Cast of Characters

A little background on what I mean when I say family...

Me. (top center) Age 40. Grew up with existing but fairly dysfunctional family dinners. NOT a picky eater. Enjoy experimenting in the kitchen. Interested in flexetarianism. Collect cookbooks and tend to go in spurts of real cooking. I get discouraged when the kids won't eat what I cook and end up reverting to canned soup and frozen pizza.

Jay. (bottom right) Age 42. Grew up with high level family dinners. I'd say maybe even quintessential. Not picky but not quite as into the vegan thing as I am. Happily eats whatever I prepare and prepares his own cereal for dinner when necessary. He rocks!

Annie. (top left) Age 11. Picky. We call her our "breadetarian" because she doesn't eat much meat (just because it grosses her out) but she doesn't eat a lot of vegetables either. Cereal, cheese, Hawaiian rolls, Graham crackers, frozen waffles. She remains, however, a peanut. Less than 5th percentile weight for her age. Her favorite dinner: Chicken Soup with homemade dumplings.

Sam. (top right) Age 9. My most adventurous and varied eater. Also gets sick about half as much as his sisters. Likes soups, stews, almost all fruit, chicken, yogurt, milk, orange juice. Favorite dinner: Teriyaki Grilled Chicken. Only eats cheese if it's on pizza.

Tillie. (bottom left) Age 7. Lived on nothing but State Fair corndogs for about 18 months. She's off those now but is still convinced she only likes a handful of things. Her favorite dinners: Mini Burgers and Spaghetti followed by a healthy serving of ice cream. Cries if I tell her we're having fish. Also not a cheese eater.