Make Garden Recipes that Your Family Actually Enjoys! Try This Scale to Measure Their Approval.

Whether using garden foods or those from the grocery store, mom wants her kids to eat the food she makes. Especially if you are taking the time to grow your own food, it can be disappointing when kids or Dad doesn't like a meal you have prepared. However, it's not always obvious what the reaction is to the food put on the table. 

My husband, for one, is very polite, and always thanks me for the food I make. He almost never complains, so it can be hard for me to gauge whether he really likes my food. My kids, being kids, don't know how to communicate much of anything well. And, to tell you the truth, while I don't want to make food my family hates, I can get a bit sensitive if I have worked hard on a meal and the kids are rude about their dislike for it. 

So I have put together this scale to help my family communicate to me what they think about each meal I make. I usually ask them to rate any new dish I make after they have tried it. If a garden-based recipe gets mostly 1's or 2's from my family, I will consider posting the recipe to this website.

Here it is-- I hope this scale can help you, too! 

Dinner Satisfaction Scale
Scale	Rating Interpretation	Interpret Infant Satisfaction
1	This is a favorite dish. Make this any time.	Toddler eats all food and asks for more.
2	This is really good. Make this once or twice a month.	Toddler most of the meal.
3	It’s ok. If you make it, I’ll eat it.	Toddler picks at food.
4	Only make in emergency.	Toddler does not touch food.
5	Never make this again!	Toddler vomits food after eating (or other poor reaction).

Where do I get ideas for my recipes? Well, usually I check how a certain vegetable is commonly eaten or prepared by perusing other cookbooks. I consider the composition of flavors and textures as a whole, and then I check what ingredients I have on hand to put something together that works for our family. 

One garden cookbook I use often is Chris Kimball's Milk Street Vegetables. Americans aren't really known for their vegetable recipes, so I bought this book to familiarize myself with using them in the kitchen. Having a number of his cookbooks, I knew this cookbook would produce recipes that would be family favorites.  Click here to view on Amazon. This one deserves a spot on the gardener's bookshelf.

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View More of my garden recipes here:

Strawberry-Radish Salad with Pak Choi