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Sat 26 May, 2012 12:45 pm
'Tis summer, the season of locusts.
The ones who descend on your kitchen and pantry and ingest vast quantities of food and drink.
They stop by after school and on weekends all year 'round, but summer is when they go into overdrive.
Because I'm perfectly happy having our house be a hangout of sorts and because I know my kid goes and locusts at other people's houses so it tends to even out anyway, I don't really mind.
They observe limits on what they can and cannot eat, usually. I haven't had problems with them poaching food meant for dinner that night for example. (Then again, locusts usually don't go for raw chicken breasts.)
What I'm asking here is -- what is good locust food?
Food that was popular with your own local locusts when your kids were younger, is currently popular with your own local locusts if your kids are currently locust-aged, (about 8-18) food that you liked when you were a locust, etc.
The limitations are:
- I'd like it to be on the healthy side of the spectrum (I know that if I stock up on Doritos and candy bars they'd be happy locusts, but I don't want to stock up on Doritos and candy bars)
- Should avoid braces no-no's -- sozlet will have braces throughout the summer probably and I don't really want to subject her to watching friends have coveted foods that she can't eat. Crunchy (chips) and chewy (chewy-type granola bars) are the main categories. Popcorn too.
- Longish shelf life is good. The locusts descend unpredictably.
Current locust hits:
- Fruit, especially raspberries. Also strawberries, grapes, watermelon. And fruit salad.
- Pasta (leftover regular pasta, pasta salads, etc.)
- Fruit bars
- Cheese (especially sticks)
- Crackers (I get one soft kind that sozlet can eat fine)
- Cheese quesadillas (tortilla, cheese, microwave)
- Kefir
- Crystal Light flavor packet thingies to add to water (no artificial sweeteners)
Locust food is usually snack food -- most often eaten at about 3 PM, between lunch and dinner. If we were British we'd probably call it tea. But we're not.
@sozobe,
homemade popsicles
nothing else ever really interested me in the summer
the best ones were ones we made based on our own raspberry juice - lemonade and orange juice ones were good too. I didn't and don't like ones made from juice crystals
I was 7 or 8 when I really became responsible for making them. I used to count how many I ate in a day. Sometimes it was 8 or 10 of them - almost no food - I could live on juice popsicles.
(the kids from the Serbian refugee family live on them these days - their mom buys in them by the multiples of 100's)
@ehBeth,
Oh, very good one!
We got heavy into making homemade popsicles last summer (that great Bittman article), haven't done it since though. Great idea.
@sozobe,
I was wondering what locusts had to do with parenting when I opened this thread. I was expecting a literal thread asking for how to feed locusts. Which I can't help you with.
Sorry. Can't help with the question but offer you my sympathy on tyour dilemma.
I agree on popsicles, I'd like one right now myself. We used to run to the corner store for popsicles all summer in the Chicago area. Or for iced cold small bottles of coke, which I don't recommend at this point. I'll avoid touting baloney (sic) and mayo sandwiches on bad white bread - but we loved them.
I've been fooling around with flatbread recipes - no favorite yet; they can be sliced, frozen, micro'd (just to warm them). Lots of the recipes out there have pretty healthy ingredients.
Sandwiches - I put out the stuff, they made them. If you want to dress them up a bit, drag out the George Foreman and make a panini. I used to do this with pita, tortillas or naan bread.
Pizza is another build your own favourite. You can even make them on the BBQ when it's really hot in the house. Again, you can use the breads listed above.
Nachos
A man i worked for went to school with Wendy Thomas, daughter of Dave Thomas, who had named his restaurant chain after his daughter (Wendy not her actual name, but that's a whole 'nother story). The kids would go over to his house after school or on summer afternoons, because he would make sammiches for everyone, and always had soda and juice on hand. Cold cuts ain't cheap, nor is soda, for that matter. People who live in Upper Arlington can usually afford the outlay, though. You'd have to keep about half the fridge set aside for cold cuts, soda, juice, bread etc. Kids can clean out a kitchen like the locusts going through Pharaoh's fields, for sure--good visual.
On sandwiches, given how much a lot of us like bread, and thus its overuse, how about introducing open faced sandwiches, then cut it in half. I often take off one of the bread slices at restaurants, resulting in the eating performance of ms. slobbo, but some sandwiches can work well that way. At home I might put some concoction on a slice of toasted bread - anything from pesto (basil or parsley or many other greens, with garlic and nuts like almonds, pine nuts, or walnuts), blended w olive oil) with or without grated cheese on top. Or left over roast chicken bits with whatever and mayo. I probably should avoid mentioning sardines. Maybe roasted red peppers, previously sauteed sweet onions, some not too strong for kids cheese, on a slice of good toast, oven heated for a bit, or micro.
That kind of thing is my now-version of baloney, mayo, and Weber's gawdawful bread.
Hummus and small carrots are always good...
look how they present it here, isn't it cute?
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