My kids like store food better than mine

amother

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 11:31 am

Am I the only one with this issue. My kids love when I get a tray of gourmet glatt hot poppers or pizza for supper. I make beautiful chicken dishes - my husband and I love - they won't touch. They don't like gefilte fish, soup or cholent. They would rather menachem's tuna with some lettuce. I have my parents and in laws and host occasionally and and they eat my food. They do eat my schnitzel if I make it with brown sugar and ketchup. What am I doing wrong - ages 15-9

amother

Sienna

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 11:44 am

You’re not the only one. My kids are like this. I think some kids’ taste buds are just finely attuned to level of “process-ness” in food, become addicted to highly processed or lots of added sugar/msg and will restrict themselves to those foods. It’s not a conscious process, it’s neurological.

Even if make copycat food just with better ingredients they can tell the difference. I try not to take it personally. I know my cooking is awesome, my husband and guests love it.

amother

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 11:46 am

I guess they eventually grow out of it. I grew up on store bought food. What I wouldn't have done for good fresh homemade chicken which I loved. I now ONLY eat home made and can't look at the store stuff!

amother

Crystal

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 11:48 am

My kids too. Even when I make homemade challah, they tell me they want bakery challah. Ironic cuz my mom always bought takeout and I wished she would make homemade.

octopus

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 12:13 pm

I think kids know how to drive mothers crazy. I recently made homemade pizza, dough and all. Normally they love a supper like this. I worked my tail off. And one kid said it was too spicy this time. And another kid said same thing and some kids ate and some kids refused. For that price I could've thrown chicken in the oven since I always get complaints about fleishig suppers.I don't know why I even bothered with the potchke.

amother

Mintgreen

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 12:18 pm

amother OP wrote:

Totally hear you, sista!

BrisketBoss

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 12:19 pm

octopus wrote:

Come on, octopus, you KNOW you shouldn't have put in the jalapeños. Smh.

bnm

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 12:28 pm

My home cooking dosn't have the same results each time. Some kids (and adults) like when everything tastes just the same each time. I did have one child who told me to complain to a brand that their new batch of xyz has too much green in it, its supposed to be paler. My kids like frozen pizza so I'm not bothering with fresh. I also don't patchke if they won't appreciate it. Sometimes I will patchke for myself, and save the leftovers for lunch or another night.

amother

Clear

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 12:36 pm

Op, this is totally normal. At the same time, the need to know that on a daily basis we eat homemade because it's healthier & cheaper, & store bought is a special treat. They're old enough to understand.

I would love to eat Chinese takeout everyday, too bad I can't.

Amarante

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 12:47 pm

Why not cook "clone" recipes that duplicate popular restaurant dishes or take out style. There are loads of take out recipes for Chinese food.

And frankly cholent, soup and gefilte fish would not be the choice for most kids.

BrisketBoss

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 12:55 pm

Amarante wrote:

And frankly cholent, soup and gefilte fish would not be the choice for most kids.

Huh? I thought bland, boring foods are child friendly.

No offense to anybody who would defend their own special recipe to the death. And I like all those things, though some people's are better than others' of course.

Amarante

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 1:02 pm

BrisketBoss wrote:

Who said they were necessarily bland?

My point is that these foods are not what most children would choose to eat from a menu

No one I know liked gefilte fish as a child - chicken soup wasn't exactly the most exciting thing to eat versus other options and cholent - well I think it is an acquired taste. For example, it has never broken into the wider realm of food like a knish, pastrami sandwich, latkes etc.

My point is that if OP is serving these kinds of food versus food that is more generally enjoyed by kid, it is not unexpected. And if the kids want food that tastes like takeout just try some clone recipes and see if they like those.

amother

Red

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 2:38 pm

Okay so poppers are deep-fried and full of salt, sugar, fat, and msg, so of course they have more addictive qualities than a homemade chicken dish. But the other stuff I don’t understand. My kids love my chicken soup, chulent, all the classics, and homemade beats store bought for all of those. Is it possible that you need better recipes? (Of course your in-laws and parents eat whatever you serve them, it would be rude not to. You can’t take that as proof that your food is good!) Maybe you need to set up a blind taste test where you have dh blindfold you and feed you a spoonful of your soup vs. bought soup, same for chulent and whatever, so you can honestly assess whether it’s you or your kids that are the problem! Very Happy

oneofakind

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 2:46 pm

I agree with the fact that some kids like the fact that store bought is very consistent. Proof being that sometimes they venture to taste homemade and love it but generally will still prefer the store.