For a long time, Moo never ate meat. I don’t know why. I never asked. Having been a vegetarian for six years, this never bothered me. There are always people who comment about how important it is to eat meat and how the baby needs the protein and blah blah blah.
i took nutrition, bitches
I’ve got nothing against meat. I cook it almost every day. I eat a bit of it. Sometimes. Rarely. I sometimes eat toddler portions of meat. I generally prepare four servings of meat. One for The Mister, one for his lunch, one for Sassy, and then one to split between Moo, the dog, and myself. About once a month, I crave a cheeseburger or a chicken sandwich. I assume that’s a request for iron, which yes, I do run low on.
I’m just not a fan of meat. One fried chicken strip, six bites of steak, bits of meat in a soup or stew, coupla strips of bacon or sausage — that’s a week of meat for me. Honestly, I don’t care for the texture of meat and I don’t think cooked mammals agree with me particularly well.
Moo always has liked fish and eggs, as have I. There are always people who comment about how fish is meat, and fish have faces and vegetarians shouldn’t eat anything with a face or how eggs hatch and have faces and blah blah blah.
i eat unborn fish & fowl
All of my other kids are quite carnivorous. Bubba loves a meatloaf, Sissy will cut a bitch for some pork, and the reason I came to eat meat after those six years is because Sassy cried for meat from the womb. Pregnant with Sassy, I was an indiscriminate meat eater. Pregnant Me once asked Beauty Queen to make me a bologna sandwich on white bread with Miracle Whip because hers smelled really, really good (to the baby!) She asked me, “You know bologna’s meat, right?” Yep. I did. I do not eat Miracle Whip, and I only eat white bread and bologna at the beach, but the baby loved that sandwich!
these are beach sammiches — AND THE CHEESE GOES IN THE MIDDLE SO IT DOESN’T TOUCH THE MAYO!
Four-year-old Moo used to tell people she was a vegetarian except for sausage. And then except for sausage and bacon, and then except for sausage and bacon and turkey, and then we taught her to say, “I’m not big on meat.” There are still people who are irritated by this. I am not one of them.
What I am irritated by is her inability to remember the names of food and dishes. When they were smaller, I understood how they forgot summer squash or how they didn’t remember what scallopini was. But now she’s eleven. Every night is some version of this:
“Whatcha makin?”
“Stir fry.”
“Ugh.”
“You like stir fry. It has lotsa broccoli.”
“I don’t even know what stir fry is.”
“It’s what’s fer dinner.”
“Ugh.”
— Ten minutes later, I add the veggies and put the lid on, she comes into the kitchen and says, “Oh yummy! I love this! With the rice?”
“Not for you, you don’t like the rice.”
“Yeah, I only like rice for sushi.”
“It is the exact same rice, but okay.”
i believe i mentioned moo loves broccoli ferrealiously?
“What’s for dinner?”
“Pork chops, cabbage, carrots, and wild rice.”
“Ugh.”
“What? You love cabbage, you love carrots…”
“Ehhhh…the rice with shiny bits?”
“Yes.”
“I like that rice.”
“Yes, and you love cabbage and carrots.”
— Then an hour later, “Mmm mmm mmm, I just love this cabbage.”
Uh huh.
Finally, around age five, I discovered Moo had a favorite dish and it didn’t have a name. At least, I didn’t have a name for it. Almost everyone in the Midwest eats it, it was a staple meal when I was growing up, it definitely falls into the comfort food category, and it’s always at family reunions and pitch-ins round these parts.
When I would describe the contents of said meal, her face would light up and she couldn’t wait to eat it. “You’re makin my stew! Oh that’s my favorite!”
*cooks dish and photographs it*
mmm, steamy!
I’m not a recipe person, but if you’re inclined, I give pretty good instructions. Put in just enough water to cover the bottom of a big ol pot, heat up some diced onions. Add smoked sausage, sliced to your liking. I always give the ends to the dog. People are weird about the ends of sausages.
sadie waits for the okay
When the onions are soft, add beef broth, green beans, red potatoes, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer.
We call it Moo Stew.
There are variations of this all over the internet. I prefer to make this with fresh green beans and potatoes, but when I was a working mommy, I didn’t hesitate to use bouillon cubes and canned potatoes & green beans, and it was still delicious (and no one died of sodium intake.)
So, do you eat a plant-based diet? Do you like the taste of fish faces? Do your kids claim to hate everything they love?
This post is part of the Just Jot It January series, brought to you by LindaGHill.
joeyfullystated 
Carnivore all the way. Love the Pulp Fiction meme.
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I don’t eat red meat. Gave it up years ago and don’t miss it. I could probably give up poultry and pork, too, but when you cook for a family, it’s easier to cook meat. Plus, I really, really like my chicken cacciatore…
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Heavily plant-based but sometimes we go on a carnivorous binge. Husband will report he needs the smell of searing flesh on the grill. Yeah. I’ve been enjoying discovering lots of new vegetables lately including kale and celeriac. And the glories of cauliflower and lentils. I should stop now. This could go on and on.
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Right? I could talk food for hours and hours — I damn near did!
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And hours! Definitely.
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Meat eater. Daughter is vegetarian – no fish. Mrs eats meat, but not usually fish. We have both meat and meatless meals on a regular basis. Accommodating choices, that’s dinner around here. Sounds like you’re a master at that. Great post.
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Thanks 🙂
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Owen was not big on meat when he was little and he will still eat that last on his plate. I’m totally fine with that. I could definitely be a pescatarian. I crave a steak once in a great while but if I was told I would never eat meat that didn’t swim again, it wouldn’t bother me….especially pork. Unfortunately I was born into a family of pork lovers. It’s funny that I am reading this as I am eating…I made quesadillas and put seasoned chicken in Owen’s. I started to make mine with onions, chilies, tomatoes, and jalapeños and then said “ugh I need the protein today” before reluctantly throwing a few bits of chicken into mine! When I sat down and saw Samuel L. “Say protein one more time” it made me giggle.
