COLUMN: Here's to an empty fridge and many unstructured days

  • Melissa Herrera (COLUMN)
  • June 7, 2014
  • 447
                        
So the kids are home and the refrigerator is empty. This is not a new story. Welcome to summer. We long for summer and its unstructured days that stretch into evening. Late wake-up calls, bowls of cereal and long days playing out in the yard creating worlds of wonder. I remember sprinkler-filled afternoons and hours spent searching for four-leaf clovers, or making rings and necklaces with curled up dandelion stems soaked in water. For moms, summer is a break from the norm and an immense sigh of relief. I think that all kids need days of laziness with no schedule. Sports and other activities have taken more and more time from our children and this happens younger and younger. Gone are the days when you could get up and not see anything but your imagination before you. Those were glorious minutes and ones I tried to recreate for my kids simply by letting them sleep in and have time to do whatever they felt like doing. I felt that this was more important than carting them off every day to some new “thing” that they had to do. They had their chores to do and still are my designated lawn service for which they get no pay except hot cooked meals. As they got older they chose what was important to them, but as a family we tried to not let that “thing” interfere with our family time or vacations. Nothing is more important than the family unit and sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that. But back to the predicament of the empty fridge because we all know it’s a never-ending story. There is no way to stop your kids from eating. They will eat anything and everything that is around simply because they can. They would eat the house if allowed. I used to lay out my fridge so neatly with labels turned outward and chocolate pudding snacks stacked orderly in a row. Let a bunch of hungry kids out of school and the pudding goes bye-bye. The same can be said for pizza rolls or homemade cookies. I’ve said before that I’m not a food planner per se, and sometimes that can bite me. I’ve a well-stocked pantry, though, and I always tried to buy a variety of foods that can be quickly made into summer suppers. I always have on hand pastas for throw-together dishes made with shrimp or tomatoes, packaged meats like hamburger, pork steaks, or thinly-sliced steaks that easily fry up into stir-fry. I also love to have smoked kielbasa sausage on hand for red beans and rice, and honestly what’s better than a good hot dog grilled on the grill with either French fries or our go-to of Inn Maid noodles? We are not much of a soup family except when both girls are home and then I’m required to make broccoli cheese soup. We like grilled cheese sandwiches baked in the oven, which by the way, makes the best ones ever. My stand-by is a gooey stack of homemade quesadillas which can be thrown together with whatever cheese and ingredients you have on hand. You simply can’t make a quesadilla wrong. It’s easy to type these words now, but when you’re fridge is emptily staring you in the face just daring you to find something to make it’s a bit harder. My advice is to buy things kids like and don’t feel guilty. After loads of mac and cheese and cut-up hot dogs with a glass of chocolate milk, my kids have turned out fine and didn’t perish from not-so-healthy things. They now eat all types of salads and green things. Do what you can with what you have because what they will remember are the long, lazy days of summer they spent being kids – not what you fed them.


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