healthy eating???

 Today, according to my west coast brother is "National Eat Your Vegetables Day."  It's also "National Apple Strudel Day" and "National Cherry Tart Day."  I guess they figure that if you eat your vegetables like a good boy or girl you've earned dessert.  Since we had my wonder spouse's super salad this evening we have certainly eaten our veggies.

This reminds me of a discussion I got into with a friend recently.  She told me that when she was a child she had to eat all of her food (clean off her plate) before she could leave the table.  She used to put her veggies, especially peas in the little ledge under the table top, then sneak back later, clean them out and throw them away.  

I can remember my mother telling us to clean off out plates because of the poor starving Armenians, but she never forced the issue.  I had two brothers who grew up to be six feet six inches tall.  Needless to say they had hearty appetites.  My mother was a very good cook so we ate well and cleaning off our plates was seldom an issue.  A typical supper would consist of two pieces of meat (two pork chops, two pieces of chicken, etc.), potatoes and another vegetable, and usually carrots and celery and some kind of dessert. She never forced us to eat everything on our plate but her hard and fast rule was at least take one bite,  Don't say you don't like something without trying it. The other (unspoken) rule was no substitutions.  Eat what's put before you or don't eat it, but don't expect me to give you something else. PB &J sandwiches were great for lunch but not a substitute for supper.

When my children were young we were at my mother-in-law's house for dinner and one of them made a face when they saw the chili grandma had prepared.  Right away she jumped up and said she would get them something else.  I said "No" and surprise, surprise, they ate the chili and liked it.  She did make very good chili.  Of course I have no idea what grandma did when I wasn't around.  Since this was the same grandma who fed our dogs scrambled eggs when she took care of them, I'm guessing some spoiling went on, but everybody knows that's what grandmas are for.