Saturday, November 21, 2009

Any Suggestions?

Cooking meals has become the bane of my existence. It doesn't really seem that hard, right? Think of at least 5 breakfasts, 5 lunches, 5 dinners and 10 snacks per week. I pretend my hands are broken on the weekends.

Breakfast is fairly easy. Henry won't really eat pancakes, waffles, french toast or muffins. Or toast or english muffins. He may lick the cream cheese off of a bagel if I am lucky. So that leaves eggs. If he asks for scrambled, he really meant fried and if he asks for fried he really meant scrambled. Add in 50 lbs of out of season fruit per week at a cost of 8 million dollars and my shopping is done.

Lunch is even better. Until Henry learned that his best friend eats peanut butter and jelly every day he would not touch a sandwich. Now if I am desperate I ask "Do you want to have PB&J like Elliot?" It works 95% of the time. What do you feed the child that won't eat sandwiches? Hmm, you are stumped too I see. Well, you can make pasta with some nice healthy vegetables added and watch him pick out three noodles and then ask to take his nap. Or, order him some pizza and he eats the sausage off of it and declares himself "a little done."

Dinner is my absolute favorite time. Make something that involves chicken or chop meat. Do it only with things that you have in the house because you really, really don't want to drag your children out to the store when the non-parent humans are there because it is too embarrassing. It needs to have corn, peas or broccoli as a side. It needs to start be defrosted before you leave in the morning, prepped during nap and cooked while you have one child hanging off your leg crying and the other hopping up and down saying "But I want you to play with me!" over and over. It has to be completed before the 5pm "I'm starrrvvvvvvving" cry hits. It has to be edible to an 11 month old who won't be fed off of a spoon but who can't really feed herself yet. Child friendly enough that Henry won't immediately say: 1) Ummm, I don't really like that (before his first bite) or 2) This tastes like "mud" 3) This tastes like cow food (my personal favorite). And it has to taste fine sitting or being reheated over when your husband gets home anywhere between 6:30 and 8pm. The time being determined when you hear the key in the lock. Go out on a limb and prepare something a little bit nicer? You will get a phone call around 5:30pm that he has a dinner that night or has to work later or he will walk in the door saying "he is not really hungry, he had a big steak for lunch."

I'm kind of grinding my teeth while writing this, I'm not really sure why. I used to really enjoy cooking.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just remember back when Henry was younger all the good things that he used to eat. How others would be jealous because he ate so healthy. This will all pass.
Grandma

Anonymous said...

Grandma is right. Ryan and Kyle both went through this phase that food was gross! Ryan ate PBJ for a 1 1/2- no joke! Prior to that he was my champion eating. My friends couldn't believe how many healthy foods he would eat. Did you try making smoothies? I put everything into a blender- just add flaxseed and other healthy foods. Add a little bit of whip cream and fun straw and they he will eat it! You and Adam may still be hungry:) I also started cooking larger meals and freezing them. For instance, I would make homemade pancakes with chocolate chips and freeze them. Then in the morning during the week I would take them out, let them defrost and toast them. If he really hates pancakes then try waffles. Sometimes just a different looks makes them excited. I also make batches of soup, pre-portion them, and freeze them when needed. Oh and one other huge time saver- the slow cooker. Believe it or not you can slow cook just about anything!

Irene said...

I've been using my crock pot quite a bit since I've been home. Just last night threw in a rotissiery (sp?) chicken, water, carrots, celery, etc and turned it on before I went to bed last night. And dinner is done! I also made chili and beef stew over the past few weeks. A friend recommended putting in chicken breasts and BBQ sauce. Going to try that next week! We are lucky though, Matthew eats anything we put in front of him. The child is from Mars! I agree though...cooking has become a chore :(