Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Thank you, Food Network

I think I may have found the secret to getting my kids to eat dinner without any arguing: TV tie-ins.

You see, modern parenting advice tells us that TV is bad for kids, but I think it really depends on what you watch. On Sunday night, the boys watched The Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown with me. This is the show where home cooks get to compete with other home cooks using their own recipes and the winner not only gets $25,000, but also gets to have their recipe "interpreted" for the TGI Friday's menu...I think that's an honor if you're a home cook and not a snobby chef who would prefer to pretend chain restaurants don't exist. 

So the theme this week was burgers and the burgers looked mighty good. Inspired, I decided to make my own special burgers for dinner last night. I'm calling them "Chive Turkey (burgers)" and all they consist of is ground turkey stuffed with chive cream cheese. 

They were a hit. Since I prefaced the meal with a "we're having fancy burgers like the ones on Ultimate Recipe Showdown," Owen, who has always refused burgers in the past, dove right in without any complaints about having never tried it before (a first, let me tell you) and Aidan cleaned his plate! This is a breakthrough for sure. 

This can only mean more Food Network for me and more happy meals (not to be confused with Happy Meals™) for my family. Win-win. 

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