Recently, I was throwing together that “last minute dinner” we all know too well. I happened to ask our toddler what he would prefer to have with the remainder of our meal.
His two choices were between noodles (disclaimer- these are Trader Joes gluten free noodles) or quinoa. To my surprise, the answer was…drum roll please…QUINOA!
Now, I must note that I for one absolutely love the food. I enjoy the nutty flavor, combined with the earthly aroma it creates when cooked. I like to eat it plain too, so needless to say, when my son chose quinoa, he wasn’t getting some fancy and flavorful side dish. Nope folks, he was getting that good straight-from-the-earth natural goodness.
After reflecting on my sheer delight that my toddler chose the food I would have chosen had I not given him a choice, something hit me. I was overcome by a raw, unfiltered joy.
My son chose quinoa.
Now back up for a second with me, my two year old child knows what quinoa is. He likes the stuff. He even asked for seconds at the dinner table just a couple hours ago. I looked at his plate and not only did he have a nice (second) helping of quinoa on his plate, but right next to it were the meatballs, roasted kale, and grapes. Then, to make this night even better, when I was peeling the beets after dinner (because they weren’t done in time to go with dinner), he asked for bite after bite after bite of beets. He and his dad must have eaten 2 whole beets before bedtime. The red teeth were awesome for bedtime as well:)
I just sat there embracing this joy that my child knows what real food is. Better yet, my child likes real food!
I think its easy to miss any upside of a child having allergies. Yes, I said upside…and you want to know why?…because there are upsides. Its a funny thing when we talk about allergies and all of the yucky, hard- I don’t want to be doing this, kind of stuff. The don’t even go there it hurts too much stuff I’m referring to- but rather, to see the beauty hidden in the trials. It’s the sunshine that peaks through after days of long, hard rain, pouring down. It’s the arduous training for the 50-mile race. And really, it’s that my child knows and likes to eat real, straight-from-the-earth, organic, wholesome foods. He is developing tastebuds that actually like real food. In a culture where the majority of foods in the grocery store contain ingredients I can’t even pronounce, or processes I can’t explain, my two year old is learning to eat the good stuff; the real stuff.
Now please don’t get me wrong. These are not always our meals. Somedays, it takes every ounce of persuasion in me to get him to even eat one bite of something good for him. Somedays I would give anything to let my kid eat a piece of pizza without heading to the emergency room. But today, in this moment, I feel joy.
He chose quinoa.