Friday, June 12, 2015

Use Your Words: I'll Take That To Go

Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. All of the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the recipient will take them. Until now.

Use Your Words | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.
I’m using: omen ~ two ~ pickles and onions ~ on the rise

They were submitted by: The Bergham's Life Chronicles.

 It’s the strangest thing. The minute I saw the words I’m using I got immediately hungry. Starving even. I don’t even like those giant McDonalds things, but all I could think of is how much I wanted two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, on a sesame seed bun. It’s an omen. Subliminal messaging is on the rise!

Well, that may not have been my whole post, but I think I will talk about fast food since we’re on the subject. Because getting my kids to eat fast food burgers was a win for this mom.

So many moms these days are so careful about what their kids eat. Non-GMO, organic, grass-fed, vegan, vegetarian . . . you name it, there’s a movement. And this is not a bad thing. I mean, have you seen the size of chicken breasts at the grocery stores? If there were chicken breasts this size back in the day there never would have been a nursery rhyme about that old woman who lived in a shoe. I mean seriously, chickens these days must have to wear bras. Double Ds at least. I don’t even want to know what they’re being fed. If these supersized breasts are an omen of the direction the food industry is taking, I can see why people are looking for other options.

But I didn’t have many options with my kids. I really did try to get them to eat healthy meals. I always gave them fresh fruits, vegetables, a variety of grains and proteins.

I was a complete failure.

My friend who writes at Searching for Sanity wrote a Use Your Words post about her finicky 4 year old last month. I think I got her beat:

My kids were such picky eaters. They ate chicken nuggets, pizza and lobster. That’s it. Well, that’s it for meals. Those boys never met a snack or dessert they didn’t like. I think they got that from me. In utero. My bad.

All good intentions went down the drain. College Boy, when offered healthier choices just stopped eating. We had to get him to a nutritionist who put him onto instant breakfasts and carrot cake just to get calories into him.

PurDude had a hyperactive gag reflex. Meaning if you forced him to try new foods you ended up wearing them. And I do not look good in carrot.

So fruit snacks started counting as fruits and cheetos were a side dish. Go ahead and judge, I can take it.

But of course I did keep working with them and little by little their lists of approved foods were on the rise.

My very first measure of success? When I could finally get them to eat a burger. Yes, a burger. In my world that was a success. And of course only a plain burger. Anything besides burger and bun was a disaster of epic proportions.

Which is how I became that mom at the fast food restaurant, yelling into the little box “I need 2 burgers. No special sauce, no lettuce, no cheese, no pickles and onions and while you’re at it, can you do a mom a favor and scrape the sesame seeds off the bun?”

You know what I got? Two crying kids. Every time. And a bag full of burgers with special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a, you guessed it, sesame seed bun. Every time.

But don’t worry, they stopped crying the minute they saw dessert:
Mint Chocolate Cheesecake Bars | www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #dessert

 
Mint Chocolate Cheesecake Bars
Mint Chocolate Cheesecake Bars | www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #dessert



Yeah, I was a really great mom. Where’s my crown?

Oh yeah, I hear they’re holding onto it for me up at Burger King.

Links to the other Use Your Words posts:


Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics




Mint Chocolate Cheesecake Bars
                                                 ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
1 stick butter, melted
1 ¾ cups flour
1 cup sugar
¼ cup baking cocoa
 
2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 egg yolk, room temperature
3/4 tsp mint extract
3/4 cup chopped Andes mints
 
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 13 baking pan.
*Mix butter, flour, sugar cocoa until well blended. Your mixture will be dry and crumbly.
*Measure and set aside ½ cup of the crust mixture. Press the remaining crust mixture firmly into the bottom of your prepared baking pan.
*Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
*Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
*Beat cream cheese and brown sugar. Beat in eggs, egg yolk and mint extract. Mix in chopped candy.
*Carefully evenly distribute over the cooled crust.
*Sprinkle with the other ½ cup of the crust mixture.
*Bake for approximately 40 minutes, just until the center has started to set.
*Cool completely. Store in the refrigerator.

