I'm forever cooking dinners
Even though I now work full time & so have managed to get out of cooking lunch every day & thinking up interesting & nitritous snacks twice a day, it still feels like I'm forever cooking:-( Because I don't finish work till 5.15pm, then I have to go fetch Mstr A, there really is not time to cook properly by the time I get home (we used to eat at 5pm - now I try to keep it as near to 5.30 as I can), so I need to cook meals the night before, ready just to be thrown in the oven for 30 mins when Aggie gets home.
of course, back in the BC years (before children) Aggie did pretty much all the cooking, but somehow he seems to have delegated that task to me now:-( I do occasionally put my foot down & tell him it's his turn, but instead of the yummy & healthy stir fry's or roasts that he used to do, it invariably means we get whatever packets of food are in the freezer - or once I caught him serving up pot noodle to the kids!
the thing is, I don't really like cooking. I cooked for 9 every day from the age of about 12 to 18, then for myself on a VERY minimal budget until I bunked up with Aggie. He LIKES cooking & gets all creative (read: uses every pot & pan we own) and excited. It's really not what I fancy doing after a full day, then feeding & clearing uo after the kids, playing with them, washing them & putting them to bed. At that point in the evening I want to sit down & relax - which is what Aggie does! So I start to find excuses not to do it (which is why I'm blogging now btw). But this means we don't have anything ready for the next evening & either eat frozen rubbish or go out & spend too much money.
We always said we wanted to eat round the table, as a family, every day. It is something we feel very strongly about. Not only that the kids learn to eat at a table & proper table manners, but that we get to be a family unit every day, and that the children see us eating the same food as them (and in actuality, they eat the same food as us).
I know i have to be more organised & just do it every night. But i don't want to *stamps foot & pokes tongue out*! Why can't good food just appear magically occasionally?
of course, back in the BC years (before children) Aggie did pretty much all the cooking, but somehow he seems to have delegated that task to me now:-( I do occasionally put my foot down & tell him it's his turn, but instead of the yummy & healthy stir fry's or roasts that he used to do, it invariably means we get whatever packets of food are in the freezer - or once I caught him serving up pot noodle to the kids!
the thing is, I don't really like cooking. I cooked for 9 every day from the age of about 12 to 18, then for myself on a VERY minimal budget until I bunked up with Aggie. He LIKES cooking & gets all creative (read: uses every pot & pan we own) and excited. It's really not what I fancy doing after a full day, then feeding & clearing uo after the kids, playing with them, washing them & putting them to bed. At that point in the evening I want to sit down & relax - which is what Aggie does! So I start to find excuses not to do it (which is why I'm blogging now btw). But this means we don't have anything ready for the next evening & either eat frozen rubbish or go out & spend too much money.
We always said we wanted to eat round the table, as a family, every day. It is something we feel very strongly about. Not only that the kids learn to eat at a table & proper table manners, but that we get to be a family unit every day, and that the children see us eating the same food as them (and in actuality, they eat the same food as us).
I know i have to be more organised & just do it every night. But i don't want to *stamps foot & pokes tongue out*! Why can't good food just appear magically occasionally?
posted by Juggling Mother @ 7:10 pm
5 Comments:
At Monday, November 13, 2006 8:59:00 am,
Unknown said…
Well we ate out Saturday and I had frozen Pizza and micro chips on Sunday - sometimes you just can't summon up the energy of enthusiasm...
K cooked on friday - which is rare and appreciated, I like Aggie really enjoy cooking but not when I'm A) Tired B) Have low blood sugar and need food now and C) Am having a random grump.
I sympathise wholly Mrs A - maybe you should declare one day a week Aggie cooking day with no frozen or instant food acceptable at that time?
And summer makes it so much easier - Salad, fresh bread and cold meats and you're all good to go...
At Monday, November 13, 2006 11:16:00 am,
Jean-Luc Picard said…
We'd all like good food to appear magically!
At Tuesday, November 14, 2006 1:40:00 pm,
JR said…
Okay, I don't think anyone on the face of the earth hates cooking as much as I do. My partner loves to cook, does it well and often. But way back in the day, before I met my partner and I was a single mum, it was always a challenge, and akin to pulling teeth with me, to figure out what to feed the kids. Here's what I did. 1. When I cooked, I prepared twice as much, guaranteeing leftovers for the next meal. 2. I became good friends with my crockpot, put meat and stuff in it in the a.m. and a dinner was magically cooked by the p.m. 3. I would watch our local Little Caesar's for the 2 pizzas for $5 night, I would purchase extra and put it in the deep freezer for another night. 4. I would take the kids to the local steak house on the nights when kids ate free. 5. Some nights we would have "picnics" - everyone would prepare the sandwich of their choice, we'd grab chips and fruit, then either go to the local park to eat, or plunk down on a blanket in the middle of the living room, or 6. we would have breakfast for dinner. Pancakes cook so quickly, are filling, and toss in a banana or some other fruit and it's not the worst meal in the world. There, I've taken care of 6 nights out of 7 for you. :-) Hope one of my suggestions helps. Oh, 7. Soups in the crockpot are great too, serve with a big, thick crusty bread, cheese and some sort of veggie and that's easy too. Okay, a week's worth of meal ideas, I think my work here is done! ;-)
At Tuesday, November 14, 2006 5:06:00 pm,
Anonymous said…
My daughter always loved helping make dinner. As a teen I think she makes better food choices because of this.
Kids Furniture Crazy
At Tuesday, November 14, 2006 7:54:00 pm,
Juggling Mother said…
DBB - salads are graet in the summer (although the girls are only just starting tom eat them), but not really good enough in the wintr:-(
RCA - that's the great thing about blogging - he's been much better behaved since this post went up;-)
Jean-luc - yeah. hang on, don't you have those nice replicator thingy's?
VV - thanks for sorting it all out:-) But, Cooking for 5 greedy mouths takes up the biggest of my pots and pans already - I used to cook double & save some, but now I can't make that much:-~( And I leave the house at 8am and don't get back till 5.30pm - I can't leave a pot on the stove for that long, plus I'm terrified of leaving things cooking while I'm out. i've seen too many house fires start that way:-( and my oven doesn't have a timer:-( I do the picnic thing fairly often, but fel guilty that it's not "proper" food! And pancakes are NOT breakfast - they're dessert! :-)
Anon - The all love "helping" but there is just not time any more:-( I really have to make more of an effort at weekends to involve them otherwise they'll never learn how to cook & how to appreciate food!
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