There are three of us–Alex, Sophia and Me. Well, my sister is actually living with us right now too, but she is self-maintained. Every evening when the kids are with me we either make dinner together, or I make whatever it is we decided we wanted to eat that night. Sounds fairly straight forward, right?

Here’s the thing, my kids do like to eat, but in their minds, each food has its own special way of being prepared, presented and/or eaten. For example, let’s take spaghetti, a pretty basic meal. I usually make a red sauce with meat or meatballs, spaghetti noodles, garlic bread and a wedge of Parmesan to grate on top. Alex doesn’t eat noodles, so he just eats the the bread, dipped in the Parmesan covered sauce. Sophia doesn’t eat sauce, so she has the noodles, with butter, Parmesan and bread. I like all food, so I eat it the ‘normal’ way. The simple adaptions ensure we all eat, our tummies are full and we only have to make ONE meal.

When Alex was younger, I used to make him his own special meals if he didn’t like what I was making for dinner–he was a bit spoiled. But after the arrival of his sister, Mom got busier and we had to adapt. And now that the kids Dad and I are no longer married, I have neither the time nor budget to support custom order food. The kids and/or I just make sure each meal has at least one item that each of us likes (and that it’s fairly nutritionally balanced) and all is well. Some nights Alex just eats a pork chop, and sometimes Sophia just eats broccoli, but we all eat and I don’t spend the entire meal finishing cooking someone’s special order.