It all happened so fast...

One day I had the world's pickiest toddler, the insanely-food hating pre-schooler, the 6 year old who wouldn't eat anything green because the girl who sat next to him in grade one told him green food is all poison, next day I have a teenager who will eat, quite literally, anything. A football playing calorie consumption machine who eats cereal out of a mixing bowl and will ask me things like "Mom, can I eat a loaf of bread?" with a straight face.

I spent years teaching myself how to make delicate little dishes to tempt my little food snob. I thought I had this stuff down pat, and I felt pretty good about myself. Now I'm having to learn new skills. Namely, how to keep enough food in my kid to keep him from, oh, say, defrosting a ham for himself cause he was "huuuuungry".

Today I found a great recipe for a leftover pasts frittata. A few years ago this would have been a lifesaver, but I realised I won't get to use it for years to come because leftover pasta is a mythical entity around here. I'll go to bed confident that tomorrow's meals are taken care of, and wake up to discover that my hungry teen has eaten a pound of pasta, or half a chicken, or the fixings for all next weeks lunch, in pieces, first 1/2 lb of sliced deli meat, then maybe a 1/4 lb of cheese, then the whole loaf of bread, and maybe a 1/2 cup of pesto to wash the whole thing down. Funny how he's always thoughtful enough to leave me the vegetables, though!

I'm going to have to figure out a whole new way of cooking, if I'm going to keep up both fed and sane, until O's insane growth spurt comes to an end (7 inches since Christmas! where will it all end!) I'm going to have to figure out how to fit in a daily grocery shop (almost always necessary) with food prep, and my work time, O's homeschooling time, and, maybe, wishful thinking, a bit of a life for myself!

One thing that is has to come to an end is all the take out food, subs and pitas, frozen pizzas, greasy spoon breakfasts, and potato chips for dinner that we've been doing lately. I've gained 15 lbs in the last few months, after fighting so hard for so long to lose 25 of my hypothyroid pounds.