Stop Pretending

"Ewwww, gross!"
"These are disgusting! I just won't eat anything."
"What's wrong with these, mom???"
"Yuck."

These were just a few of the dinner complaints from our kids this week. If you're anything like me, COVID-19 has resulted in your kitchen being either overstocked, understocked or stocked with odd replacements from an instacart order**. 

The offender of this particularly terrible meal? Maria and Ricardo's tortillas made from Quinoa. We're obsessed with Maria and Ricardo's regular flour tortillas and devour them on Taco Tuesdays, but these dairy free, wheat free, made with avocado oil imposters were bad. Really bad. And I fully admit they were gross and happily tossed the four untouched quinoa burrito imposters.

This reminded me of how badly I used to try to like foods that I thought were "healthier". Which really meant that I thought if I ate certain foods or avoided certain ingredients, I'd be able to maintain or lose weight. In my dieting days, I would've tried to convince my kids that these were good by saying "Just add some salsa! How about more guacamole? They're not that bad." Not anymore, I've stop pretending. 

I used to pretend that the way I ate was for health reasons, but the way I ate very likely bordered on orthorexia (an obsession with eating health food). Once I even brought chocolate mousse to a family party and was so excited that it was made with tofu, virtually fat free and had no dairy! Bless my family for trying it and pretending it tasted good. 

If it doesn't taste good, don't try choking down imposter foods in the name of "health". Health isn't binary. It happens on a spectrum and includes mental, physical and spiritual aspects as opposed to diet industry's physical only health definition. If you really get down to many of your food choices, they aren't really based on health, they're based on weight. 

YOLO.

And no offense, Maria and Ricardo, but we aren't wasting our bites on those Quinoa tortillas (unless, of course, you're gluten free and need to find a way to make these palatable....then I recommend cheese. A LOT of cheese). 

At least we saved the meal with Mi Nina chips and some homemade guacamole. And dessert. Taco Tuesday shall return in style once we can source our beloved flour tortillas.

Ole!

** I realize that I'm speaking from a place of privilege. I have enough money to get the food that our family needs during these uncertain times and that's unfortunately not the case for millions of Americans. I encourage you to donate to your local food shelter or check out www.feedingamerica.org to learn about how you can help those struggling with food scarcity.