My Million Dollar Idea

I have visions of being an entrepreneur. Most of my visions involve food, which is funny because I'm not a fabulous cook. I'm a good cook, but never had culinary dreams in school or wanted to perfect my dicing technique, which honestly, could use some work.

Starting in high school I had day dreams of coffee shops in small towns, very 'Friends' like, boutique atmosphere. Starbucks without the corporate. The dreams evolved into wine bars and specialty restaurants with added services. Boy do I have a good one on that front!

I still have those dreams, but then I became a mom and my dreams shifted a bit. I love cooking for Baby A and am constantly horrified at the lack of good baby food in stores. Apparently there are only four vegetables that any baby needs, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes and 'mixed vegetables'. That's it. That's all you get. Now fruit, you can get every imaginable type and combination, but not vegetables. So my dreams have shifted to homemade baby food. Real food. I would love to have a table at the local summer farmers market selling baby food that isn't processed mush. Especially when you get to stage three and toddler foods. Prepackaged toddler foods taste like prepackaged foods. Baby A won't go near it. Hates it. However, she'll devour a full bowl of fresh spinach and carrots with whole grain couscous. She loves kale, and clearly the standards of green beans and peas, but she's had cabbage, leeks, rutabaga, summer squash, acorn squash, tilapia, salmon, pork and tons of other foods that you can not find on a store shelf. She refuses to eat chicken fingers. That one I can't quite believe, but it's true. Mix up some shredded chicken with green beans, corn and onion, and she'll eat it all day. I really believe that setting the eating expectations of children at 8, 9 and 16 months is what leads to healthy eating habits later.

I would call it 'Rest for the Wicked' based on the working mother's constant struggle of feeling like nothing is quite good enough. We try to be a mom and an employee and I know I can't be alone when I feel like I'm not doing a very good job at either one. We feel wicked because we can't, or don't, choose to be home with our children. Or on the other side of that proverbial coin, you are a SAHM and, shockingly enough, don't have time during the day to make baby food, on top of everything else you're trying to manage. So, one thing to take off your plate in feeling like all you can do is buy the same five or six options that are on the shelf at the store every week.

I have a bunch of other Million Dollar Ideas, and maybe sharing them just means that someone else is going to use them, but I have no plans for global domination so, whatever. I was mostly just thinking my little GA farmers market and having something that I started be successful.