This was our Wednesday lunch: a date with Daddy at Chipotle. It rocked.

We beat him there by a few minutes—just long enough to run to the bathroom and wash hands after an hour of cricket-chasing at a nearby park. (Can I say how happy I was to have a warmish sunny day at last?) This is Baby A waiting patiently for his arrival:

Hope your Wednesday was this good, too.

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What's up with the difficulty of planning meals and shopping lists when there are little kiddos around? Grocery lists become just one more bit of proof that I can't think through anything from start to finish these days. I try, really I do, but it's just frustrating. And that's before the shopping trip, which always ends up feeling like a freakin' marathon event.

Jessica Ashley, better known around the blogging world as author of the Sassafrass blog, knows your pain. And mine. She's got a great post at Strollerderby today. It'll make you think, Okay. It's not just me. And then she links to inspirational posts from bloggers who do manage not only to get it done, but to blog about how they did it, and how we can do it, too. (Props. Mad props.) There's CityMama, and Foodmomiac, and Adventures of Bittyman, and An Ordinary Mom, and Mommy Cracked.

There's more inspiration for you here at Quick Serve Kids...scroll down and look under "More, Please" on the right-hand side.

Lately I've been using my iPhone (what is it NOT useful for?) to keep a running grocery list that I'm sure to have with me. That image above is my most recent version. (Too bad the phone can't help me make better blog graphics. Sigh....) As you can see, it's, um, pretty short. From there, I'll grab two more kinds of groceries: staples we always keep on hand (cheese, pasta sauce, fresh fruit) and things that look good at the moment or inspire some thoughts for that night's meal. The cart is never full, though. I like to keep it fresher than that.

What's your strategy for keeping the pantry and fridge reasonably stocked? Or do you let take-out take care of it?

Speaking of this whole struggle, this is probably a good time to catch up on our family's own quick-serve trend--which is sharply away from quick-serve patronage. It's not part of any kind of campaign, or really anything purposeful at all. For a while, Chick-fil-A, Panera, and a couple other concepts were figuring into our mealtimes once or twice a week. Lately, though, we're doing a lot of home cooking. I like the variety, and home is snuggly and relaxing when it's 20 degrees outside.

If we do go to a chain these days, it's Chipotle. There are more locations near us now, which makes it convenient (which, duh, is our point). The food there is fresh and delicious, the wait time is near zero, and I love love love the natural and organic consciousness that company is pushing. Go here and click on Manifesto. Note as you read that this quick-serve chain actually recommends you read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. How's that for confidence in its mission?

Hint: Next time you're at Chipotle (what? you haven't been? GO!), ask for the Parents' Menu. It's a slip of paper with suggestions for scaling down the chain's menu to feed kids appropriately. How cool is that? Instead of supplanting their menu with chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and macaroni and cheese, as if kids shouldn't like Southwestern food, Chipotle helps you instead plan a kid-sized version of a normal meal.

Sweet. We actually visited Chipotle two days in a row recently. But mostly, lately, we've been doing a lot of cooking at home. It just feels right.

Hmmmm, why all the pickiness? Why the strange domesticity?

Could it be...

I'm nesting?

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A friend—okay, a barista at my favorite coffee shop, and anyone who serves me espresso is a friend—passed along a great article from the New York Times. It's called "Don't Point That Menu at My Child, Please," linked here.

Please read the article (even if you have to register) rather than accept my little summary. It's worth it. But...basically the writer decries the fact that restaurants everywhere, along with grocery stores, approach our kids with the expectation they'd rather eat the usual kid's menu of chicken fingers, mac and cheese, cheese pizza, grilled cheese (pattern here?), and fries, rather than smaller versions of what's on the regular menu:

"In short, I came to the realization that America is in the grips of a nefarious chicken-finger pandemic, in which a blandly tasty foodstuff has somehow become the de facto official nibble of our young. [...] It pains me that many children now grow up eating little besides golden-brown logs of kid food, especially in a time when the quality, variety and availability of good ingredients is better than ever."

Righteous.

Now I'd like to offer some hints on avoiding the usual kid's menu, even in the fast-food or casual dining setting. 'Cause sometimes you just want something different for your kids—you know?

• Try the unusual fruit bowls for kids at California Pizza Kitchen. Then share some of your own, grown-up pizza with your child. Presto: yummy, solid lunch for cheap.

