Meals that nourish my soul

It’s a good thing that my kids are back in school. The

Newport-Mesa Unified School District intervened just in time to

prevent permanent emotional damage. Both from child to parent and

parent to child.

Maybe it’s the same way in your house. The end of summer rolls

around and the whining takes on a fevered pitch.

“Where can we go?”

“What can we do?”

“WHAT’S FOR DINNER?”

It’s that last question, “What’s for dinner?” that sends me over

the edge of sanity.

First of all, let’s do a number game. During the summer I fix

three meals a day, seven days a week for the family. OK, sometimes

there will be a child absent due to their good fortune, but for the

most part, that’s 21 meals per week for a family of five.

Take the 21 meals and multiply them by the 11 weeks of vacation

and you’ve got 231 opportunities for nourishment, and that doesn’t

include snacks.

And by the way, if you haven’t figured this out, Tuesday follows

Monday, Wednesday follows Tuesday and so on. There is no break in the

action, brothers and sisters. Are you with me? I wanna hear an

“amen.” Thank you.

So, bitter maternal unit that I am, I was resolved to stop the

madness, turn the tides and create order out of chaos. I delegated.

Creating a new system actually took more time initially than

cooking the meal. However, I’m going for long-term rewards. Rome

wasn’t built in a day.

The kids are past the star-chart system, but nonetheless, a chart

was a great start. I decided to make each underage person in my house

responsible for one dinner a week. Just one meal. But ground rules

apply. First, the meal has to be prepared at home (no fast food).

Second, it has to be healthful (no ice cream sundae dinners). Third,

they have to plan ahead and give me a list, or go to the store

themselves and purchase the ingredients. Fourth, they have to come in

under $20 for the meal. They can use anything I stock in the fridge,

freezer or pantry, but their grocery trip has to be covered by an

Alexander Hamilton.

They must cook, serve and clean up (no hoisting a terrible mess on

a sibling).

Welcome to my world.

As I presented my decree I could see the wheels turning inside

their almost-hollow-by-the-end of-summer heads. They immediately

tried to find loopholes (nice try) or come up with caveats (no way).

I have to give the kids credit. They approached the idea as an

opportunity, not an obstacle. The first meal of the new reality fell

on the shoulders of the 13 year-old son. Do you smell a failure? Not

a chance. In fact he set a very high standard for the girls to

follow. We had tacos, refried beans and fruit salad for dinner. He

made a cake from a mix and slathered it with chocolate frosting and

sprinkles. He struggled a bit (I was conveniently unavailable) then

asked for advice from his older sister, and sailed through the

challenge.

Mary Rose followed his act with Italian Sausage (crock pot style),

garlic bread and salad. Annie came through with shredded beef

sandwiches, fruit and ice cream. I still fix dinner three nights a

week (I have first dibs on take-out), and the husband barbecues on

Sunday, but I am now looking forward to three nights of

no-strings-attached dining.

Even though I started this regime merely to save myself from

imploding, I think there are going to be some benefits. Through no

altruistic motive, this plan may actually end up to be a great

learning experience. If nothing else, I think the kids will

appreciate what it takes to feed a family.

What am I having for dinner tonight? Soul food. Amen.

* KAREN WIGHT is a Newport Beach resident. Her column runs

Sundays.