Starting again slowly
What a roller coaster life has been over the last few months. My health got progressively worse for a while then and my household went into coping mode. Dinners became simple and sometimes even straight from a "gasp" packet but we did what was needed to get through the day to day.
It has been nearly a month since they finally got my medications right again and I'm still working my way though destressing from it all. As such, I still have limited amounts of energy for cooking but I am starting to make the basic things more interesting again.
In some ways, I'm turning into my mother when it comes to cooking. I now understand why she served us mixed frozen vegetables so often growing up. They are quick, easy and rather cheap, though I must admit they are nicer boiled than microwaved. Much cheaper than buying fresh veg and not getting around to cooking it, which was a common occurrence in the coping mode we have been in. I never really liked them growing up and to be honest I don't really like them now but adding them into our diet has made a huge difference to how we are feeling. Sometimes being an adult means doing things you don't like just because they are good for you.
The herb garden and our veg patch have suffered from neglect. I'm not sure when my husband and I will get time to redo the garden and herb patch. In the meantime, I have rediscovered dried herbs. I know this sounds straightforward but being in coping mode has taken all the extra things out of my cooking and so I feel like I'm just rediscovering them. Now dried herbs are never quite as flavourful as fresh but they are a huge step better than none.
The other rather obvious thing I have rediscovered is onion, yes humble onions. While I was unwell the thought of just chopping an onion to go in dinner was beyond me. Now they flavour almost everything. There is nothing quite like the smell of onion and garlic in a pan frying before you add whatever else you are cooking.
I have also discovered canned mushrooms. Again they are cheap and easy to store so you don't have to worry about using them before they go slimy, or whatever, like fresh ones do. And they don't require any real preparation, just drain off the liquid. Again fresh would probably be tastier but easy is the name of the game at the moment.
One of the things I did manage in the coping time was changing up what my husband takes to work for lunch (we call it lunch even when he's taking it on night shift). My mum made a comment over Christmas about making sure he was taking enough protein for lunch as it would fill him up better. She was meaning give him meat sandwiches which he already had but he had still been struggling. So I started boiling some eggs for him to take. He is on a 3 day shifts, then 3 night shifts, then 3 days off roster so I can cook enough for the 3 days twice a week and he'll be covered. He says it's made a huge difference to his energy levels at work and its cheaper than buying muesli bars which he stopped taking, so we count that as a win.
Where to from here?
Don't stress over dinner if you're not feeling great make something super easy
KISS: keep meals simple and easy to prepare. Find ways to add variety without adding cook time or effort
Remember the 10 simple rules and add just a little bit of difference to each meal
Remember to eat lunch (another thing that didn't survive the coping time) to keep your blood sugars balanced.
It has been nearly a month since they finally got my medications right again and I'm still working my way though destressing from it all. As such, I still have limited amounts of energy for cooking but I am starting to make the basic things more interesting again.
In some ways, I'm turning into my mother when it comes to cooking. I now understand why she served us mixed frozen vegetables so often growing up. They are quick, easy and rather cheap, though I must admit they are nicer boiled than microwaved. Much cheaper than buying fresh veg and not getting around to cooking it, which was a common occurrence in the coping mode we have been in. I never really liked them growing up and to be honest I don't really like them now but adding them into our diet has made a huge difference to how we are feeling. Sometimes being an adult means doing things you don't like just because they are good for you.
The herb garden and our veg patch have suffered from neglect. I'm not sure when my husband and I will get time to redo the garden and herb patch. In the meantime, I have rediscovered dried herbs. I know this sounds straightforward but being in coping mode has taken all the extra things out of my cooking and so I feel like I'm just rediscovering them. Now dried herbs are never quite as flavourful as fresh but they are a huge step better than none.
The other rather obvious thing I have rediscovered is onion, yes humble onions. While I was unwell the thought of just chopping an onion to go in dinner was beyond me. Now they flavour almost everything. There is nothing quite like the smell of onion and garlic in a pan frying before you add whatever else you are cooking.
I have also discovered canned mushrooms. Again they are cheap and easy to store so you don't have to worry about using them before they go slimy, or whatever, like fresh ones do. And they don't require any real preparation, just drain off the liquid. Again fresh would probably be tastier but easy is the name of the game at the moment.
One of the things I did manage in the coping time was changing up what my husband takes to work for lunch (we call it lunch even when he's taking it on night shift). My mum made a comment over Christmas about making sure he was taking enough protein for lunch as it would fill him up better. She was meaning give him meat sandwiches which he already had but he had still been struggling. So I started boiling some eggs for him to take. He is on a 3 day shifts, then 3 night shifts, then 3 days off roster so I can cook enough for the 3 days twice a week and he'll be covered. He says it's made a huge difference to his energy levels at work and its cheaper than buying muesli bars which he stopped taking, so we count that as a win.
Where to from here?
Don't stress over dinner if you're not feeling great make something super easy
KISS: keep meals simple and easy to prepare. Find ways to add variety without adding cook time or effort
Remember the 10 simple rules and add just a little bit of difference to each meal
Remember to eat lunch (another thing that didn't survive the coping time) to keep your blood sugars balanced.
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