I’ll be honest, one of the things I was most nervous about when planning our move abroad wasn’t getting everything organized and packed or learning the language or getting the kids enrolled in school. No, the thing that concerned me most at the time: what the heck was my youngest going to eat?!
I did everything “right” with my youngest – baby-led weaning, giving him lots of choice and variety, staying away from typical “kid food”. Yet by the eve of our move, his 8-year-old palette was quite limited. He’d reliably eat:
- Hamburgers (but NOT hot dogs)
- Chicken nuggets (IF they were dinosaur shaped)
- Pasta and sauce (but NOT mac and cheese)
- Cheese pizza
- Cheese quesadillas
- Grilled cheese (with American cheese only!)
- Bagels and cream cheese (do you see a bread and cheese theme?)
- Peanut butter and jelly
- Hummus and Ritz crackers
- Mandarins
- Apples
- Bananas
- (notice the lack of vegetables on this list – I used to sneak spinach into his fruit smoothies!)
And of course snacks like Lance’s Cheese ‘n’ crackers, goldfish, and Cheez-Its, which I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to find in Spain. So it was with some trepidation that I boarded the plane to Madrid with only enough extra snacks for the flight.
It turns out that my fears that my child would slowly starve to death because of his stubborn refusal to eat the food available to him. For better or worse, many of the foods he enjoys and is used to are available in Spain. And anyone on any Facebook group who tells you, “You won’t be able to find peanut butter!” hasn’t been to a grocery store in a while and has extremely outdated information!
The grocery stores near us: Carrefour, Mercadona, Aldi, and Mas all carry quality peanut butter at a decent price. Heck, even the Costco has Skippy if the natural stuff doesn’t do it for you! After some trial and error, we found chicken nuggets and frozen pizza he liked (and that fit in our combo microwave/convection oven – a blog for another day!), and bagels that he deemed “ok” (Aldi for the win!). We even found a passable American cheese at Mas. Fruit is abundantly available, both in grocery stores and in the many “fruterias” found throughout the city. And apparently Mexican cuisine has recently become “a thing” here, so the grocery stores near us have small Mexican sections where I can get tortillas for quesadillas. I’ve also learned how to make a pretty good bolognese sauce that, once it’s blended enough he doesn’t even notice the carrots in!
He has been brave and tried some local cuisine with his reactions ranging from, “Meh,” to “Blech!” But he’s not starving, we’ve cut way back on mindless snack eating, and found some new recipes in the process. Just one more way life here has turned out better than I imagined!
Ready to start your new food journey in Spain? Email us to find out how!
