I'm so tired of coming up with food

[Ginevra]

It never ends. These people continue to become hungry again and again and again! I don't even want to spend a few hours making up a few new weeks worth of menus; I'm that lazy! And I should be homing in on some semblance of a dinner even as I sit here in the glow of my MacBook Pro, but am I doing that? No.

Edited August 24, 2010 by Quill
fix a tag

[freetobeme]

i concur.:D

[anissa]

Pizza night!

[dansamy]

I have decided that they can feed themselves. PB&J is sort of nutritious, right?

[*********]

I'm right there with ya, sister. Feed yourselves, I say. Everyone wants something different anyway...

[Pink Fairy]

Yep. And they're so darn opinionated, too. If I wanted to eat pizza every single night, then I'd ask them what they wanted for dinner. I'm not looking for input, people.

 

 

Whew. I feel better now.

[Rebecca VA]

I've been feeling more and more sorry for myself about the same thing. One of my children just picks at his food and complains about everything. He becomes physically ill after almost every meal. My husband and daughter are taking a cue from my son and becoming more and more hard to please. I'm on a vegan diet (though I don't force anyone to eat vegan) and just *hate* seeing the fat and gluten they're consuming. It's all very discouraging.

 

I often do just send the lot of them out to eat. They can complain to each other and I don't have to listen to them.:glare:

[justamouse]

If I got a macbook pro, you would ahve to chain me to the wall so I wouldn't lick it all day long. Not making dinner? Pfft. You're not even tempted to kiss it, you'll be fine.

[Ginevra]

I'm so glad to have company in my misery. :D

 

I even already played the Have-Dh-Grill-Something card yesterday. :glare: They're bound to expect something for real tonight.

[PinkInTheBlue]

Yes! Thank you! I hate having the responsibility of feeding everyone. There's always someone who doesn't like/want what I've made. There's the fact that I'm SO bored with what I cook and everyone is bored with what we are eating. But, more than the boredom I hate to cook new things. The pressure of "what if we don't like it?" or "what if it's disgusting?". Every afternoon when I realize it's time to get something started, I get a little sick to my stomach. UGH! It's why we get carry out or eat out so often lately.

 

I'm going over to that e-mealz website and registering right now! I've been looking at it for about 4 days and I think it's time. I'll have to be adventurous (which I don't like to do) and keep backup meals of spaghetti and sandwiches in case of bomb-outs. :)

 

Can you tell you've hit a real sore spot for me here? LOL Sorry to dump so much unneeded personal info on you! I just really need some help in this area.

[dm379]

I thought I was the only one! I am so very sick of it. I haven't cooked a real meal in over a week.

[Giraffe]

Amen! Preach it sister!

 

After DH made it clear that he hates anything frozen I'm just so frustrated and fed up with meal planning and cooking. He doesn't even like it if I cut up veggies for lunch the night before! He really does think it appropriate that I get up over an hour early to make his lunch fresh each morning. Our A/C was out the past few days (and it hit 110 yesterday) and he actually expected me to cook dinner last night. His mother had to read him the riot act to get him to realize that expecting me to cook a multi-dish dinner in a 95 degree house with no ventilation (can't open the windows) was just not right.

 

I'm serving frozen spinach lasagna for dinner.:tongue_smilie:

[Miss Peregrine]

LOL I just came in from perusing the garage freezer and telling DH that I hate making dinner for everyone and I hate making up meals. He didn't really answer.:glare:

[dm379]

And to make things worst one of the only things we could agree on that was healthy was frozen veggies cooked in one of those steamer bags. Well the *only* store I could find here doesn't carry them any more. I've spent months searching all over the country and they don't have them. I almost cried when I realized it just wasn't going to happen.

[Pretty in Pink]

Word! :iagree:

[Ginevra]

If I got a macbook pro, you would ahve to chain me to the wall so I wouldn't lick it all day long. Not making dinner? Pfft. You're not even tempted to kiss it, you'll be fine.

:lol::lol::lol:

 

 

Yes! Thank you! I hate having the responsibility of feeding everyone.

