I miss my pressure cooker. Well, actually I don't miss that nerve-racking-about-to-blow-a-hot geyser-hole-in-your-ceiling-contraption. I just miss the beans and the rice, too. After two weeks of kiddy menus filled with fried chicken fingers, spaghetti, hamburgers and fries, fries, fries, Georgia must, too. Or probably not--she's a kid after all. But I really hope she does. Because that's what she is getting when we get back home. Period.
In Brazil, the lunch menu for the majority of the population, and especially the children consists of: rice and beans, chicken, meat, or fish, and a vegetable. And this is served day in and day out and usually without complaint. Because it's tasty. Because it's healthy (protein, carbs, iron, vitamins--check, check, check, check). Because it's economical. And because it's easy.
As the USA continues to struggle with obesity, I have to wonder if it is because of the lack of a food culture. Without a culture of food, you are left to choice. And there are so many bad ones to make. After several weeks of trying to think of nutritious choices for Georgia (and often not ordering off the kids menu), I feel like just another exhausted mom contemplating the drive-thru in a quest to spare my brain another round of decision making.
So I'm not preaching here. I don't know the solution. I am empathizing--and looking forward to serving a heaping portion of rice and beans to my family. Mmmmm.
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