Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

First of all, thanks for all of your interesting comments on my name change post. It's nice to see that a lot of people have struggled with this issue before and all of the solutions everyone has came to. I think I am probably leaning towards changing my name everywhere except work. I think my biggest concern about that choice is that I may never get used to the new name if I don't change it at work. But...too bad I guess. I promise to let you know my final decision next July (assuming I make it then). Anyway...

There is always a lot of talk about the influences of your family on your exercise habits. Often, if your parents were good role models in staying active, you too will stay active. However, what about the effects of what type of foods you ate as a kid on what you choose to eat and enjoy as an adult?

Eric and I eat very differently. So differently that we each cook our own dinner ever single night except for the random night every few weeks that we enjoy sweet potato risotto together (cooked by Eric). The two major reasons that we eat so differently are:

1. There is a lot of foods I can no longer eat because of IBS. I completely avoid anything fried, anything with cheese and any red meat. Some of the things we used to enjoy together; steak, coffee, pizza, eggrolls- are basically eliminated from my diet now.

2. We grew up eating VERY differently.

I don't mean one of us ate better than the other, just very differently. The main difference is the use of sauces. I'm not saying we never ate sauce in my house, but it was not uncommon to have a night of grilled fish, potato and veggies with no sauce in sight. This simply would not happen in Eric's house.

My mom has also been known to completely eliminate the use of salt in her meals, which I never really knew or noticed.

Another major difference in our diet that cannot be blamed on the way we grew up is that I love fish and Eric does not. The reason I can't blame his dad for this is that his dad LOVES seafood and somehow this love never carried down to Eric. Very sad.

Staples in Eric's current diet include bagel sandwiches (with sausage filling), turkey sandwiches with mayo and hot sauce, steak, pizza, sweet potatoes, onions, breaded chicken, and ramen noodles (not the kind you ate in college).

Staples in my current diet include oatmeal, peanut butter/almond butter, yogurt, bagels, veggie pizza with no cheese, tuna w/ greek yogurt, fish, beans, potato, carrots, mushrooms and zucchini

Every night in our kitchen is pretty hilarious. I love our kitchen, I truly do, but it is not big enough for two people to cook a meal at the same time. So we basically bump into and trip over each other as we cook. On some very lucky days we are both eating something with potato, or something with pasta so we can save a couple of pans and space on the stove. We have been known to fight over pots, pans, and the oven itself. Basically, we have some issues.

Tonight though, we actually ate the same thing! I found these at Whole Foods and thought they had both Kelly AND Eric written all over them...

I love butternut squash ravioli but I can almost never order them at a restaurant because of the butter sauce that I can't eat. Eric always says he is willing to try a new Italian restaurant if they have butternut squash ravioli. So I bought it.

Okay, I lied a little bit we didn't eat the SAME thing. Eric made what looked like an amazing butter, olive oil, brown sugar and garlic sauce. But alas, I can't do the butter so I just had mine with tomato sauce. This always pisses off people at restaurants because it is not supposed to go together but unless it tastes terrible I can't always follow those "rules."

I have to say, I liked these raviolis, but I want to try some different ones before I settle on any one type. They tasted like they had some pepper in them and I was wishing they were a bit sweeter. Now, I know, I know, they would be sweeter if I made the sauce you are SUPPOSED to with them, but I swear I've had actually raviolis that taste sweeter, even with tomato sauce. Any brand recommendations?

The big question about me and Eric is who will cook for the kids. If Eric and I are so highly affected by how our parents eat, will our kids just be some crazy mixture of sauce and no sauce, sodium and no sodium? Red meat and fish? Or perhaps our kids will learn to love everything? This remains to be seen (in about 1000 years when I can actually tolerate not saying peace out to kids at night!).

What eating habits/tastes did you get from your parents?