Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Not a Top Chef I

Cooking. This is the bane of my guilt stricken existence. When am I going to start cooking for my kids? Right now their meals consist of lots of pasta and noodles and sandwiches, soup, fruits, applesauce and yogurt, and some oatmeal and smoothies too. All of which requires perhaps a 10 minute boil on the stove max. Most of which is microwaveable. How pathetic.

I keep meaning to whip out the casserole recipes thinking I could logically make them and me dinner at the same time and have leftovers. However, I haven't really cooked in years. My husband always worked later than I eat dinner, so when I first moved to SF I used to work hard and make him dinners and require him to be home 3 days a week to eat them. Well, that just stressed him out. Then I'd make dinners that did well in the reheat, but that was less than satisfying because essentially I was cooking for just myself. I find that a thankless and unnecessary act. I'm perfectly happy eating take out and frozen dinners by myself. Why cook?

When the babies were just starting to eat I was willing to steam up and puree a bunch of stuff, because, again, that's pretty stinking easy. A lot of machines to do the job for me pretty much. But I sure thought that by now I'd be cooking. I've had several false starts, shopped and bought chicken and ground beef and turkey, as well as herbs and veggies and cans of creamed soups. All sits and rots. Where am I supposed to find the energy? If they're happy with pasta and soup and I'm happy with take out, who cares?

Me. I feel like a failure of a mom on this one. I don't expect to make everything they eat from scratch, I'm no earth mother. I just expect to, maybe 4 times a week, turn on the oven and use a pan and throw at least 5 ingredients together in it and bake it. Good lord it doesn't sound that hard does it?

10 comments:

  1. I think eating as a family is a important up bringing. You will get where the kids don't want that type of food and will have to throw in some chicken or steak. Once they start eating "real" food then you will be cooking all the time. But for now make it simple on yourself and feed them what they like and will eat!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I understand Mira. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and we certainly allow ourselves to feel the mommy guilt! I was dreading cooking for my babies but I now find it a fun, gratifying, and rewarding task. However time consuming. =) Check out this site. www.weelicious.com Fun, easy, fast recipes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I feel the same way about cooking.. I always feel like I don't do it enough and rely to much on deli turkey and grilled cheese to feed my kids. My husband's never home and it's hard to cook when you have 3 toddlers running around that freak out when you are more than 6 inches away!! I do a lot of baked chicken, turkey meatloaf (weird, but they love it, and it's really easy, you can hide veggies in it- and you can make a few and freeze them!)and I use the George Foreman grill whenever I can! My kids love quesadillas too, those are pretty quick and easy to make. I'm learning that planning ahead is the key, do the prep work for the week one day while they are sleeping, then you have stuff mostly done for when you have to actually cook. OK, sorry I just wrote a novel:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. that would be a dilemma; I think what Monica said is really true; you do want to have that family eating time as much as possible, but I also agree with her to keep it simple while you can. You will want them to enjoy and have tried a wide variety of food by the time they get ready to go over to friends' houses for dinner. Its frustrating when you have a child's friend over and all they will eat is "peanut butter sandwiches" (or whatever). I always liked the kid (usually from a large family, LOL) that would eat anything and be grateful for the invitation over. maybe when hubby has a night off (and hopefully he does) you can plan to cook something simple where he is there to help keep an eye on the kids.

    good luck with it :)

    betty

    ReplyDelete
  5. Or...you could be on the other end, like me, and spend all this time mixing, making, baking up something yummy only to have them throw it on the floor and ask for a cracker! I find if anything has more than 2 ingredients in it then it's a no go for them. My kids love beans, rice and cheese but when I made a beans and rice mix with melted cheese all over it...floor city. Let them eat what works now and relax. Just throw in a new flavor a few times a week to keep things exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dude, the "family dinner" is a myth. The reality is that most families don't sit around a table eating anymore. Don't feel guilty that you don't live in the 50s! You have options, which includes take out and TV. Not saying this is a great plan every night, but don't stress yourself out over a false, societally -constructed ideal.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Crockpot! I try to use it at least once a week, if not twice, b/c it makes a lot and then I have enough for all of us plus leftovers. But I will admit to more than my fair share of frozen waffles for dinner :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have given myself permission not to cook until the kids are about 5. That way they can help out and it can be a family learning experience. There is so much that we as mom of triplets need to do, why add something unnecessary and then feel guilty about it. I cook on Sundays for grandma and granpa while they are at church and throw in some baked chicken and baked pork chops that can be re-heated and chopped up for lunch for the babies later in the week. Otherwise it canned ravioli, mac-n-cheese, rice and peas, easy stuff. Give yourself a break, girl.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I second the crock pot suggestion. While I do alot of scratch cooking (for financial reasons as much as my earth mama tendencies) you can't beat the crock pot for easy dinners. There's a few great crock pot cookbooks out there.

    Oh, and while I enjoy cooking for the most part, I HATE meal planning. Another thing that helps is my cookbook that has a weeks worth of meals along with a shopping list. When its time for dinner, open the book and do what it says--no question about whether or not I have the ingredients.

    That said, we still do frozen pizza once a week at least.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You have problems with cooking, I have problems with gardening-tomatoes in particular. SITS sent me over here...and I'm glad they did!

    ReplyDelete