 

That makes me think of the part in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows where Hermione says something like, "...And I've noticed that figuring out what we're going to eat somehow automatically falls on me, I suppose because I'm a girl!" :lol: True!

[Nestof3]

I have been feeling the same way recently. I would rather clean, organize and homeshool than cook. I personally like to eat pretty simply, so making meals is so huge to me.

 

I started something a couple of years ago, and I decided today that I am going to finish it before the weekend. I have an index file box, dividers and index cards.

 

My categories are:

soups and stews

sandwiches

breakfast

Italian

casseroles

Mexican

beef

chicken

fish

miscellaneous

 

On a card, I write a dinner idea. Many are pretty simple, like beef/veggie soup with grilled cheese and salad. I don't have anything listed that I've never tried. I personally am tired of feeling guilty because I don't come up with new things. I am going to have a container full of ideas, and I can try something when I feel like it.

 

So, I have many of them already written up. For items with recipes (like the blueberry pancakes I love or the Mexican rice recipe, I print these in 3x5 format, cut around them and adhere them to the back of the index card with the dinner idea on the front.

 

I figure I can either look through based on what I have on hand or just select seven cards. I will then have seven meals planned, and I can shop on one day for those seven days.

 

It will also be easy to just plan for beef bbq sandwiches with the leftovers from a pot roast, for example.

 

I love having pantry staples stocked, but I have a bad habit of just randomly grabbing produce and then much of it ending up in the compost bucket because I failed to plan how I'll use it. If I see I have three meal cards where side veggies are required, I can buy accordingly -- a head of broccoli, carrots and squash, for example and be sure to use it that week.

 

I figure it will also help me use the leftovers. For example, when we have carrot lentil casserole, I always make soup with the leftovers the following night. I just put the leftovers in a pot, add chicken broth and a little diced chicken (either canned or cooked, chopped which I have frozen). I serve with salad and crusty bread. This way, I will know I need to have bread and salad that week.

 

It also keeps recipes close by for these. I keep standard baking recipes on the inside of my cabinet. Muffins, pancakes, white sauce, etc.

Edited August 25, 2010 by nestof3

[Nestof3]

Yes, I am totally over always having someone not happy about the dinner plan.

 

Yes! Thank you! I hate having the responsibility of feeding everyone. There's always someone who doesn't like/want what I've made. There's the fact that I'm SO bored with what I cook and everyone is bored with what we are eating. But, more than the boredom I hate to cook new things. The pressure of "what if we don't like it?" or "what if it's disgusting?". Every afternoon when I realize it's time to get something started, I get a little sick to my stomach. UGH! It's why we get carry out or eat out so often lately.

 

I'm going over to that e-mealz website and registering right now! I've been looking at it for about 4 days and I think it's time. I'll have to be adventurous (which I don't like to do) and keep backup meals of spaghetti and sandwiches in case of bomb-outs. :)

 

Can you tell you've hit a real sore spot for me here? LOL Sorry to dump so much unneeded personal info on you! I just really need some help in this area.

[Daisy]

ROFLOL! :iagree: I totally and completely agree! I'm so sick of food. Why are they always hungry? Do you think they REALLY need three meals a day!

[bookfiend]

Three meals - who gets to cook only three? My boys are eating two breakfasts and cry hungry at 10:30. We have an early dinner at 4:30 because of sports practice, so they come home ravenous at 8:30! Aargh - "I'm tired of feeding you people" has been my summertime battle cry!

[texasmama]

Out of all of my duties as a mom/wife, the constant need for all of the people to eat is the one which wears me down the most. They eat like newborns, every two hours. They are picky. What they liked yesterday is no good today. The canteloupe is not "fresh". (Yes it is - I tasted it myself.) "I don't eat _____ anymore." (Uh, you ate it last week.) When is breakfast, lunch, dinner? What are we having? (10 minutes after eating) I am the only cook in the house, and I am worn smooth out!

