Food and Eating

As many of my dear friends know, I really enjoy a lot of things about French Culture, not so sure about French people I don't personally know any native French and though we were in a hostile in London with a very rude French family it wouldn't be fair to judge an entire culture by such a small sample.
I am almost finished with my second French parenting book (let me clarify though, these are not step 1. do this, step 2. do that; but more societal comparisons "The French do this, which contrasts with how American's do this because...").

The first book I read was Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman, she is American and her husband is Brittish, both of them being writers they can work anywhere and her husband convinced her to move to France with him as he was already living there. In the end she ends up describing her children as "poorly behaved French kids and very well behaved American kids." What most infatuates me about the French culture as I have now seen in two books, though I am nowhere near an expert on the subject, is most parent's seem to be on the same page about feeding, sleeping, discipline, etc. Which is such a drastic difference to Americans, just make a status about parenting on any social media website and watch how fast the comments come in!

The second book I am reading, I am almost done is called French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon, she is Canadian and her husband is a Frenchmen who was perfectly happy to NOT be in France. I enjoyed this book very much and most enjoyed gaining a different perspective on meals.

To start, I love food, my whole family likes to tease me for how much I love pie! Who doesn't love pie? For the French eating is so culturally ingrained it is basically a past time, and everyone seems to follow very similar "rules" and "procedures" for meal times. I have been a very picky eater since I can remember, I recall going on hunger strikes for take out... usually Arby's... being such a strong willed child it took more times than I care to admit to realize that not only was no one taking me to Arby's but I got zero attention, except maybe the occasional "cut it out." We did not have a short order cook, however we were allowed to make something else ourselves. I appreciated this at the time but I do not appreciate being a picky eater now and my husband and I now enjoy challenging our taste buds by introducing different foods into out meals, even foods we are certain we won't like!

The French do not substitute, you eat what's offered or you do not eat. I can see where some parents would think this is cruel but the book did bring up the good point that no one is trying to get their child to eat worms, they are trying to get them to eat generally well liked and nutritional foods. If a child doesn't eat dinner, they will just eat better at breakfast. Something at first I did not like was that if a child refuses to try something the French just let it go, or even remove the item from the plate. I was firmly of the belief that kids should HAVE to try everything. Karen explains that by removing the food, you are stopping the power struggle , there is no argument to be had. Then apparently next time the food is at the table you gently encourage the child to try it again.

Of course I do not have children (until June 2014) but I feel very lucky to be around friends and relatives with kiddos who are in general good eaters. We have good friends whose children are good eaters (Simon and I are still getting used to introducing more veggies) their daughter who has always been offered these foods, will down a small bowl of cherry tomatoes like it were candy! Like the French they encourage her to eat what they are having, and if she doesn't want it, fine, no big deal. There is usually enough options she finds something she enjoys!

Options is what finally encourage me to start writing this today. Of course the French eat multiple courses with every meal... because it's fancy. This is a very strange thing to me as I am most used to eating, a main dish, and that is all. We didn't have big elaborate meals growing up, my parents always made pretty fancy salads but I was not a salad eater so often I just got the main entree.

We have started doing not necessarily courses, but kind of. I have been trying to do a little appetizer, like chips and salsa or my bacon stuffed pepper that are easily thrown in the oven for 20 minutes, with or without a salad, a main course (it's still hard for me to remember to prepare a side dish) and a small dessert, usually just ice cream. We eat less of each thing so we are eating the same amount, but getting a wider variety of food.

Now what really prompted me to write the post I have been wanting to write for weeks, but of course putting off because I'm lazy. I plan on prepping my chicken tetrazzini tonight for tomorrow's meal, so the thought of making an actual dinner for us in addition seemed daunting. I knew what we had left in the Eat Out budget and thought sandwiches were sounding, easy and within the budget. I got to the grocery store, we needed eggs and of course ice cream, before I headed to the eggs section I thought "I should look at the cheese!" Simon's mom almost always serve a cheese plate before meals, my bet is because her husband is British, or like any sane person she just loves cheese! I got some multi-grain crackers, smoked Gouda, (my favorite because as creepy as it is, it sort of tastes like meat) a Spinach-artichoke cheese, and some Laughing Cow soft Swiss. Suddenly I was exited to make a dinner, I love surprising my husband (he has an almost scary passion for cheese) and of course I really enjoy making meals he will love! I was so excited to cut everything up and make it look all pretty, for dinner we had popcorn shrimp and some kind of potato side, it was a potato sliced (not all the way through) with oil and salt and pepper, needless to say someone posted it on Facebook.

What I enjoyed most about the French eating book is it gave lots of info about how the French eat as well as how they incorporated these tactics into their own family's eating lifestyle. For example French kids eat one snack a day, and French adults don't snack at all, however when the family moves back to Canada after a year in France they practically have to let their children snack. Not only does their school age daughter only get 10 minutes to eat her lunch (after all the work her parent's spent teaching her to eat slowly!) and there are several designated snack times within the school day.

I personally have been working on my snacking as well, this was harder earlier in my pregnancy because my blood sugar level was so crazy but it's fine now and it's really crazy how much I was eating just to eat! I decided to simply monitor the snacks and if I was actually hungry I would eat, if I was simply thinking "I bet that would taste good" then I wouldn't, needless to say as long as I am paying attention to my snacking, I don't snack as much and I even go whole days without snacking!