Am I a Bad Cook??

So, I've normally thought of myself of a fairly capable cook. I have a few mishaps every now and then but I really believe my successes in the kitchen far outnumber my disasters. My son, however, doesn't seem to agree this week.

Monday, when the kids got home from preschool, as soon as we opened the back door, we were overwhelmed with the smell of italian beef cooking in the crock pot. I'm pretty sure, I stopped and closed my eyes and took a deep breath to inhale the delightful scent. Gabe, on the other hand, instantly made a horrid face, grabbed his nose, and started complaining..."What's THAT smell like Mom??" The kids are generally awake for about 20 minutes or school after preschool...just long enough to drink a glass of milk and watch a partial cartoon. He continued to hold his nose for this entire 20 minute period. What a stinker!

So fast forward to my conversation with Gabe this morning. Last night, we'd had one of the casserole's that Pam and I had made. I'd told the gang that we were having spaghetti. So it was spaghetti bake...different sauce but same noodles and still quite yummy! Apparently it wasn't what Gabe expected, nor his favorite. He ate some, but not all of his dinner (Kendra, mind you, cleaned her plate up). So this morning around 8:30 or so, Gabe stops what he is doing and asks me, "Mom, are we going to eat the same thing that we had last night today?" I really didn't plan on it because I figured that Heath and I would eat the leftovers for lunches this week but I wanted to see his reaction so I told him that YES, we were going to have "spaghetti bake" again for dinner tonight. His response..."Well, I'm not going to be hungry tonight". How nice that he can plan his hunger pains in advance like that, eh?? Ah to have the thought capacity of a 3 year old!!

Don't worry - tonight we went for something he'd consider normal...chicken strips and fries. Not your healthiest meal but at least he ate it and didn't complain!! I really don't want to raise picky kids but I don't know how to get around it?!?