- Cut up a fresh, bone-in chicken breast and you’ll notice that it naturally separates into two distinct parts: a larger, teardrop-shaped lobe of flesh — the piece of meat that you probably think of when someone says “chicken breast” — and a more narrow piece sometimes referred to as a “tender.” The chicken finger originated in the need to find something to do with that tender, explains food historian Gary Allen in a short history of the convenience food published online five years ago. Chicken fingers, Allen says, were seldom seen before 1990 or so, but by the end of the 1980s, fear of saturated fats turned many North Americans away from beef and toward chicken. Increased demand meant billions of additional chicken breasts were processed — but what was the industry to do with the tenders? The answer is on children’s plates. We can look at Allen’s mini-history of a mini-food as a metaphor for how cuisine has come to be divided in contemporary North America: The prime cuts go to the adults while the less healthy morsels — dressed up in extra salt, fat and sugar and processed almost beyond recognition — end up on the kids’ menu, both in the family restaurants that traffic in such fare, and at home.
Posted as I eat vegetarian chili which I made a few days ago, while my roommate eats boxed and mac and cheese. Granted, I do that sometimes but at a much lower frequency.
My daughter has to take a "no thank you" bite of everything on her plate. She used to protest that she "hated" certain foods or that others were "gross" which is the kind of rude behavior we are looking to grind out of her. We always made her try at least one bite of everything on her plate but it's a lot more pleasant now when she tries something and says "I don't think that cabbage is for me."
She eats what we eat for dinner, breakfast and lunch is a bit less rigorous. Once a week I try and make something that I think she will especially enjoy like macaroni and cheese (I try and toss some vegetables or something in there to make it a bit more interesting). Once a week we will get take out which is often pizza, Mexican or burgers, the rest of the time it's adult food.
She surprises me with what she will eat sometimes. She isn't a big eater in general but I've seen her scarf down half a dozen brussels sprouts during dinner. She has always done well in fancy or adventurous restaurants, not loving everything but finding a few things to her taste.
In the end what she really wants to eat the most is rice, bread and chicken.
Honestly, I'm shocked to hear that parents specifically give their kids different foods from what they eat, and do so consistently. I can barely imagine a whole nation of kids which only eat fries, pizza and chicken fingers. What is wrong with people?
I could maybe find it excusable for a poor family here the parents are working two jobs and simply don't have time to cook a full dinner, but if you cook a regular meal for yourself, and a separate one for your children, there is simply no excuse.