On the first day of Passover, I sent E to school with her customary lunch of pasta, cheese stick, snap peas, and a peep (pasta and cheese stick are constants; the fruit/vegetable and treat components change daily). She came home from school and announced that K had shared his matzah with her at lunch, and she and K were not eating flour for Passover.
"No pasta?" I asked, my heart sinking.
No pasta.
"No bread?"
No bread.
Well, OK then.
Either you are wondering what's the big deal, or, if you are a relative or devoted reader, your heart is sinking alongside mine. Because E's diet already contains no meat, no fish, no cooked vegetables, nothing that might possibly even resemble a soup, sauce, or casserole-type event, and various other no's I can't bring myself to think of. Take out waffles, pancakes, french toast, bagels, and pasta? That leaves...um...matzah. Eggs. Cheese sticks. Raw vegetables. Fruit. Coldy peas. (Don't even talk to me about legumes and Passover. I simply cannot go there. Legumes are in. And so is rice, but we decided years ago to go Sephardic on rice.)
Luckily she likes matzah brei. But since the seders, when she ate nothing but raw vegetables and matzah, she hasn't been so hot on matzah.
Yesterday was pretty grim. The refrigerator was full--of seder leftovers. Gefilte fish, matzah ball soup, lamb, red cabbage, potato kugel, matzah kugel, chocolate meringue truffle cake. Um, no. She asked for a waffle when she woke up, but I told her it had flour and asked her if she really wanted it. No. She is clearly sticking to her resolution. I offered her matzah. No. So she lay on the kitchen floor and drank a juice box while I made the matzah brei. Everyone else ate seder leftovers for lunch (everyone being M, me, my dad and T, and eventually Cousin E and my sister and even my mom who couldn't help nibbling at the lamb when she stopped by). E ate coldy peas. We were out of cheese sticks and then we ran out of peas, and I was the only adult around and I was not going to take four children to the supermarket. Meanwhile, E was turning into a monster. Finally my sister arrived and took over children duty, and I zoomed to the store. Inspirations: fruit! and avocado! When I got home E ate strawberries, cheese sticks, and avocado, and became much more pleasant. For dinner she ate rice and edamame (I told you: shut up about the legumes) (hey, look, maybe the legumes are ok) (the rest of us had sushi) (as for M, yesterday my dad and T took her and Cousin E to East Coast Big City and she was very proud that she managed to keep Passover: she had shrimp cocktail for lunch!).
Only five more days to go. I'm curious to see if she'll stick it out. At least now we're stocked up on fruit, avocado, and cheese sticks.
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5 comments:
Plus, you know, peeps.
Are peeps kosher?
My daughter wants matzoh with cream cheese and jam for breakfast.
Every single day of Passover.
I'm not sure she understands the shall we say, internal ramifications of this decision.
We told my son that Cheerios and pasta were ok for Passover because they haven't risen. What? Shut up. The poor kid would starve to death. He makes E look like an adventurous gourmand. If he gives up flour, he'll be eating rice cakes and corn tortillas with ketchup for every meal.
He doesn't even like peeps.
I was very thankful that J. had spring break the first week, since it made lunches easier - but what to send for the next two days, will be interesting! He's already tired of matzoh but is being very consistent about not eating bread.
Re the um, internal ramifications: I finally found a decent whole wheat matzoh! Last year I got one of the big names (Manischewitz or Streit's, I can't remember which), and it was like eating cardboard. This year I sprung for Yehuda, and it's excellent. I can even tolerate it with nothing spread on it.
I'm alternating it with regular matzoh, and in matzoh brei, for instance, doing a 2/1 proportion.
What are peeps?
grandpa
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