Monday, January 11, 2016

Feeding a 12 Year Old

Feeding my son is a full-time project.
He goes to school with a sandwich, fruit or pepper strips and something sweet for snack (cookie, appletasche, nußschnecke (think nut filled cinnamon roll) and sometimes nuts too. That is SNACK. He also has a full hot lunch and where he goes to school - they have excellent food. Truly a full meal, including soup.

Today he came home and has griesknockerl soup for a snack. Made with DH'S homemade broth. Then off to sports.
My authentic griessnockerl soup recipe can be found on this blog post from years ago (2006)!

When he got home, he ate an entire container of blueberries while I cooked supper - pictured above. My homemade version of popcorn chicken with rice and veggies. DH and I also had sauteed mushrooms with garlic.

Before bed I am sure he will have a coldcut sandwich with mozerella cheese since we have his favorite fresh bread from the bakery. And who knows what else.

BUT, what really bothers me is that he had a government doctor school check up just before Christmas break. This is not your own family DR, BUT a DR who actually goes to the school to give a check up. And, get this, this DR told my son to try to eat more because he is borderline annorexic??!! What? Please come live with us for 2 days and then tell me that! And people wonder why 12 year olds started being so body self-concious. Geez!

Some photos of various meals  I have made recently... a lot of times I do not take a photos so this is just to give you an idea!  I like to take photos for my "food" album on my phone and when I am stuck for a cooking idea, I will flip through them.  I buy packaged garlic bread BUT only make 1/2 a loaf a meal and that works perfectly for our family of 3. Fresh veggies need to be repeated fairly often before they go bad with a small family, so this past week you can see that it was green beans and mushrooms! Salad goes on a side plate - Son doesn't really like salad but will usually take a 2nd serving of veggies.


Bacon wrapped cheese sausages with fresh green beans, broth potatoes (potatoes that are cooked while we are making our chicken broth for the week, they absorb the flavor of the broth) garlic bread and orange slices. Freshly grated horseradish with mustard too. Green salad on the side for DH and me.

Weißwurst (while sausage that you boil) with carrots and broth potatoes, garlic bread. This is not a meal - this was a weekend snack! BUT really, we usually make broth everything weekend so the potatoes were done and the carrots and wurst really take about 10 minutes. No effort.


Stew. With a boiled dumpling thing?! I am trying to learn some Austrian dishes. You slices the dumpling and serve the stew over.  Different...but good. Still, I am a noodles girl - I ended up making the noodles too.

Kabobs with a yogurt sauce, mixed veggies including brussel sports,  baked potato/ sour cream and garlic bread.
Pork cutlet with a bacon sauce, green beans, garlic bread and spätzel with sauteed mushrooms. Son does not like spätzel so I probably made him spiral noodles or something like that.
A winter lentil soup with noodles,  various left over meats, potatoes, etc.
Steak, baked potato, green beans and sauteed onions/mushrooms.

Tomorrow night we are having baked chicken, so I will roast butternut squash and a head of garlic at the same times to go with.

I try to come up with a varity of food. My favorite food is spaghetti, and we always have that at least 1x a week...usually serve with brocolli...because my son loves brocolli, but not really spaghetti so I figure that balances things out.

The good news is that Son has expressed an interest in learning how to cook. He already make many of his own snacks. Plus, we always have a fruit bowl on the go.  Tomorrow there are no extra activities planned so he can help with preparing dinner. He like to eat good food, so it will be good for him to started learning some simple dishes. 

4 comments:

Paula, the quilter said...

Well that sounds like a doctor who has never had to feed a teenaged boy. I know what you are experiencing as I went through it when my son was growing up. The "two hollow leg" adage is so very very true.

{Geo}Holly said...

Teenage boys - hungry all the time. I remember having five gallons of milk and a jug of orange juice that took up the entire top shelf of my fridge when my kids were that age. You cook delicious meals!!

Roby said...

Don't we all wish we had the metabolism of a teenager. I remember clearly the days of a refrigerator filled with milk,yogurt,cheese,cold cuts,bread,fruit and other goodies - just for snacks in between. Teenagers need a lot of protein, and even more if they engage in sports. They also need a little fat for their brain. Luckily, my children were not picky eaters at this age. They not only liked meat and chicken, they also devoured milk, milk products and eggs. Eggs are a cheap source of protein, and it takes no time to fix them. Eggs were my go-to for breakfast, most often scrambled with a little cheese or ham, several slices of toast, a glass of milk and some juice or a piece of fruit. I still cook this for myself, but only on weekends (I do not have the metabolism of a teenager, sad but true). Your food looks delicious.

Doodlebug Gail said...

Your son sounds like a regular growing teenaged boy - I remember those days quite clearly. It's good that he is interesting in helping to prepare meals with you - perhaps soon he'll be able to prepare a simple meal for you without any help.