supper created by my fiancee that we enjoyed in the den with the door closed for privacy. I’m happy to report that said privacy was only violated four times in the hour we had, which is pretty good with our lot. And I mean really, Chomp! and his fiancee are WONDERFUL people, so it’s a bit cruel of us in the first part to deprive our children of our presence for very long.

But back to the food! Behold the smorgasbord of healthy options laid (literally) at my feet!

 

How thoughtful and kind was it of Chomp!’s fiancee to not only think of this, but to surprise Chomp! with it all prepared? SUPER THOUGHTFUL AND KIND, that’s what! 

Some closeups, for you to take and use in your home at your leisure…

The raw veggies, which I love this way. We had some tzatziki sauce leftover I’d gotten Leesa over the weekend when she had a tummyache and craved some, which we used with the veggies to great effect.

The fruit bowl. She hand-sliced the kiwi, which was WONDERFUL, as were the strawberries and blackberries.

The fruit and cheese bowl. This was Chomp!’s FAVORITE bowl. There’s just nothing like some great cheese (I believe we used some asiago and aged parmesan) to go with fresh apples and oranges. I could have eaten about two bowls of this by myself.

The pineapple! Who DOESN’T love pineapple??? People who hate America, that’s who! That’s not you, is it? GOOD! Let’s have pineapple!

Because my sweet baby loves hummus and toasted pita bread, we also had some of that on hand, which was a nice complement to the acidity of the fruit

All in all, it was a swell night with great company and great, nutritious food. So often as we go about the business of maintaining the health and well-being of our children, we can overlook some things for the sake of what we consider convenience, whether it be a pizza here or skipping something where the parents maybe have time to themselves in favor of what the kids want. Those things are all fine and have their place, but so, too, should stopping sometimes and recognizing that we do have a choice in what we eat and in the message we send our children by our own food choices and our own relationship choices – if they see that mommy and daddy take time for each other that’s private and important, they’re more likely to make the same good decisions down the road in their own relationships, which is the whole point of this parenting business in the first place.

So, make a healthy food choice this week and make a choice to close the door for 30 minutes to let your spouse or significant other know you’re they’re for them and I think the outcome will be far healthier nutritionally and spiritually than anything you can get from a frozen box.

Til next week!

 

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