saraha
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Posts posted by saraha
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I wouldn’t change a thing!
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3 hours ago, Bootsie said:
I think that it is easy to start thinking of home-prepped meals as full-blown Norman Rockwell-style meals. A dinner of salami, cheese, and grapes takes less time than stopping at McDonald's; a grilled cheese sandwich and carrot sticks is not time consuming to prepare; a scrambled egg with an apple; yogurt with granola, nuts, and fruit; oatmeal and strawberries; a tuna fish sandwich, a PB&J sandwich.... These are all fine within a balanced diet (especially if kids are eating a larger meal at school)
I think it is helpful to have a few handy items in the freezer or the pantry for very rushed times (frozen pizza, peanut butter, etc.)--this provides a break from the "we need to stop for fast food routine". Then I think it is helpful to begin with familiar, low prep items (like frozen chicken nuggets and fries) and add ONE item, like frozen green beans, canned fruit, or grapes to the offering to begin developing broader tastes and begin to see it is easy (and enjoyable) to add some fruits and veggies.
I myself need to remember this, good point! The other day I made burgers, box Mac and cheese and canned pineapple for lunch and found myself apologizing. Dd20 was like why? There’s meat, carb and a fruit. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to eat? And I had to remember most meals don’t need to be a Pinterest creation.
47 minutes ago, kbutton said:Do you have seasonal farm markets or pop-up markets during the summer? I grew up rurally where there was not a lot of fresh veg in stores (much better now), so we had a lot of frozen veggies. These days, a lot of places offer double credit for EBT at farm markets and such, and I know that I really preferred fresh veggies as a kid over frozen. We gardened, but EBT plus a pop-up farm market might work out similarly.
We also ate a fair amount of canned food. The salt is not ideal, but veggies aren’t full of other junk, just kind of limited in range, and not everyone experiences adverse effects from salt.
We have two Amish auctions that people buy from and resell roadside. None of them take ebt. Several years ago now someone tried to get one of those kind of markets going but it only lasted two seasons. That was before the Amish produce auctions sprang up. I think if they could have had enough produce consistently at a lower price, it might have gone better here. I’ve seen some beautiful markets like that while traveling though.
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1 minute ago, SKL said:
Rather than pressuring a busy mom to spend much more time cooking, I'd rather educate her about the many options that are reasonably quick, affordable, and nutritious.
You get it, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do.
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5 minutes ago, SKL said:
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Absolutely. Which is why I asked about the three options upthread. These were her suggestions. She talks about wanting to do better “so her kids dont grow up to be fat”. she has more options than she realizes, it’s the stepping out and trying that is intimidating.
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1 minute ago, Arcadia said:
Does she have EBT? I would go to Walmart or Kroger monthly or biweekly and stock up on vegetables and meat. Is her fridge big enough to hold two weeks worth of food? How old is her oldest child? When I wanted to save money but too tired to do food prep, my kids when they were much younger would help with cutting carrots and slicing onions. They used a steak knife to cut and just cut thick slices, good enough for me. We would buy seasonal vegetables because they were much cheaper and my kids would help chop them up and dump the chop pieces into ziplocs.
She does have ebt and a regular fridge. Her oldest is second grade. I think the mental hurdle is the biggest part. It still takes energy to oversee helpers, and at least for me, If I’m tired, I would rather not have any help. But thinking ahead, the helping can actually be a nice moment together. It’s the mental block of “we dont usually eat that” “I’m tired “ “ I can’t afford that”
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7 minutes ago, Bootsie said:
I admit to feeding my children all three of these meals at different times. The nutritional value of chicken nuggets, frozen french fries, and pasta roni can vary across flavors and brands. Even the time and cost dimensions are not static. If I needed to pick up one child from baseball practice on one side of town and get another child to a music concert on the other side of town in one hour--there may not be time to go home, heat the oven, and cook the nuggets. If I am picking them up from school and going home for the evening, it can be faster to go home and pop the nuggets and fries in the oven than sit in line at McDonald's.