31 comments:

  1. oh boy, that stinks. I know AJ doesn't like certain things, but he eats most of the food I give him. You are a great mom, you raised two men who are now in college!!!! Go You!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You have no idea how lucky you are. Some kids are just really picky and I got two of those.

      Delete
  2. I would have stopped my crying too if I was offered that delicious looking dessert! Yum-o!

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  3. Oh. You get a crown and a sash simply for that recipe!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I seriously thank the good Lord regularly, that Gigi is not a super picky eater. I don't know what I'd do, if she were. I imagine it would be much the same as you did. The problem I'm running into with her, is she doesn't seem to want to eat, if we aren't there. She eats fine for Chad and I, though I often worry she's not eating enough. When she's with other people, which happens frequently when I'm at treatments, she cannot be bothered to eat. I'm hoping this changes quickly.
    Mint and cheesecake?! It's like Heaven on a plate. Today, you're my favorite.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think worrying about how and what our kids eat is something moms just do. I'm willing to bet Gigi is just fine and if there are concerns her pediatrician will have suggestions.
      Get through those treatments, that's what's important for now.

      Delete
  5. I was one of the lucky ones - my kids loved all food and tried anything new (at least one new healthy recipe a week for them to vote on) Now, my grandson is following suit - no fussy eaters here. But they also love their desserts as does their mom and grand mom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You got no picky eaters and I got two. That is totally unfair!

      Delete
  6. I had one picky eater and one who would eat anything. I always told my kids you had to at least try something once, but if they didn't like it they didn't have to eat it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sadly, my kids are in college and I'm STILL saying that!

      Delete
  7. That makes you the Burger Queen for sure!

    ReplyDelete
  8. There are worse food choices than burgers! I love that they would always eat your baked goods.It speaks volumes of your baking skills!
    And they turned out more than OK, didn't they?
    C is an interesting eater. He likes spinach - but whines about carrots. He likes international food like sushi or enchiladas, but won't eat raclette (melted cheese with steamed potatoes), only the pickles that go with it. There we are again, PICKLES!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, pickles are definitely a theme this week.

      Delete
    2. I wrote this before I even read Robin's post. Imagine how hard I laughed when it was there AGAIN. Also, in my own post I first wrote that the Sony guy was in a pickle, but I was not sure if that saying really existed, so I changed it into "plight".

      Delete
  9. Oh damn….now I'M craving a McDonald's burger….

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yep. I have 2 of those, too. STILL can't get either of them to eat much of anything! Although, they will both eat at least one thing from Chinese take out. I call that a win!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think any mum who says their child will eat anything is a big fat liar as all the children can be fussy eaters and I had three of them, thankfully mot children grow out of it by the time they are 25................

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, 25, that's the magic age. Guess I have more waiting to do!

      Delete
  12. Mint chocolate cheesecake? Droooool.

    By the way, none if your blog posts show up in Triberr anymore. Not even in your own tribe, as last was two months ago.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, Triberr totally screwed up my account (and many others' from what I read) and apparently no longer answer issues for people who don't pay so I quit. Has had no impact that I can see on my page views, btw.

      Delete
    2. As you can see I still use it ocassionally but not as much. I won't pay for it either.

      Delete
    3. Yes. I would be too if it had continued to work for me. I couldn't even get my own posts in my feed, it kept deleting my blog from my account. It just wasn't worth the trouble any more.

      Delete
  13. Pssh. Your parenting skills were (and are) just fine. I think kids are born with their taste buds set on boring. My kids were (and sadly, still are) those picky eaters. If there is something new they haven't had before, we make them taste it; if it's been a year, we make them try it again... after all, we are totally new people every 7 years. Too bad no one told their tongues...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Love dessert and my boys were picky as well. My youngest wouldn't eat met except chicken until he was about 7. My middle son would eat everything until he was about 7-8 then stopped eating veggies. They've always loved fruit and dessert :)

      Delete
    2. My kids are in college and even tonight College Boy, after dinner, said he needed to make a sandwich because he can't eat what I cook. It never ends at my house.

      Delete

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