Rescuing Real Food

Do any of you have a child (or spouse) who loves mac and cheese out of a blue box but won't touch the homemade stuff?  I was thinking about this phenomenon last night while I cooked dinner.  It seems to me that real food has become an acquired taste.

I know how it happens, I grew up with a working and sometimes single mom who didn't have time to cook.  She always put food on the table and we were always happy to have it, but homemade mac and cheese was not on the menu.  I grew up eating out of a blue box.  Or a red one, or a yellow one, or a can, or the freezer...you get the picture.  Mom had a few things she made for special occasions and was justifiably proud of but usually we ate what was cheap and convenient.  My kids have had their share of cheap and convenient too.  Frozen chicken nuggets were a staple in my freezer for years and still sometimes make an appearance.  I have mixed up what is in the blue box.  But I would be sad if my children sat down to a scratch prepared dish and turned up their noses because it didn't taste like Kraft or Tyson or Stouffer's or ... McDonald's.  Not just because I want my time rewarded and my effort praised (although I do) but because I want them to know real food when they see it.  I want them to put wholesome, simple food into their bodies and actually like the way it tastes.  That is not going to happen if it is not what I feed them.  Kids like what they know.

So, here are two simple foods that I prepared last night that do not taste like the packaged varieties but were a big hit.

Basic Brownies

1/2 C butter
1C sugar
1 t vanilla
2 eggs
2  1 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate squares OR 6T unsweetened cocoa powder and 2T vegetable oil
3/4C flour

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees and prepare an 8x8 baking pan.
2.  In a medium saucepan melt butter and add chocolate.  Stir until smooth.  Remove from heat.
3.  Stir in sugar.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla.  Stir in flour.
4.  Spread into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes.
5.  Cool and cut into 16 squares.

These brownies are rich and slightly chewy and delicious.  If you like nuts you can add walnuts or pecans with the flour.  My family loved them last night.  They do not taste like a mix - and I think brownies out of the box are very tasty - but mine have super simple ingredients, no artificial anything and taste like home.  Oh, and I mix them right in the pot so I only dirty the pot, the pan and the spoon.

Roasted Chicken

6-7lb. roasting hen
2 lemons
vegetable oil
salt and pepper

1.  Remove giblets from chicken cavity.  Rinse entire bird and pat dry.
2.  Salt and pepper chicken inside and out.
3.  Slice lemons in half and put all four halves inside your bird.
4.  Put chicken in roasting pan breast side up and brush with oil.
5.  Roast in a 350 degree oven for 2-2 1/2 hours.

I have lots of friends who don't roast a whole chicken, ever!!  In fact, many of them have never prepared chicken that didn't leave a package boned, breaded and in oven ready pieces or come in a three pack skinless and boneless.  If that sounds like you, you are missing the boat and one of the best meal values around.  Whole chickens are very inexpensive and super simple to prepare.  We ate sliced breast meat last night and have plenty left over for quesadillas on Saturday.  Tonight I'm making soup with the wings and thighs and extra breast meat.  I paid $8.00 for my chicken and will get three dinners out of it.  Best of all, my children know what an actual chicken looks and tastes like.  Neither of them asked for the "nugget".