[keptwoman]

I thought I was the only one! I'm so over it. SO SO over it. I want summer to come so we can have salads again, I'm bored, bored, bored of winter food. Soups and stew, bah humbug.

I have zero inspiration and the motivation is in the minuses, every night for over a week I've got to 5 or 6 pm with no idea what we will eat and -5 motivation to figure it out.

I HATE COOKING DINNERS!!!

And lunches are no better, the short people are constantly whining they are hungry, sigh.

[elise1mds]

More empathy here! I read the riot act to the entire family when I slaved over shrimp po' boys a couple weeks ago and all I got was whining of, "The shrimp's too dark," and "I don't like the dressing," and "The crust's too tough." I had HAD it. I plunked the children down and regaled them with tales of my own childhood where we got the same foods every single week (till my Dad would randomly put his foot down about one recipe or another and the rotation changed by one), and we NEVER had things like shrimp at all. They haven't dared whine since then, though DS wanted to know how old I was when I first ate guacamole and his eyes got big when I said 11 and it was from a fast-food joint. Not that any of that stops them from wanting to eat from dawn till dusk. DH hadn't done the grocery shopping in a while, and I sent him with the list last night as penance for leaving me with them for a week while he's on a business trip and gets restaurant food every day and night. He came home with all the bags and said, "This is for ONE week?" and I said, "Yes, and this isn't even a BIG list."

 

They're learning, just very slowly.

[greensummervillian]

I've found my sisterhood here!

[gaillardia]

:iagree::iagree:Absolutely! That's why I panic when dh isn't going to be home at dinner time, crud, it means I have to do it.

I actually didn't panic tonight and for feeling like I had nothing to prepare in the house, we did okay. THe taters didn't turn out like I thought they would, but it was different and we ate them anyway. I fixed salmon puffs, yucky sounding, but not too horrible and everyone ate them. And not over cooked brocolli.

One child has not been chewing well and doesn't have much of an appetitie most of the time but tonight she ate!

One thing that helps is the husband that makes dough using the bread machine then forms a nice loaf for the real oven and we eat that as a snack.

A rule here is that when it is child #whoever's day in the kitchen, that means that child has to help prepare every meal that day, has to help with the clean up and has to help prepare evening snack.

"eat like newborns," I can agree with so much of what is said.

I told the kids that when school started we could all go to the school cafeterias and eat lunch there...maybe we could get it for free...

I sure am lucky, my husband cooks! And shops. I do too, but for a husband to not do any of it? "oh, did you want to eat tonight?":tongue_smilie:

I was thinking of the hive before preparing the food tonight and I thought all of you perfect mommies were all busy in the kitchen slinging hash.:lol:

Edited August 25, 2010 by gingerh
an apostrophe that doesn't belong on cafeteria!

[katemary63]

Out of all of my duties as a mom/wife, the constant need for all of the people to eat is the one which wears me down the most. They eat like newborns, every two hours. They are picky. What they liked yesterday is no good today. The canteloupe is not "fresh". (Yes it is - I tasted it myself.) "I don't eat _____ anymore." (Uh, you ate it last week.) When is breakfast, lunch, dinner? What are we having? (10 minutes after eating) I am the only cook in the house, and I am worn smooth out!

 

:iagree: EXACTLY!

 

We all love lazagna, but when we have it, I have to make four!

With vegies, no riccota

With vegies, with ricotta

No vegies, with ricotta

No vegies, no ricotta.

 

I'm never making it again! OMG!!!

 

I found the answer though but they are not going to like it!

Tonight I dumped a bag of precooked shrimp in a pan, added lots of microwaved asian vegies, a hand full of fresh bean sprouts, and sauted fresh mushrooms because I love them and some bottled teryaki sauce. I spooned this over Uncle Ben's boil-in-bag brown rice.

 

New daily meal! So quick! Required no thinking, no planning, little effort and it's mostly healthy! I'll change the meat and the sauce from day to day, but this is it. This is what you get from now on. If you don't like it....well....to bad!!! :lol::lol:

 

(Just kidding, but only sorta!)