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Glad you can relate. I eat a lot of beans and often, eggs 🙂
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I had beans tonight, too!
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There’s your protein 😉
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One of my kids thinks all white meat is chicken, even when it comes shaped like a pork chop. Mmm, good chicken, she’ll say. One of my kids hates meat and subsists on yogurt, peanut butter and hummus. The youngest is, thanks be to gawd, an omnivore like her father. I eat standing up and anything that comes my way, preferably cooked by someone other than me.
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Thanks for chiming in! That good chicken bit is somethin I’ve gone through with two of mine. No matter, so long as they eat it! I love hummus and peanut butter, and I eat yogurt every single day 🙂
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Funny as usual. I experienced the same baby cravings when I was prego. With my twin boys, it was fruit, fruit and more fruit. I was one of those annoying women who don’t look pregnant from behind (it was my first so sue me.) My boys still prefer fruit to most sweets. Boy did I make up for it when prego with St. Mary who loved sweets, sweets and more sweets. I looked prego from front, back, sideways, just my face, just my ankles. If it had sugar in it, I ate it. She still loves sweets, and for the first two years after starting solids, she loved veggies, esp. broccoli. None of us are veggies, but I don’t judge others for what they eat. I am big on left overs. I’ll make a dish that lasts our family of five three to four nights. My MIL thinks I am a cruel wife/mother for this. That’s fine. It’s healthy, saves on food and time and keeps me sane (although the things I make taste pretty good, I don’t relish cooking…we’ve talked about this before.) Anyhoo, whatever keeps ya truckin’, I say!
Love,
E
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I know plenty of people who make a big dish and eat on it for days. I don’t think that bears any semblance to cruelty…
I’m still stunned. Sanity is crucial. Sanity above all else…
Thanks for sharing 🙂
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My cousin (Eirinn) who is now 27 has been a vegetarian since pre-womb-hood. She is 5′ 11″ and all of 125 lbs if we are lucky. She has had friends’ parents try to sneak her meat. Not cool. As long as there is a protein and folic acid and B12 are good there are no problems. I on the other hand cannot do a veggie diet – I don’t get the folic/b12 thing well from other sources. But I love cooking all the vegetarian meals i learned while being Eirinn’s nanny. Its no one business about your children if they are healthy.
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I think educated people know that meat isn’t essential for proper nutrition, but people DO love to go on about it! 😛
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We are all carnivores in our house. I also have an 11 year old, whose tastes vary from one week to the next. One minute she likes something, the next she is offended if i even mention it!
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Loved your bologna sandwich tale (“I’m doing it for the baby”). Since I’ve never been preggers, I haven’t touched bologna since Mom’s Miracle Whip days (YUK).
Every time we go to the grandkids’ house (weekly), it’s a mystery what they will and won’t like, which -other than steadfast likes for mac/cheese, broccoli and black-eyed peas – changes from week to week and kid to kid. Needless to say we eat a lot of broccoli and black eyed peas.
Another never-discussed and kinda sad fact about aging … All of a sudden this year I’m tired of the food I’ve been eating for 60 years and that’s pretty much everything from peanut butter to steak. Nothing sounds good except jasmine rice and chocolate (not mixed together).
Great post. Moo Stew 💖
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Thanks for weighing in, Sammy! I’m a total sucker for jasmine rice. It always sits well in my stomach. I wonder if I will one day develop a love for a rice cooker and never look back?
Broccoli and black-eyed peas are a win here, too. My kids don’t change too much about what they like, but they do seem to care how it’s mixed, if that makes sense.
I would not eat Miracle Whip now, and never did after that one bologna sammich incident. Yuck is right! But the baby loved it!
That little bitch didn’t let me eat peaches or cheesecake the whole time I carried her…Hmph!
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Definitely – it’s all about the mixing … Or nothing touching on the plate!
I hope you’re making up for that dry spell of cheescake 😊
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I hate Miracle Whip, it’s a miracle all right….Sounds like you have a complicated food regime to contend with. Pretty much everything works here but “curry”…Parker doesn’t like it, but can’t explain when he ever ate it. So I go curry-less. Otherwise we eat all the eye things. I don’t mind a veggie person at all, but I contend that people are not gonna raise cattle and pigs to look at, so they will disappear as a species if we all stop eating them. So I’m actually supporting the species by my way of thinking. Well it works for me.
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Mmm, curry! I make a chicken curry and naan a coupla times a year 😛
Thank you for saving the livestock!
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I very nearly gave up meat when I got serious about losing the weight I gained after I quit smoking. I wasn’t very good at the whole calorie counting thing, and somehow I missed the fact that meat really doesn’t have a lot of calories and I’ve never been a big meat eater anyway, so I ate very little of it. Then one day my body just SCREAMED for protein (I promise, I won’t say it again) so I went on a meat binge that lasted for a few weeks. Since then I’ve learned more about how to get everything I need from foods that I like, and meat has less of a place in my diet.
Moo Stew looks delicious!
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This was really funny, kids change there mind every 5 seconds, it can be really cute but it’s hard to figure out what they like other than chocolate!
I’ve been veggie for a while after eating meat for 15 years, after about 6 months I started to dislike the smell of meat, now i don’t crave it at all because I don’t really like it!
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Thank you for commenting — true enough, all my kids have ALWAYS liked chocolate!
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“I’m not big on meat” either, but once in a while I do crave a porterhouse steak…
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