Success-Or So My Husband Tells Me

We real food wives have set before our husbands many less than gourmet meals. Some meals have been met with success, but there have been a couple of occasions that I didn’t even bother putting the leftovers in the fridge because it wasn’t worth it! The unfortunate part (for me and I am sure many, many others) is that while I am serving new and highly suspect food I am trying to convince my husband that real food is not only worth the time and effort but also tastes good! 

I asked him the other day for a list of some of the recipes or foods that he is really glad that have changed in the past few years.  It is always nice to focus on the positive!  He came up with quite a list of things that he truly enjoys eating.

v  Roasts-If there is nothing better than a tender, flavorful roast there is nothing worse than the disappointment of a chewy, bland piece of meat.  It took me a while to learn how to cook roast.  I love it when Jordan smiles across the table and says, “You’ve got this down!” 

v  Bread-I started making homemade bread this year.  I was really hoping to make a great sandwich bread, but to be honest our bread rarely makes it to the sandwich.  Homemade bread is just too good fresh from the oven with a little butter.  If a loaf survives long enough to be made into sandwiches we love using it for grilled cheese and BLTs.  Jordan not only likes homemade bread but also homemade buns.  The other day I asked him if he wanted homemade or bakery buns for his hamburger and he choose homemade buns.  Had I not been sitting down when I asked I think that I would have fallen over!

v  Potatoes-I didn’t grow up with instant potatoes.  My mom made real mashed potatoes and my grandpa made real mashed potatoes.  Real potatoes were all that I knew!  In addition to mashed potatoes, we love cheesy potatoes.  I started making French fries this summer, and I get an “Oh, Good!” from Jordan when I tell him we are having homemade fries for supper.  I never got that from a bag of frozen Ore Idas!

v  Veggies-We are not a steamed vegetables family.  Surprise, surprise we like a little fat with our veggies.  Fortunately for us many of the vitamins in vegetables are fat soluble and are better absorbed by the body when eaten with a fat!  Oven-roasted, sautéed, or grilled is how we prefer to cook our veggies.  I am THRILLED to have discovered ghee.  It is butter that has been clarified.  With the milk solids removed, so is the casein and lactose, making this dairy digestible by those who are dairy-free.  Now this d-free family can have our veggies cooked with that wonderful butter flavor!  Ghee is pricey so I am hoping to figure out how to make it myself! 

v  Granola Bars-I am going to steal a line from my friend’s husband, “These granola bars are the best healthy food thing that has happened to our family!”  We use a little less honey in ours, but we love these!  My husband has even taken these to work and shared them with co-workers!

v  Stove Top Popcorn-This one surprised me.  When I first made popcorn on the stove my husband gave me a very skeptical look and said, “Really?  Even our pop corn can’t be normal?”  The other night I left him with four kids and a movie and he said, “If I wanted to make that popcorn on the stove like you do, how would I do that?”  I asked him if it would just be easier to use the air popper.  “I really like the taste of it on the stove better!”  It is enough for me to have my husband enjoy real food.  It is quite another for him to start cooking it himself!

I have heard stories of husbands that cast the vision for healthier eating for their family.   I don’t think that they are urban legends.  They really are out there.  That is not our family.  Jordan agrees with the idea of eating real food, but like most of us he is resistant to actual change.  As we have changed our diet over the last few years even his body has realized the difference between real and packaged food.  Every now and then he’ll say something to the effect of “I have eaten healthy with you for a long time now.  When you are at the store please get me something else.”  I am not an unreasonable person and will get him the Double Stuffed Oreos or something to that nature.  He eats them and then usually regrets it.   He admits that he “can’t eat like that anymore!”  I have ruined him.  (Wink!)

This post is linked up at  Quick Easy Cheap Healthy, Food Renegade, Nourishing Gourmet, Frugally Sustainable and We are That Family