Me too, today is the day I get home right before dinner, drop kids off at lessons, fly to dh’s work to pick him up, fly back to lessons to pick them back up and then get home at 6:30 to everyone starving. Tonight we are having marked down fried chicken from Kroger, box Mac and cheese and salad from a box of marked down greens also from Kroger.
It all just depends on time. Last night we had a roast we raised ourselves cooked all day in the crockpot and then the juices used to make a ragu that I served with pasta and green beans we grew and canned ourselves. So I, for my family, do t sweat the convenience meals now and then. Just thinking through how you go from always those foods to sometimes those foods
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5 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:
I grew up in the Midwest with family who do not eat veggies, or any sort of ethnic anything. The cultural background is challenging, and you have to change your palette if you are used to processed everything.
What *does* she have access to? Can she order online from Walmart or the like for home delivery?
Good question, I don’t know. I know the Kroger in the next county will let you order online and then meet you at a church on the county line, but do t really know how that works. There is a Walmart, she I don’t think she goes there much because of gas and time. There is a save a lot in the town the kids go to school in, so much easier to pop into
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To add to the difficulty, we live in Appalachia. The save a lot and dollar stores are limited in offering
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Here is their lunch menu, they get two choices a day, but the choices (listed on the right under deli) are literally similar to fast food. Everything comes to the school frozen. Not terrible since they are offered fruit and veg, but it’s just frozen food on top of frozen food
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7 minutes ago, 73349 said:
How many people is she feeding?
Herself and three little ones, two in school, one in preschool/daycare
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4 minutes ago, 73349 said:
My local McDonalds charges about $11 for a chicken sandwich, fries, and a drink.
I'd rather spend about the same and get from the nearest grocery store one microwavable Amy's Kitchen frozen vegetable lasagna ($7.29 each) per person and a package of Perdue diced chicken breast ($6.99 for 1.25 lbs.) that I could cook for the group while the lasagna is heating. Or especially in warmer weather, the chicken plus a bagged salad ($3 to $4 depending on type) plus brown Minute Rice ($2.89 for the 8-serving box).
Here, the McDonald’s has what they call a $3.50 bundle. It’s the cheapest chicken sandwich and a small fry-no drink. You can also get a 6 piece nugget and small fry or a double cheeseburger and small fry for the same price. She was weighing the cost of McDonald’s vs. cost + time for homemade
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47 minutes ago, SKL said:
1) I would like to know the context and purpose behind this post. As a working single mom, I feel tons of judgment and superiority in there. Who exactly are we judging and why?
I’m sorry if I’m coming off judgy, I don’t mean too. I didn’t know how to cook when I got married and grew up eating like 90% convenience food, so had a hard core taste for that. There were so many foods just listed here that I didn’t even try til my 40s. Young mom knew we had a similar background and was asking how did i feed everyone having six kids and not knowing how to cook. That lead to her saying she’s trying to replace McDonald’s with something else and what would be healthier. The wrong answer for that particular moment was baked chicken thighs and roasted potatoes as that is not the kind of cooking she is doing right now. I wasn’t trying to judge at all, just curious about which of those options was okay, better, best. She works full time and that does not leave a lot of brain space for taking on a huge new task
2) Cost may be a deciding factor for this person.
It 100% is
3) I can't answer the question with the info given, because I don't know the ingredients involved. When I had young kids and was trying to cook healthy meals daily, I put a fair amount of up-front effort into finding foods that were both easy and healthy. Believe it or not, such foods do exist. Even some fries and nuggets are not poison.
4) What are the kids' other food meals like all day long? Maybe they go to a school or daycare that provides reasonably nutritious breakfast, lunch, and snacks, so one isn't trying to get the bulk of the day's nutrition all into the one meal Mom has to cook.
they do get free lunch at school and most of it is frozen and/canned, reinforcing the idea that is what a meal should look like. Their school breakfast one day a week is “super donut”.
