Feeding The Family

I love cooking, especially baking. I could bake all day but man can not live on cake alone. Actually this woman probably could but my BMI shows that it's not the best idea. So tasty healthy food has to be made along with the cakes. I have to make sure everyone else in my family eats healthily too. I also want to make sure my food is fresh and with the rising cost of everything, I have to count the pennies and wasted food has to be a no no. Everything in my cupboards has to be used up.
And then there are the people who I am feeding. My family firstly. My son T, 16, decided he wanted to follow a vegetarian diet a few months ago. Not really a problem but sometimes it's just too easy to give him something pre-prepared  and he has so much pasta.  I really want to make him home made food when possible.
My daughter R, 12, is a somewhat fussy eater. I generally ignore her culinary complaints though and give her what we are eating. Sometimes though, I feel like being a different kind of mother (a benevolent, generous, non grouchy mother) and will give her her favourite. I have learned not to give either of the children their favourite meals  too frequently  or they quickly become unfavourite meals!
My husband, Michael, is not particularly fussy and very rarely complains but does have a particular and peculiar facial expression to show his dislike if his  dinner is not to his taste. But he's normally too hungry to fuss and knows if he wants an alternative he'll have to go in the kitchen and make it. He brings stress to the meal time schedule by the fact he has to commute and doesn't get home until 8.30pm Monday-Thursday. Irritating time to serve up and unhealthy time to eat but it's what we have to do.
Now both of us, have realised our love of food, especially the cakes for me and cheese (and wine) for him have lead us to take drastic action to try and shed some weight.  So we're following the Fast Diet. This means for 2 days out of 7 we cut down our calorific intake considerably. I can eat 500 calories and he can eat up to 600. It's tough but is working and has great health benefits. The tricky thing is trying to create interesting, delicious food for that amount of calories but it can be done.
And on the other 5 days we can eat what we like! Waahey! Including cake! WAAAHEY!  Now I don't swoon over cakes that look pretty as much as cakes with bite,  hearty cakes, cakes that have back stories, cakes  that come from faraway places.  Hmmm, not sure I can actually define the cakes I love but hope to make it clear on this blog.