Food Rules: Dinner must include a green vegetable

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Mar 10th 2008 @ 11:02AM

When I was growing up, nearly every night my family ate dinner together. No matter what else was for dinner, there was always a green vegetable. On the rare occasion that we'd have breakfast for dinner, my mom would serve apple slices and tell us to pretend that they were green (cauliflower and all squashes counted as green). Because of this early conditioning, I have a very hard time feeling like my dinner experience has been complete if there wasn't a green vegetable on my plate.

I realized that this wasn't the norm about a week ago when I was making dinner. Scott wandered into the kitchen and asked what we were having. I replied, "Turkey burgers and baby bok choy, gotta have a green veggie." He looked at me strangely and so I explained my mom's rule of dinner. He said that wasn't the rule in his house when he was growing up, but that he could see how it made some sense.

So now I'm curious. What were the food rules in your house growing up? What are the rules that you've made for your own kids? I've got a couple of others that were also the law in my house growing up, but before I share those, I want to hear yours.

Filed Under: Cooking With Kids, Food Oddities, Ingredients
Tags: childhood, dinner, food rules, FoodRules, green vegetables, habits, oddities, vegetables

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Reader comments (Page 2 of 2)

3-14-2008 @6:58PM Janice said... Growing up, there were a lot of rules for dinner. I didn't realize it until I tried to write them out:
1) Dinner must have a protein, a starch, and a vegetable, unless it's pizza night.
2) Soda is only for special occasions and pizza night.
3) No red meat on Fridays (that was usually pizza night).
4) Be a member of the "clean plate club" - eat everything you take or are served.
5) Try everything - at least a heaping tablespoon's worth.
6) If you don't like what's served, make your own.
7) Dessert did not immediately follow dinner, it was more of a before-bed thing. If you were hungry for dessert right after dinner, you should have eaten more dinner!
8) One glass of iced tea with dinner - you couldn't have a second until after you'd eaten.
I think that's it...I would say I've kept up with about half of them as an adult.
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3-27-2008 @8:14PM frosty7530 said... It's been fun reading the comments here. I grew up in a non-observant Jewish home in 1950's. We did not keep kosher, but we NEVER had milk; always carbonated soda. I learned that came from "old country" custom of not mixing dairy w/meat. And we ALWAYS had some kind of meat, mostly red. Soda pop was folk remedy for "killing gas" & preventing stomach aches.

My mom did believe in veggie sides; but nothing like a "whole foods" gourmet. We had canned green beans, maybe some fresh from garden zuchini in summer. Same for peas (which I hated). We always had one starch dish of potatoes, rice or noodles. My mom was great w/mashed potatoes and I miss them! There was also a Jewish/Russian grain called kasha that was served once a week. Usually with a juicy steak. Fried in butter. We also had lots of wild rice, 100% wild rice, not the 1/2 & 1/2 you find today. Wild rice served w/roast duck. After my parents moved to FL; they liked the southern custom of serving baked yams w/out the marshmellows, as alternative for potatoes. My mom never served french fried potatoes. Hers were usually fresh roasted, mashed, or baked. In summer she would boil baby potatoes & serve w/parsly butter. My dad did not like casseroles but he did allow us to have lasagna once a month or so. Manicotti side dish w/grated cheese & marina another side dish.
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