we have had this running battle with the boy over soy milk. i like the soy milk, and think it tastes just fine. it does not froth well, so if you want to make a soy milk latte, its not the same. but on cereal, its great. boy says he hates how it tastes, and will not eat his cereal with it. i say its not that noticeable, and that boy, who regards all new foods with suspicion, is exaggerating all out of proportion just so he won’t have to drink the soy milk.
the thing is, is that the soy milk is not our first choice. we would probably rather have the organic cow's milk, but it is so expensive. you see, after doing some research on the internet regarding the use of bovine growth hormone, we decided that we really didn’t want the boy drinking the hormone infested milk. it is really that bad. so, we looked at alternatives. there is regular commercial dairy milk where that dairy promises not to use the bgh. there is organic milk, where the dairy is certified not to give the cows anything bad. and there is the soy milk, which is also organic.
the main consideration here is price. this stuff is fairly expensive. first of all, it is only available in our area in half gallons. even regular milk is extra expensive in half gallon format. the half gallon of organic milk at our local mega-food retailer is over a dollar more expensive than the gallon of regular milk. with our budget and boy’s milk drinking capacity, this is a problem. enter the long running sale on soy milk. the half gallon of the soy milk is actually a little cheaper than the gallon of regular milk. so this is what we buy.
but boy “hates” it, and won’t eat his cereal, and made puppy dog eyes at ephelba who suggested that we get some pricey organic cow milk just for cereal, and have the soy milk just for drinking .(which boy says he can manage to choke down) so this we do.
but i doubt the veracity of boy’s taste buds. i say that since he sees the soy milk carton, he makes up his mind in advance that he won’t like it. so i switch the milks. we have an empty carton of organic cow’s milk. this is secretly filled with the soy milk and replaced in the fridge.
a few hours later, as i am grilling our memorial day ‘festival of meats,’ there is a yell from the kitchen. moments later, boy comes out the house and looks accusingly at me and says, “did you put soy milk in the real milk carton?” since we only yesterday had had a big confrontation with the boy on lying, i knew i had to fess up. so i did. now boy is outraged, but at the same time, he thinks it is a funny joke, so he’s laughing and a little mad at the same time, and he says, “why did you want to trick me?”
i told him i didn’t just want to trick him, but to find out for real if he didn’t like the soy milk, or if it was psychosomatic. then i had to explain ‘psychosomatic.’ but he’s a smart kid and he gets it. then he’s more outraged and tries to tackle me, but he is far too puny and i tickle him so his legs buckle.
so i guess the boy’s taste buds a for real, and we’ll probably have to stick with ephelba’s compromise.