• Visit Chipotle, where there is no kid's menu, and share a Burrito Bol and some of their unstoppable guacamole and chips with your kids. Again: yummy, nutritious, cheap. In the picture above, Baby A is proudly making her own "baby burrito" at Chipotle, spreading guacamole (ours) on a plain tortilla (hers). It cost, like, 50 cents.

• Go to Wendy's or McDonald's and get one of their premium salads—the ones with diced chicken, pecans, and fresh fruit, like mandarin oranges. Give some of the toppings to your kids, even the really young ones. Baby A loved those things when she was just over a year old. Add a fruit and granola parfait and it's an inexpensive, healthy meal.

• Try smaller versions of regular menu items, like the Bambino Burgers at Good Times or the simple taco at a place like Taco Bell or Del Taco. They're ideal for the three-to-ten age range.

• Go to a Thai, Chinese, or Japanese quick-serve place, like Pei Wei or Panda Express, and make a small plate for your child from yours, with rice or noodles, meat or tofu, and veggies. We've been doing this with Baby A for, gosh, two years now. And she just turned three.

In short, think about how you can adapt the regular menu items for your kids. The choices areout there. You'll do the kids a favor by expanding their taste horizons, and probably save $3 to $4 per meal, too. And who needs the little toys, unless it's something really special your child just has to have? (When there's a "Wonder Pets" or "Little Einsteins" meal, I'm afraid we'll have to get one. No one is immune, right?)

And, restaurants? Get ahead of the curve on changing kids' meals. I think you'll find plenty of support.

Posted by QSMama at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Interested in helping make sure a measure of clean water, good soil, and quality foods are around when your Quicksie has kids of his or her own?

Consider buying a calendar for five bucks at Chipotle. Proceeds from calendar sales will be divided among two organizations that reflect Chipotle’s mission of Food With Integrity: The Land Institute and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. If all available calendars are sold, Chipotle will raise about $100,000 for these organizations.

I talk way too much about Chipotle, don't I? Oh, well.

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Whew. Sooooooo glad it's Friday, even though I'll be working a bunch this weekend on other writing projects. Something about the weekend just makes everything easier.

So let's get started with some fun.

• Into football? Super Bowl Sunday is almost here, and quick-serve restaurants are gearing up for the annual "Super Bowl surge." But, according to this news release, some of those restaurants are trying a new strategy this year: Letting the customers handle placing and paying for their orders themselves, using a kiosk.

EMN8, the company that ran the release, says kiosks lead to faster service, line reduction and an estimated 15- to 30-percent increase on per-ticket sales.

Have you used a kiosk to self-order food? How did it go? The only time I've seen one in action (besides at a trade show, that is) was at a Sheetz location. Lots of people were mighty confused.

• Hilarious baby duds from Chipotle. If you can't make out the words in the picture, the onesie says, "Food goes in here. Comes out here." That pretty much sums it up.

• Check it out! Bush urges parents to get kids to play outdoors—now, while it lasts! So weird. The authorities want to make sure kids get outside and play for at least an hour each day. When I was a kid, I was like, Just try to stop me from playing outside for hours on end. What's happened?

Wait. This isn't fun.

• Ugh! But, you know, anything as big as a venti-sized drink is going to contain a lot of calories, unless it's water.

Oh, sorry. That's not much fun, either.

• But this is. Oh, K-Fed. Give it up already. And to the Natioanl Restaurant Association: Chill a little, okay? Sometimes it's okay just to laugh and let it go.

What do you think? Is that commercial offensive? Or just funny? Or neither?

Posted by QSMama at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yay! The sour cream at Chipotle will no longer contain artificial dairy growth hormones.

Recombinant bovine somatotropin, rBGH, is a synthetic hormone often given to dairy cattle to stimulate milk production. rBGH works by increasing levels of Insulin Growth Factor (IGF), a naturally occurring hormone.

I always buy rGBH-free milk for Baby A, but it's harder to avoid the hormone in restaurant foods. Here's another reason—in addition to the fabulous food—to go to Chipotle.

It's wonderful when a restaurant company is out to prove that you can serve awesomely delicious food quickly, relatively cheaply, and in a natural, sustainable fashion. It can be done. Thanks, Chipotle.

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