Ode to Food Habits from My Parents

Baked potatoes are my new favorite food. I'm getting close to having consumed a dozen in the space of 3 weeks. I eat them for lunch, mostly. It's not that I can't eat other foods--it's just that baked potatoes appeal to me. So I bake, and I eat.

Unfortunately, there are two downsides. The first is that potatoes take an hour to bake, so I have to think ahead--and sometimes even thinking ahead doesn't net me a soft potato by the time I'm famished. This, however, is not a major setback. Of greater importance is that the flesh of a potato is mostly starch--which is not high on the nutritional priority list for pregnant women. Fortunately, family food habits help to make up for this a bit.

From my father, I learned to eat baked potatoes piled high with. . .cottage cheese. I thought this was normal, until 2 or 3 people over the past week have given me strange responses. At any rate, it was normal in our house. Thus, my baked potato is filled with more calcium and less fat than it would otherwise be, were I to use grated cheddar and sour cream.

From my mother, I learned to like potato skins, bastions of antioxidants and other things of nutritional benefit. In fact, I usually eat them as a sort of second course, with a small second round of toppings, which helps again with the calcium and such.

Thus, my lunch is not solely starch, and I shall continue to bake and eat. Ode to the parents.