What’s for dinner mom?

It seems like my eternal question is what to feed the kids for dinner. This is not a new question. It was something I grappled with regularly before we left California. Rumor has it that this is something that plagues many of the moms that I know. So there is no reason why it should be any easier in a foreign country. Being in a makeshift kitchen here, with unfamiliar ingredients, it is even more of a challenge to put something delicious and nutritious on the table each night.

I do not really consider myself a housewife, and never really have. But this role has fallen heavily on me in my childrearing years while I have chosen to stay at home and not work full time (for pay). This means, amongst other things, that I am the primary food preparer in the home. Granted I really enjoy cooking. I love strong flavors and creating new foods from scratch. I would even go so far as to call it a hobby.

Unfortunately, my love of cooking has not flourished with having small children, and most of my meal planning consists of a starch, a vegetable and a protein, in forms that kids will eat and love. Read: pasta, salad, maybe chicken or tofu. Not very exciting.

Throughout the years I have spent countless hours appreciating the fact that we have the means to be able to provide food for our family. More than enough food in fact. And I still find it a challenge to create a meal that satisfies my criteria of being healthy and tasty for both children and adults. I recognize that this is an indulgence that I am able to gratify living in the circumstances that we enjoy, be they the U.S or Europe. Not every mother can provide ample and varied calories for her offspring, something that makes my heart ache regularly.

So back to the present, I am still making meals based on the three above named starches – though it is most often pasta, since I have a daughter who could live on pasta alone, and it is always easy to prepare.

If I really wanted to embrace the German culture, however I would be serving potatoes with every meal.

The vegetable selection here is very good, and so far and I am sure I can make just about anything I made at home, but it is different somehow. I miss exchanging dinner ideas with my best friend, and being inspired by her. I miss the farm basket that we subscribed to, and often planned my meals around. In that past life I made more delicious dishes out of kale than I could ever have I imagined for example, and the kids even liked them. Here I am stuck in a rut of tomato based sauces or soups.

I am slowly building up supplies, and can only buy a few supplemental cooking items each day like salt, parsley, oil and garlic. Eventually I will manage to duplicate my rather extensive supply of spices, herbs, condiments and other essentials, and my creativity will return. I am sure of this.

So, what is for dinner tonight? Pasta. Chicken in spinach sauce (that the kids will opt out of no doubt), and salad. At least they always eat salad. Not very interesting, not very German, but food, and plenty of it, so no one goes hungry in this house.