I named this post "Food" as I have been thinking of food recently, and not because I am hungry, maybe because Christmas is looming, but mainly because I can't remember when it started, thinking, talking even watching food programs on lifestyle channel? I know as a kid I never gave any thought to food, I know I wasn't asked once "what would you like for dinner?" and I can't remember ever asking my mother "what's for tea?" it was a whole different generation, you ate what was put in front of you and you dare not turn your nose up either or you got the whole " children on the other side of the world are starving" spiel. Recently I observed my 3 year old grandson going to the fridge and just looking, when I asked what he was looking for he said he wanted something to eat but was not sure what? so it begins... Choices are we given so many and that is how we end up making very poor food choices? only to find later in life we do everything possible to correct the years of poor diet. I always thought my mother was a bit on the hard side, (tough love and all that), but upon reflection my mother raised my brother and myself, as a single working parent, only due to her own stubbornness and divorce, she made her life hard but rarely complained she lived by the saying "you make your bed you lie in it" but I am proud of her and for the food she put on the table, I can't remember ever going hungry, I can't remember ever eating out either until I was working and making my own money, my mother worked long hours as a barmaid and the meal we had on Monday night we also had on Tuesday and Wednesday night too, and from a very early age I can remember it was my brothers and my job to cook tea by way of the notes mum would leave on the kitchen table. I wish I still had one of the notes because each note was a recipe and it was how I learnt to cook, my daughter told me the other day that I haven't taught her to cook, (I know she wont starve) and I told her that I wasn't taught either I watched but that wasn't true, I was taught but didn't realise until now that I was taught by my mother but she was at work at the time. A typical note left for me, at the age of 10 ( my brother would have been at footy practice so it was my turn to cook) would be something like this... Go to the butchers and get 4 lamb neck chops, go to the corner store, get So the notes would never say this is the recipe for lamb stew, but like I said you never questioned the food choices, made by your mum, unless you are my daughters, I made the mistake of asking them what do you want for tea, and anytime I suggested a stew it was "yuk!" but I grew up on "Real Food" mum couldn't afford to waste money on processed or packet foods, and to be honest when I left home, and started to make my own decisions on what to buy and what to eat, I wasn't making the best choices and it has taken me a till recently to work that all out.
I have to admit I made some wrong choices for my girls and the one thing that stands out to me is, I bought my daughters 100% apple juice, thinking I am not going to give them rubbish to drink, yet knowing now that I might as well have been pouring 12 or more teaspoons of sugar down their throats, each glass they had, how wrong was I? also if I could go back to when they were both little, I wouldn't ask them what they wanted for tea, (it was always "chicken nuggets") and I would just do as my mum did and make sure they were eating real food. Oh and that tough love I spoke about earlier, one occasion (my brothers turn to cook) and he had to make "TRIPE" if you are not horrified yet, it gets worse! Peter was going well cooking as per the note left on the kitchen table, but when it came to final "add salt" the lid came off the salt shaker and nearly half fell in, and there is no way you can scoop that back out. When mum came home and discovered what had happened, she made my brother and I eat the tripe anyway as a lesson to be more careful, it was the worse meal I ever had as a kid. I have to say though later in life I had tripe (that mum cooked) and it wasn't too bad, but something makes a person say yuk when they think of eating the lining of a sheep gut! ha ha, Oh as cheap as tripe is, mum couldn't afford to waste food that was the other reason she made us eat it, not one of my happier lasting memories of Real Food!
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Wendy MeersI am a mother of two grown daughters, 3 beautiful grand-babies. Retired freelance Web Designer and a Sugar Free - Juicing Crusader& Keto supporter Archives
May 2022
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