As much as I love food, as big a foodie as I am, you’d think that I would have been instantly inspired by the Yahoo! Mother Board September blog topic: healthy eating.  I think it was that one word, that qualifier that threw me for a loop.  I think that one word had me re-thinking my approach to meals, to how we were doing in our attempts to eat healthy.

After some careful analysis, I feel better.  Really, we’re not doing that bad.  Okay, so we eat more fried chicken than any fifty people should.   In the scheme of things, we are also frying it in canola oil.  I’ve heard good things about canola oil.  Lots of good things.

And okay, maybe we could stand to eat more vegetables and fruits, but we can’t be doing that badly.  The fruit disappears from the basket almost as quickly as I stock it.  And there are rarely vegetable left overs after our meals.  We have a lot of salads. Lots.  And we try new kinds all the time.  Some are big hits…like the Pacific something one with poppy seed dressing and edamame.  Some are failures…like the strawberry one with the strawberry vinaigrette dressing and dried strawberry bits.

There is evidence, however, that I have managed to ingrain some good habits.  The kids are eating before they leave the house.  That’s huge, considering that they are in high school and middle school.  I never ate breakfast those years.

And the other night, my daughter made a pronouncement:

Rachel: Mom, this meal is the best idea you’ve had in a long time.

Yes, in an effort to have meals on the table before bedtime after working all day, the meals may get a bit stale, a bit lacking in creativity.  So what were the kids so excited about?  Well, it was  simple really.

I created a baked potato bar.

Yup.  Simple.  The potatoes were baked in the oven.  I steamed broccoli in a bag.  There was butter and sour cream and cheese.  There was bacon left over from breakfast that I sliced up and crisped in the microwave.  We even had some chicken to throw on top.  The kids were so excited.  And it made me feel guilty.

If it was so simple to make them happy and to spice up our big meal together, what else could I be doing?

I guess this means I’m going to have to dig deep this fall.  I’m going to have to find some new and intriguing crockpot recipes.  And…my kids have specifically requested that we partake in some red meat once in a while.  (Where did I go wrong!?)

They’ll probably live.  They’ll survive mealtime.  Whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, and all that jazz.  And this has merely served to prove that meals should be more of a joint effort.  I’m thinking if they could start dinner before I get home, we could eat more impressive and exciting meals.  Guess what the topic of our next family meeting is going to be?  Mwah ha ha.

This post was inspired the Yahoo! Mother Board September blog topic.