5) What the kids will actually eat is also a factor, especially if they have been exposed to choices other than home-cooked meals.
This totally. Mom, like me at her age, has never eaten fresh broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, peppers, any beans other than in chili, lentils, much rice at all and no brown, brussel sprouts, stir fry (she doesn’t like Chinese) any real kinds of ethnic foods you get what I mean. They are used to “kid friendly foods” pizza, burgers, nuggets, American tacos, fish sticks, canned corn green beans peas etc
6) And believe it or not, there are kids who are too skinny and need fat in their diet. My sister used to give her kid milkshakes to keep her off the failure-to-thrive chart.
7) And yes, I am sure there are moms who are less educated about what is the healthiest food, even within the range of things they can afford and that their kids will eat.
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1 minute ago, fairfarmhand said:
McD's would be dead last, not the least of which is that it primes my children to think that a heart attack in a sack is a decent meal option. Even if the prepared at home food is not as nutritionally great, it does get a family in the habit of thinking that most eating happens at home, preparing a meal is a natural part of the day, planning for meals is a normal part of daily living, etc. Also, much more expensive (especially these days)
This was the crux of the conversation. Feeling like preparing anything at home was sufficient, as long as it wasn’t eating out. The next step would hopefully be gaining confidence to add frozen veggies. Then trying a recipe that has real food.
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2 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:
Unhealthy Patterns of thinking/behaviors + lack of skill in the kitchen are often more of a problem than energy, time or money.
I agree with this for sure. I grew up eating 90% frozen/convenience foods and my older kids started out that way too. For the most part I have been a stay at home mom so had the opportunity to teach myself new skills, which I don’t know if I had had to work full time I would have learned. Lots of time for trial and research and brain space to focus on figuring out better ways are in short supply as a full time working mother if the skills and foundation isn’t already there.
Just now, prairiewindmomma said:planning ahead* was the gap in their skill set, so having those be pantry/freezer based foods and training the household to always keep those stocked was key to behavioral change.
What foods did you suggest? In this case, the mom was keeping cheap chicken patties or nuggets and frozen fries and pasta roni as a hedge against eating out.
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I guess what it really boils down to what convenience foods are ok enough to get a meal on the table that will be good for a family. But the conversation really started with eating the above
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After a conversation with a young, working mom, I want to survey some more experienced moms/cooks.
We all know scratch food from whole ingredients are the best option.Barring that for any reason, time, money, skill
How would you rank
1. McDonald’s mcchicken and fries
2. frozen chicken Pattie’s or nuggets and frozen fries
3. frozen chicken Pattie’s or nuggets and pasta a roni?
Or all they equally bad and cost should be the determining factor
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A book with a note from you written inside?
Recipes that you fix for your family? (Maybe not your moms recipes, but something handwritten of yours)pretty stationary and address books for sending letters back and forth?
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Praying for everybody scarlet
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((( @gardenmom5)))
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Most of us were stuck near home because of work, but dd19 and ds13 took off for a small town an hour and a half from here. She planned all back roads, packed a picnic and they saw totality in a strip mall parking lot with a few other people, bought ice cream sandwiches and came home. No traffic, no fuss, but all sitting around Shari g our varied experiences last night was super cool
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None of my people spread around southern Ohio/northern Kentucky heard fireworks
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We were 97%. The birds were noisy and active, stopped at peak, then a few minutes later started again. The dog and cats acted normal. The chickens were totally weirded out and kept all bunched up close to the chicken house door til the light was back to normal
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Hurray!!!
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I’m very proud of my ability to find humor today and to actually work in how talking to adults like they are dumb is hurtful, even if she couldn’t hear it. Dh said “well you are feeling froggy today aren’t you? First you trick Howard into an extra tour and now your mom😆”
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We need prayers right now (update in OP)
in The Chat Board
Posted
Praying for your family