A Dinner Uneaten

The picture you see is the sad remainder of our attempt at dinner last night. I wish I had taken the picture 30 minutes earlier because then you would have also seen the leftover pizza on the cutting board. By the time I got to it it even LOOKED cold. But I ate it anyway.

I went to a yoga class last night after work and DH came home early to be with the kids. DH is the best Daddy in the world. Not only does he completely share the housework and the care of the children (okay let's be fair, he does like 80% of the housework), but he also totally supports my taking a night once every week or two to do something for myself. My biggest gripe with being a working mom is that in trying to balance work and family, I have absolutely no free time for myself.

I got home from yoga around 7:30pm, just in time to put the baby to sleep. I am still nursing him and except for nights that I have been away (which have been few) I have put him to bed every night of his short life.

Dinner was not a success last night. DH heated up the frozen pizza. This pizza, Amy's Organic Margherita Style Pizza (also probably a heavily copyrighted entity) used to be the only frozen pizza Thing 1 would eat. Now we can't even get him to eat that. If he isn't playing with it he declares it "Too Hot!! You have to foo it." (which is our family's way of saying blow on your food to make it cooler). Or he says "I don't like spices!". Thing 1 used to be an adventurous eater, when he was say 16 months old. He never ate a ton but he ate things like Indian food and spinach in his soup. Now anything that even resembles a leaf has to go. It can't even be on his plate or the waterworks start.

Thing 1 ate no pizza last night, DH ate a quarter of it and I inhaled the rest upon coming home. DH did make an attempt at a salami sandwich (I am very pro cured meats) and I think enough of that got consumed to move onto the bath. What an ordeal. The baby will eat anything you put on a spoon for him. On last night's menu? Breast milk guacamole! DH is so grossed out by this simple recipe, but Thing 2 loves it. Let's hope that continues.

I am concerned by the pre-packaged foods. I try to stick to organic varieties but many times they are really no better. They are pesticide free but they are still processed. This brand advertises on the box 'Organic Flour! Organic Tomatoes!'. So naturally, I assumed that these were the only organic ingredients. I was wrong! Among the ingredients listed were Organic olive oil, spices, garlic, basil and honey. The cheeses really were the only things that weren't organic. I am pleasantly surprised. And furthermore the ingredients are all things that I recognize and understand. Another pleasant surprise.

The following I knew, but I'll let the government tell you since they really say it best,

"Products labeled "organic" must consist of at least 95% organically produced ingedients (excluding water and salt). Any remaining product ingredients must consist of non agricultrual substances approved on the national list including specific non-organically produced agricultural products that are not commercially available in organic form." (http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3004446)

So my next questions is....What's on that list? But that is another topic for another day.

Today this pizza goes into the list of things I feel pretty comfortable with. I bought the organic half white flour, but haven't found a suitable pizza crust recipe yet. I will share it here when I work that one out. Maybe someday soon I can banish the box forever.

Happy Eating!