[Ellyndria]

I am SO joining this club. I've had a particularly bad summer with not wanting to cook. You'd think it would be the opposite, what with getting my CSA and all. I'm finally starting to come out of it, though, for a little while at least. I've cooked all meals in the past week, save one lunch because I was too annoyed to cook because of my video card trying to die.

[poodlemama]

Yes! Thank you! I hate having the responsibility of feeding everyone. There's always someone who doesn't like/want what I've made. There's the fact that I'm SO bored with what I cook and everyone is bored with what we are eating. But, more than the boredom I hate to cook new things. The pressure of "what if we don't like it?" or "what if it's disgusting?". Every afternoon when I realize it's time to get something started, I get a little sick to my stomach. UGH! It's why we get carry out or eat out so often lately.

 

I'm going over to that e-mealz website and registering right now! I've been looking at it for about 4 days and I think it's time. I'll have to be adventurous (which I don't like to do) and keep backup meals of spaghetti and sandwiches in case of bomb-outs. :)

 

Can you tell you've hit a real sore spot for me here? LOL Sorry to dump so much unneeded personal info on you! I just really need some help in this area.

 

:iagree:

I'm currently reading Sacajawea-- if the Indians could eat the same thing every day for every meal why can't we just eat cereal for every meal?

[LibraryLover]

I hear you! It's not easy to think up new & fresh meals on your own all the time. I try to get the kids involved, and it does help (not so easy when one has only littles). My teens take turns making dinner one night a week (their choice), and tonight my 11 yr old did so. All I made was the salad.

 

I find getting the family on board some helps lessen the burden.

Edited August 25, 2010 by LibraryLover

[dansamy]

Three meals - who gets to cook only three? My boys are eating two breakfasts and cry hungry at 10:30. We have an early dinner at 4:30 because of sports practice, so they come home ravenous at 8:30! Aargh - "I'm tired of feeding you people" has been my summertime battle cry!

 

OMG! I am so glad to find a sister!! I have a DS11 and DS8 (with a DD9 squeezed in between them!) and they eat like little monsters. I swear that today, no lie, an hour and a half after breakfast they were asking me what's for lunch? Lunch?!?! Seriously!! You just ate!

 

I'm going on strike! Too bad for the kids, the only thing DS11 can make by himself is scrambled eggs and tuna mac 'n cheese. :lol:

[LibraryLover]

I seriously can't deal with being the one to do all meals all day. This is why cheese & crackers exist, isn't it? :tongue_smilie: And avocado? And eggs? I mean, teach a child to boil an egg and slice some protein and you're golden.

 

LL, slinking away in laziness....

[Peela]

Nowadays i am happy if I can make 3-4 really good meals a week. I might make another one or two half decent meals- such as avocado and tomato on toast- and the rest, its just fend for yourselves, people.

I have one strict vegetarian (dh) who doesn't like vegetables, especially green ones, and can't digest any beans, and is now gluten intolerant. I have one (ds14) carnivore who is now dairy intolerant and also doesn't like vegetables. Fortunately dd16 and I are really flexible, like most things, and prefer to eat healthily. But there is no way I can please veryone, and it sucks thw joy right out of cooking when people complain....so, I have stepped down from seeing it as solely my job, and I just buy everyone's favourite foods when I go shopping- then if they complain, I can just point them in the right direction. Mine are all old enough not to starve.

[Aggie]

I seriously can't deal with being the one to do all meals all day. This is why cheese & crackers exist, isn't it? :tongue_smilie: And avocado? And eggs? I mean, teach a child to boil an egg and slice some protein and you're golden.

 

LL, slinking away in laziness....

 

Same here.

 

Dc can dish out cottage cheese, eat fresh fruit and veggies to their hearts' content, cook eggs, open a can of tuna and put it on a bed of spinach.

