I am overwhelmed by cooking. There. I said it. The whole concept of cooking a meal every.single.night makes me want to crawl into bed and go to sleep for four days and wake up with a pizza on my front step.
As Ingrid steamrolls towards eating Real Food and not just jarred food and cheerios, it’s becoming more and more important that I figure this shit out. Breastfeeding for me has been remarkably easy. Yeah, that first day with the flat nipples was kind of a pain, but since then? If she’s hungry, I feed her. I’ve not had supply issues, or nipple confusion, or … anything. I can’t eat broccoli, since it bugs Ingrid’s belly, but that’s it. Hungry, feed her, the end.
When it comes to us, though, I’ve struggled with this for years. Not helping is a husband who doesn’t like veggies and was raised on noodles and prefers to eat at 9pm. Also not helping is my paranoia about things being ripe enough, or expired, or anything related to food-borne illnesses like salmonella, e. coli, etc. The two have combined to make my kitchen a pretty overwhelming place.
I can bake! I love to bake! But cookies and hand-kneaded bread do not a dinner make. It’s cooking that has my stymied. Right now, we have our staple meals, with very little variety. I’ve been shooting for a different meat each night, with a pasta night, so here are our regular meals:
- Fish + Veg + Rolls (The fish is one of the seasoned varieties of salmon that Hannaford sells, the veg is a steam-in-bag kind, and the rolls are the fridge biscuits you cook two at a time)
- Stuffed Chicken Breast + Potatoes (Chicken by Barber Foods, potatoes are seasoned instant packages)
- Pork tenderloin + veg + rolls (Pork tenderloin is again, some pre-marinated variety from Hannaford, veg+ rolls, see above)
- Beef is trickier, because we eat it the least often, but we might make tacos, or a crock pot meal, or in the summer, grill burgers.
- Ravioli + Sauce (Spinach Ravioli with a sauce with spinach, and sometimes with frozen meatballs added)
- Nuggets & Fries (Chicken Nuggets & plain potato wedges)
I also like to use the crock-pot, but get kind of grossed out when whatever we’ve cooked ends up just looking like… dog food. I also have hated cleaning the damn thing, but the discovery of crockpot liners takes care of that issue.
So, um, yeah. There’s my big dirty secret, I can’t cook and rely very heavily on prepared and processed foods to get us through the week. Im sure half of it is not planning in advance, since dinner decisions are made at, oh, around 7pm every night, and even if you have regular ol’ chicken breasts in the freezer, 7pm is not the time to figure out what to DO with said chicken breasts, right? I also don’t really like cooking on the stove, I’ve found, because of the smells. Dave made burgers on the stove tonight, which we’ve done probably 3 times since we’ve lived here, and while it was neat to eat a burger, it stiiiinks. And he didn’t use the splatter guard, so it’s a mess.
He cooked though, so I won’t complain, since he’s even worse than me when it comes to cooking, in that he follows the directions on a box of Kraft dinner, to the T, including how many cups of water to start with. (Then he changes it when it comes to the end, adding no milk, and just a pat of butter, making it the driest KD ever. UGH.) The prepared foods are easy to cook, too — they are all oven things, with directions that are clear, like "put in oven at xdegrees for yminutes, and yay, dinner!" — but I feel like we’ve been coasting on this way of life for too long, and I want it to change by Ingrid’s birthday.
Dave is in full agreement that we should have family dinners, at the table (yeah, not much table eating AT ALL here, yet) despite his penchant for late dinners. Even if it’s just to sit down with us and save his plate for later, if he has to, he is all about that being a standard expectation in Ingrid’s life. I have cookbooks — many! — from "How to Cook Everything" to the standard Betty Crocker and Better Homes & Gardens ones. When it comes to making a meal from a recipe, I’ve occasionally picked a recipe and gone with it, but then I have all the leftover excess ingredients, that end up getting tossed because I don’t know what to do next, so I make something from the standard list above. I also, though, don’t want to spend all of my time between work & Ingrid’s bedtime… cooking. Sigh.
So, there’s my secret shame. I’m sure we could eat cheaper and healthier if I just knew…. how. And where to start. Maybe someone can help me?
You know, I like the Rachel Ray 30 minute meals stuff. It’s a good way for me to experiment in the kitchen, because she really walks you through recipes, and they usually turn out really well. Plus, you know they’re not going to be a two-hour long ordeal. (Although they’re often more like 45 monitue meals for me). I also have a few good go-to recipes that are quick, cheap, and comforting. Those I can make when the kitchen conspires against me.
arrgh, cooking anguish! I sent you an e-mail. Good luck.
Maybe more cassarole type things that are baked? Or different variations of lasagna? I have How to Cook everything- and the sauteed chicken recipes are pretty easy and only need basic ingredients. (The one with lime sauce is good)Sometimes when a recipe looks a bit complicated in that book, I go over to allrecipes.com and find other versions to make it easier- using both to cook something. Do you have gadgets to make preperation easier? I love my food processer and handy chopper, and my steamer- easy yummy veggies or rice with no work on my part.
I know what you mean, and I can cook! I find it most difficult to appease three people’s palates. Especially since one of those people can’t have many veggies, which is what the other two of us love the most.
I’m going to email you some ideas that I hope will help!
The only thing I could think of is for you to go to one of those places that provides you with the ingredients and recipes to make the meals and freeze them ahead. A few people I know have done it and find it fun and worth the money for it because they have more time with their family that way. I priced it for myself and found it way over my grocery store budget but you could look into seeing if there is one in your area.
I guess they show you how to make everything, have all the ingredients and freezer safe dishes, you can freeze the portions out and cook them one at a time, and all you do is show up and pay.
Buy a rice cooker, if you don’t have one. Genius invention. I love crock pot meals, too. Especially layering pork chops, onions, and sliced apples! So good. Other easy peasies? Um, pizza dough, easy to make, easy to bake, easy to freeze, and toppings are endless. Good luck with cooking!
We cook about 2 or 3 times a week, and usually make enough extra for at least a lunch. One of my mainstays is a bag of frozen chicken breasts from Costco. Toss it in the sink full of hot water in a ziploc for 20 min., and it’s defrosted.
I’ll put up a post so I don’t go on and on here. And I totally get being overwhelmed – it’s hard to cook healthy food on a timetable!
Oh my – our weekly meals are practically the same. Hannaford fish – check. Barber stuffed chicken – check. Too many processed and prepared foods – yes sir. I’ve been thinking I should get it under control, plan menus and shop better. If nothing else, we’d save some money, right? Thanks for bringing this up, because you’re helping me out too…
Oh man, do I ever have this problem. I may try the cookbook you bought!
The only thing I would add is the “Everyday Food” magazine, which is also newly out in book form, I just noticed. I like the recipes there, lots of easy but good things and instructions about cooking that are handy and easy to digest. Literally!