Last week we talked about not seeing eye to eye with your husband and how you can best respond via a loving attitude as his wife. Treating your husband as another child will not win you any friends within your marriage and it won’t win you the ‘food war,’ either. It is, however, a good way to wind up with your kids and your husband ganged up against your cooking.
Let’s talk about some other strategies you can employ with both your husband and your kids while still maintaining a loving attitude.
Make Quality Food Convenient
I noticed early on with my husband that he would go for what is convenient over his taste preference unless he had a particular craving. To that end, I worked hard to make sure quality food was always convenient, fresh, ready to eat and always within eyesight.
At the time, we lived in a house where the pantry and the kitchen were separated by a hallway. I found that often the junk could be out of sight, out of mind if I made the quality foods convenient and eye-level in the fridge and the chips in a cabinet in the pantry. Having snacks like raw cheese cubes, cooked bacon, nut butter cups or peppermint patties and veggies with homemade dip or pate in the fridge at eye level was a help, as was keeping raw milk or homemade eggnog in the fridge, always ready. A fruit bowl on the counter and the snacks in the pantry behind a cabinet door.
Then, any time someone walked into the kitchen looking peckish, I’d immediately direct them to the location of the homemade goodies. Never direct them to the junk unless they specifically ask for an item.
If hubby brings some junk home from the grocery store, it gets whisked out to its place in the pantry as quickly as is practical and put into his cabinet.
If you don’t currently have a pantry away from the kitchen, maybe now is a good time to get creative. Especially if you can create one in an out-of-the-way spot in your house. Put a lock on it if you need an excuse to keep it away from the kids or your husband eats any foods to which the kids are allergic or intolerant.
Make Quality Food Familiar
If he can’t get past what the food looks like or that it’s not something he’s used to eating, some men’s minds will spring shut like a steel trap. Kids are nortorious for this, but the truth is that many husbands are just as bad.
So instead of starting with a bunch of foods that they aren’t familiar with, begin with things they do know. Add a little bit of liver to your spaghetti sauce. Switch from bottled salad dressing to homemade. Ranch is one that’s very easy to make, even dairy-free, and most kids and husbands love it. Add some hidden veggies while you’re at it, too.
Then do no more than one new recipe a week. Space out the new recipes you think are pushing the envelope between plenty of new recipes you believe they’ll like.
For the things you can’t get rid of, try to steer your family to better brands. “Look, honey! I found ketchup without that nasty, high fructose corn syrup crap!”
Make Quality Food Budget Friendly
Many husbands can be won over with changes for the sake of less money spent. Good examples are going from canned refried beans to home-made using pastured lard, fresh garlic and dry beans. This tactic works particularly well with husbands, but it doesn’t work on kids unless they’re older and have a gasp of money.
I found when it came to this strategy, I had to show a lot of enthusiasm for the extra cooking required to save the money and assure him that I enjoyed fixing these items. I also had to be willing to adjust recipes in order to fit their tastes, and I had to be willing to go back to store bought versions of some items until I could find a recipe and try again when the experiment didn’t go well.
What Do You Do?
How do you make it convenient, familiar and budget friendly in your home? Next week, we’ll be discussing when you are the mommy- what to do about your kids.
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Thanks for the encouragement… Have a long way to go in this area but we’re making progress 🙂
Thank you, KerryAnn! I needed the reminder that I could put healthy food within visual range of my hubby. He regularly wanders into the kitchen when he’s bored or just needs a break from working (he works from home) or if he wants to talk to me. During those wanderings, he’s always foraging, and usually the worst stuff. I’ve been able to switch out many of his regular snack foods for more healthy choices, but we still have a long ways to go. He’s admitted that he’ll eat healthy snacks if they’re right in front of him…so I need to get on the ball and purchase/make some healthy snack food for him. I’m not much of a snacker, so its never been a real challenge for me, but I’d really like to help him to eat better.
This is great! I am fortunate to have a supportive hubby, but he was raised on dinner from a box and frozen pizza, so it’s been hard for him. However, after 3 1/2 years of being married to me, he’s changed a lot! He’s actually 16 days into a juice fast right now, and I’m so proud of him!
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Thanks! This is realy practical advice and let’s admit – most of us were brought up up on a SAD diet – and habits are hard to change and while we as the cooks and moms have made a comittment to healthy eating sometimes we have to drag our husbands and kids along with us. I have decided not to criticize everytime my husband comes home with junk food. I just try to feed him the best I can when I do have control like slipping some flax seed into his oatmeal! Sometimes he notices, sometimes not but I don’t give up easily and I enjoy the challenge!
This is fantastic! I’m newly-ish married (2yrs) to a beer and pizza guy. It has been interesting to see how both of our tastes have affected each other. It’s fun to see him try new stuff like kombucha! but I often have to avoid being too much like a mom. 🙂 I really appreciate this practical advice! Thank you!!!