Waste

We had a ton of food yesterday. The children were nibbling on Easter eggs so didn't really want to eat. The adults were well fed. My pregnant daughter went home with the leftover leg of lamb, a single portion of beef in red wine, a single portion of chicken a la king, and the cooked veg. I have to say, my husband and I are so exhausted this morning after all the work we did. I would love for us all to go out on special occasions but the children are all under five and they don't like sitting in restaurants.

Lucky girl. I bought a packet of different colour straws and now they ask me for a straw and choose a colour to use to drink the milk. I say " What colour today ? " and they pick one.
Better than saying they must drink the milk. More fun.

No one wants to waste food but 'indulgent parenting'?

No it's not just you I agree children are given so many choices and I'm amazed at how many parents cook separate meals just for the children my own daughter included my own children are whatever the main family meal was they did have a choice eat it or go hungry

I don't believe in forcing children to eat everything on their plate. My Grandmother used to do that though. When you think of the size of a child's stomach it does not take a lot of food to fill it. Give them small portions of what they like, you can always top up if they are still hungry. Better that than give them a huge plate full of food which makes them feel defeated before they start eating. In fact if you give them the choice of what to eat they usually are not a problem. No waste. Punishing them for not eating leads to problems later they say.

That's so funny * Jane*.
No waste in our house either with the dogs scoffing all the leftovers! (AND stealing too!)
When the GC are with us on holiday I try not to get stressed about what gets eaten and what doesn't. At home, within reason, I try to serve what they like to avoid waste. Sometimes the plate is a strange mixture of smoked salmon, mango, cherry tomato halves and cut apple?!

Marion I'm not really a dog person but I like to think I'm an honorary aunt to Winnie.
She is lovely and much-loved but quite naughty!

Nice dog! We can see it quite clearly. Looks very healthy.

My little GD (she is little - on 25th percentile) aged four barely eats at all. We waste huge amounts of food that she says she wants, then takes a couple of mouthfuls and leaves the rest. She is really active and I wonder where she gets the energy, it isn't from sweets or biscuits, so is a mystery. A doctor once told my mother that no child starves itself, so I suppose we must be content with this explanation. Experiments have also shown that given a free choice of foods even toddlers managed to consume a balanced intake, whereas later on we tend to lose instinctive eating patterns. To a certain extent I understand the frustration of wasting food, but I think it is well established now that insisting on a clean plate can lead to food issues later in life. There is no point in forcing a child to eat something he/she doesn't want and food waste is 'collateral damage'

I don't encourage waste. Dgd lives with me so I have a good idea of how much she eats.
There aren't many things she objects too but I'm old school, no pudding til dinners eaten etc.
Did you have an idea of what they liked and in what quantity before you cooked and dished up?

I think what the OP means is that quite often the grandkids ask for something and then after a couple of mouthfuls they leave it.
I think that's what she meant anyway?

Does anyone remember the old trick of serving the Yorkshire pudding and gravy first, followed by the meat dinner? That was so that people were half full before they started on the meat which was very expensive. My Yorkshire Grandma used to serve left over Yorkshire puddings with treacle, which sounds odd, but really it is just a pancake mix so went well.

Maggiemaybe Peapod wine is probably better than peapod soup (although obviously more of a palaver). My grandfather was famous for his country wines - elderflower, peapod, tealeaf (don't think that one was popular) potato, parsnip etc.

Why waste food when you can make something else from it? Vegetables can be made in to soup or used in an omelette. Potato can be made in to potato cakes or roasted to go with meat. Left over stew can be made in to curry with rice. Not a good idea to use left over fish and re-cook it so make salmon/tuna sandwiches instead. Mash it up with a bit of pepper and salt. Delicious! Food is very expensive, too expensive to just bin.

My terrible cooking means our family motto is 'eat out' so just buy what they all want.........no waste and if there is it is someone else's fault.

Should have said that I hope I treat everyone the same a I like to be treated so I would ask first if there are any problems or loved food (cucumber is a current favourite for snacking)and then try to be as tolerant of youth as I hope people are of me and my foibles of age.

Jane... The pics are both there on all your posts .... And I'm writing to say WHAT a lovely dog!!! ( I had a beauuuutiful black Labrador and I miss her greatly!!!)

I imagine most people don't make food for themselves that they don't like so no waste. This is not going to be so easy with visitors.

I think it may also depend on how old the GP is and how large the generational gap. There are very different eating traditions for people who grew up in the war, say and for small children now. I am unable to eat many things because of IBS but my children (in their 40s) very kindly take this into account. I am not keep on Japanese food either but my little Aussie family see it as everyday food - they indulge me with that too.

Oh FFS Sorry everyone

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Grrr!

I know what Isabella means, I do think many children get a lot of choice at home, and it seems to be ok to leave what they don't want to eat. I agree that seeing the wasting of food is hard especially for those of us on s limited budget. However, we do have a nationwide obesity problem, so I'm not sure it's such a good idea to teach children they must clear their plates. It's taken me years to learn I don't actually have to !

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so what happened to the pictures

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Lisalou We spent Christmas with a friend and her labrador. This is a piece of Blagdon Blue cheese that I had contributed, which was on the worktop in the kitchen while we ate our dinner in the other room. The other picture is of Winnie looking not at all sorry after she had been discovered to have eaten more than half of it

After 2 Dgc's for the weekend I have 1 leftover fish finger and there was the excess milk from cereals!
I don't seem to mind so much when the few leftovers go straight into the green compost caddy (like bags ).
Don't most councils do this? Apart from the composting benefit I feel it really raises awareness.

No wasted food in this house - we have a labrador!