changing family eating habits
Since Dawn is out of town at a catering convention this week, I thought I would re-run an article that Dawn wrote several months ago. Dawn wears many hats: to some, she is Dawn Walker a wife, mother, daughter, Maj Jongg player and friend. To others, she is Chef Dawn, an entrepreneur. And to the Scene readers, I hope she has become more than a friendly author, chef and restaurant reviewer, but someone that can help you enjoy added valuable time with your family by providing you with healthy meals that only need to be warmed up and served. You don’t have to scramble around after a long day to cook. Add a salad and a veggie and your family can sit down together and eat! – Marlene
Here is Dawn’s article:
When I was a kid, I was the pickiest eater: hamburgers plain, macaroni and cheese, nothing with tomato sauce, nothing with onions, nothing with anything green, nothing too chewy, and nothing too soft. Sound familiar? Looking back, I wonder how much I missed. I mean, if you are constantly asking to modify the food that is offered to you, how do you really understand what flavor combinations taste like? A plain hamburger tastes much different than one with cheese, grilled onions and 1000 island dressing. My palate was as undeveloped and unsophisticated as the food I ate.
I meet moms all the time who have kids that will not eat anything besides macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets and plain pasta. It is unfortunate. I believe that children’s palates get accustomed to certain types of food, making it harder and harder as they get older to accept new tastes and textures. These children could turn out to be adults with lots of food aversions not because they are the type of people who would otherwise not be adventurous eaters, but because their palate is underdeveloped and food actually does taste “wrong” to them.
I have a cousin who exemplifies what I am talking about. Growing up, he would reject most new foods. He ended up having a very limited repertoire of food that he ate – pizza, chicken fingers, french fries, only one certain shape of pasta and milk. As a young adult, he is morbidly obese and desperately wanting to lose weight and change his eating habits. The problem is that when he tries healthier food, he can’t stand it. I suspect that these foods do not taste right to him because his palate was never trained to like these types of foods. After 24 years of eating such a limited array of food, he can not tolerate anything new.
I am on a mission. My mission is to transform the eating habits of families in Santa Clarita. I started this mission in my own family. When we had kids, my husband and I decided to help them develop tastes for food that I would never eat as a child. Early on, we fed them food with different tastes and textures. If they refused something, we try again and again. Studies have shown that you have to expose kids to a certain type of food many times before they develop a taste for it. All four of my kids will try anything. They may not like something but they are adventurous and trusting that even if that item does not taste good, they can finish it anyway. We ended up with a five year old who craves truffle cheese, blue cheese and seaweed. The down side to having kids who are adventurous eaters is that you have kids who are adventurous eaters. Dining out is, needless-to-say, expensive.
At my kid’s school, Santa Clarita Valley International Charter School, I help start programs which encourage healthy eating at school. The school’s wellness policy not only gives suggestions to parents about healthy snacks to bring in for school birthday parties but highly discourages candy of any kind on campus. The “Snack Shack” offers snacks free from high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, flavors, colors or preservatives. The new school lunch program is being provided by a vendor who offers our students mostly organic meals including sushi, chicken mole, baked potato bar, and Chinese Chicken Salad. They do not fry or bread anything. Another amazing program that I started at SCVi was around our local Farmers Market. A volunteer shows up at the end of our Sunday’s Farmer’s Market to pick up the fresh fruit and vegetables that the farmer’s were unable to sell. The produce is taken to school and washed. Fresh fruit is put out on a platter in the Student Center for the students to munch on during the day. I come in on Monday’s and cook with the kids using whatever vegetables we get. During the winter months, I make healthy soups from the produce. Kids who admit to never eating their vegetables at home suddenly are eating soup made solely of vegetables! I can’t walk down the halls without students asking when we are having soup again. Last year, we made eggplant dip, tabbouleh, lettuce wraps and salad. This program helps kids become accustomed to eating fresh fruit and vegetables.
I began my newest and most exciting venture because I felt families were eating out too often. Dining options in the Santa Clarita Valley for families are limited. Meals at many chain restaurants are filled with carbohydrates and fat, missing lean protein, fresh produce and whole grains. Because parents up here are so involved in their children’s lives, and children seem to be busier with homework and extra-curricular activities, families have less time to plan and prepare meals at home, forcing them to grab unhealthy meals on the go. At Dawn’s Dinners, I prepare healthy, home-style dinners for busy families. I drop off in Castaic twice and week, and have pick-ups in Stevenson Ranch twice a week. Meals average about $22 for four people or $28 for six. My meals are full meals, ready to eat. I also have a freezer full of complete meals that clients take home for future meals or for entertaining. I get calls frequently for meals being delivered to new moms or ill friends and family. All my meals are kid tested – my family eats the same meal that I prepare for your family.
My goal with Dawn’s Dinners is to help families eat home-made meals at home and to lighten the burden of busy families.
Yes, it is true too many people have started eating out because they have just come exhausted with life. Especially in this economy if both parents are not working, making ends meet is difficult. The restaurants in SCV are over-crowded anyway. To get into any place at all you have to dine on a weekday. On one side it’s good to support the local business by eating out, but on the other, eating at home creates better family values and is less expensive. Great post!