 

I've always detested food preparation. I love having dc who can fend for themselves in the kitchen!:D

[Rhea]

I've been sick of preparing meals for a very long time. Years. <sigh>

 

Like most of you I have my kids for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They need it to be gluten free, and the eldest is raw because it has given her the greatest relief from pain. I'm thinking of trying some OAM cooking for the younger two. It won't work for the oldest, but any bit prepared ahead of time will help. I hope.

 

And heck, maybe if I have meals in the freezer my husband just has to put in the oven, he'll help a bit on his week off from work. (I don't get a week off.:glare:)

[Forget-Me-Not]

I have a friend who went on a PBJ strike for a week because she got sick of her kids complaining. They had PBJ every night. For a week. I think she said by day 3 or 4 they were begging for something else :lol

[Ginevra]

I do too, but for a husband to not do any of it? "oh, did you want to eat tonight?"

 

It's my MIL. I love her; she's a wonderful lady, but she totally spoiled her son with high expectations in the meal department. I think if I ever said I was just plain not making anything resembling a dinner, he would think he stepped into the Twilight Zone. And clearly I couldn't possibly utilize a shortcut such as a frozen-section lasagna in a foil pan. That's illegal here.

 

I did had dd13 making one dinner a week last year and I was training ds10 to make food so that he'll be doing a night too before long. I need to reinstate that. It fell away because of our sports schedule.

[Imprimis]

I hear you! It's not easy to think up new & fresh meals on your own all the time. I try to get the kids involved, and it does help (not so easy when one has only littles). My teens take turns making dinner one night a week (their choice), and tonight my 11 yr old did so. All I made was the salad.

 

I find getting the family on board some helps lessen the burden.

 

Yep. My 14 yo, who is vegetarian, has been making some beautiful meatless entrees for the family once or twice a week, my son makes pizza (his only dish:001_smile:) at least once a week. And, even the little one, who just got a kid's cookbook has been planning and helping prepare meals.

 

That leaves me with only 3 or 4 nights a week that I have to convince dh we need take-out :lol:

Edited August 25, 2010 by Imprimis

[RamonaQ]

sigh! I know all this too well :banghead: We have a celiac, a vegetarian and an 11yo boy who only wants to eat hamburgers in our family.

 

One thing I am thinking of for this school year is something a friend does.

 

She has 4 largish notecards. On each notecard are all the meals for the week-- breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. On the back of the notecard is the shopping list. She just rotates through the notecards for the week.

 

Although this won't necessarily help with the "I wasn't really hungry for XXX" or "I ate a lot at lunch" or "I don't like XYZ", at least I have a plan that I haven't put tons of energy into.

 

You know, I remember when I turned 14 my mom just stopped cooking. She only did microwave meals. My younger sister never even knew my mother knew how to cook a dinner.

[unsinkable]

It never ends. These people continue to become hungry again and again and again! I don't even want to spend a few hours making up a few new weeks worth of menus; I'm that lazy! And I should be homing in on some semblance of a dinner even as I sit here in the glow of my MacBook Pro, but am I doing that? No.

 

Here --- because I feel your pain :lol::D:lol:

 

I am always thinking, "Didn't I just feed you people last year?" :tongue_smilie:

 

Sunday: roasted something with baked veggies (chicken with sweet tato, beef with potatoes, pork with squash)

Monday: Mexican (tacos, enchildadas, fajitas) veggies included (ie tomatoes, peppers, onions)

Tuesday: sandwich & soup night or breakfast for dinner night

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: pasta night (spag & balls, lasagne, baked ziti) & salad

Friday: Take-out night (pizza!)

Saturday: Try a new recipe night!

[unsinkable]

I seriously can't deal with being the one to do all meals all day. This is why cheese & crackers exist, isn't it? :tongue_smilie: And avocado? And eggs? I mean, teach a child to boil an egg and slice some protein and you're golden.

 

LL, slinking away in laziness....

 

Do not forget the jumbo-sized hummus container, girlfriend!

[romeacademy]

Three meals - who gets to cook only three? My boys are eating two breakfasts and cry hungry at 10:30. We have an early dinner at 4:30 because of sports practice, so they come home ravenous at 8:30! Aargh - "I'm tired of feeding you people" has been my summertime battle cry!

