As I am not
usually inclined to make my own food, I am fortunate enough to have a mom that
is an EXCELLENT cook. She does most of
the cooking in the Axelbank household but my dad and sister (when she is home)
pitch in as well. Other than breakfast,
and when my dad has to eat an early dinner so he can get off to work, it is not
usual to find somebody eating alone (except the cat). But even recently, we’ve been experimenting
with putting an extra chair at the dinner table and seating Moonshadow, our
cat, up there; he usually stays for at least part of the meal!
When my dad
works evenings (Mondays and Thursdays) my mom and I eat together. These are usually very simple dinners
(omelets, tuna sandwiches, etc.). My mom
works Tuesday evenings, making for a nice father-son dinner, in which we
usually capitalize on the absence of the family vegetarian (my mom) and grill
burgers, or cook chicken, and just generally make as much meat as we can. Every Wednesday we eat as a family and my mom
usually makes something nicer than our average dinner (see below); my mom likes
to make various ethnic foods sometimes for these dinners (for a Jewish mother,
she makes a mean chicken tikka masala).
Friday night is Shabbat for us Jews and when we can, we have Shabbat
dinner with the whole family around.
When we do get to have Shabbat dinner as a family, this is usually the
biggest meal of the week with the most effort put into it. These dinners can vary anywhere from Mexican
lasagna, to homemade soup, home-baked bread, and a big salad bar, to ravioli,
garlic bread and roasted veggies.
My family
has some of our best, most important conversations over dinner. I’d say that 50% of the time, these
conversations are politically oriented, and the other 50% are just typical conversations,
relevant to our lives.
During the
average week, my family eats approximately $150 dollars worth of food
made/prepared in the house and $75-$100 worth of food from take-out/delivery or
eating out. I have broken the total
price of home made/prepared food down into percentage of total price as
follows:
Fruits and Vegetables – 40%
Wheat/Grain – 20%
Dairy – 10%
Meat – 10%
Snacks and Desserts – 10%
Beverages – 5%
Condiments – 5%
As my mom,
the main cook, is a vegetarian, and my dad will eat whatever my mom makes, the
meat consumption is low; the 10% meat comes from times when my mom makes me
chicken (she won’t have red meat in the house so when my dad and I grill
burgers we have to do it outside). All
meat is kosher. At every meal there is
some form (usually forms) of
vegetable, and the most common dessert is fruit. As for wheat/grain, we go through probably a
dozen bagels a week, a ton of cereal, and when my dad eats an early dinner before
working nights, he almost always has pasta.
Our dairy consumption consists mostly of milk, butter, cheese, and
yogurt. On our designated snack shelf,
we have a variety of cookies, chips, and most importantly Pop-Tarts. We drink
predominantly water but my mom often has seltzer. We drink coffee and OJ in the morning and
keep pomegranate and mango juice around too.
Our condiments consist of various sauces and spices that we use to
accompany our meals.
Not just food, but meals themselves play an
important role in my family’s life. We
eat together as often as we can, and we use meals as opportunities to stay
connected as a family. My dad has said
multiple times that he loves nothing more than when the whole family is home
for dinner, especially on Shabbat.
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| The Axelbank kitchen |
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| Typical dessert of fresh fruit |
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| Wednesday night meal of Mexican style fajitas |