 

I am so happy to not be the only person who feels this way. I feel like I'm feeding a family of hobbits! Ds 12's favorite phrase this summer is "Mom, I'm hungry". Please, tell me something I don't know. Thank goodness for PB.

 

And coming up with ideas? Bleh! I often wish I could feed the family like the dog, who got the same 2 nutritionally-balanced scoops in his dish twice a day and was thrilled about it. :tongue_smilie:

[i.love.lucy]

I often wish I could feed the family like the dog, who got the same 2 nutritionally-balanced scoops in his dish twice a day and was thrilled about it. :tongue_smilie:

:smilielol5:

Thank heaven I learned how to make steel cut oats in my crockpot and now have that as a staple sitting in my fridge. Woo hoo! Oatmeal again!!

[Dawn in OH]

Do you think they REALLY need three meals a day!

 

Lately I've been asking, "Do I really HAVE to feed them three times a day?"

 

I LOVE to cook. But you toss in two picky children, one toddler who often needs assistance getting certain foods on his fork or to his mouth, and a 4 month old baby that has decided that his "awake and be active time WITH MOMMY" is from 4 to 7, dinner has become pure torture.

 

I feel like I'm feeding a family of hobbits!

 

This too! My mom will call and ask, "What did the kids have for breakfast?" Gee, Mom, do you mean first breakfast or second breakfast? Maybe Elevensies?

[LucyMcGillicuddy]

I hate planning meals. I hate cooking them. By the time I'm done cooking them, I don't want to eat them. I also hate the wandering into the kitchen to see what I'm cooking and then asking me if they can fix their own food since they don't like what I'm cooking! I mean, c'mon! Couldn't you at least taste it first? :glare:

 

When the children ask, "What's for dinner?" a standard response here is, "What? You've already eaten twice today. You mean you need to eat again?!"

 

I tell my husband that I'm tired of food and eating. I wish there was an all-in-one pill that we could take and be done with it. He just looks at me and shakes his head. LOL

[*Jessica*]

I started something a couple of years ago, and I decided today that I am going to finish it before the weekend. I have an index file box, dividers and index cards.

 

My categories are:

soups and stews

sandwiches

breakfast

Italian

casseroles

Mexican

beef

chicken

fish

miscellaneous

 

On a card, I write a dinner idea. Many are pretty simple, like beef/veggie soup with grilled cheese and salad. I don't have anything listed that I've never tried. I personally am tired of feeling guilty because I don't come up with new things. I am going to have a container full of ideas, and I can try something when I feel like it.

 

So, I have many of them already written up. For items with recipes (like the blueberry pancakes I love or the Mexican rice recipe, I print these in 3x5 format, cut around them and adhere them to the back of the index card with the dinner idea on the front.

 

I figure I can either look through based on what I have on hand or just select seven cards. I will then have seven meals planned, and I can shop on one day for those seven days.

 

It will also be easy to just plan for beef bbq sandwiches with the leftovers from a pot roast, for example.

 

I love having pantry staples stocked, but I have a bad habit of just randomly grabbing produce and then much of it ending up in the compost bucket because I failed to plan how I'll use it. If I see I have three meal cards where side veggies are required, I can buy accordingly -- a head of broccoli, carrots and squash, for example and be sure to use it that week.

 

I figure it will also help me use the leftovers. For example, when we have carrot lentil casserole, I always make soup with the leftovers the following night. I just put the leftovers in a pot, add chicken broth and a little diced chicken (either canned or cooked, chopped which I have frozen). I serve with salad and crusty bread. This way, I will know I need to have bread and salad that week.

 

It also keeps recipes close by for these. I keep standard baking recipes on the inside of my cabinet. Muffins, pancakes, white sauce, etc.

Dawn, you're a genius! I have all of our favorite recipes in my recipe box, but it never occured to me to write down the ideas for meals I don't need a recipe for.

 

Between this plan and the filing thread I'm going to be set for the year!