Ugh. Disgusted with myself

[Calliope84]

Our organic produce was delivered yesterday. I made a super healthy soup for dinner (kale, lentils, beans, onions, garlic, veg stock.)

Then this morning I made strawberry brown rice cereal for breakfast and this califlower / radish / onion curry salad with spinach in a pita for lunch. I was so proud! 

But DH leaves by 1pm and gets home at 11pm, so dinner is always rough. It always takes me around an hour to chop veggies and get dinner all ready. It is esp hard with a mobile baby.

Today, DD is apparently teething, and I've been chained to the couch for hours now. If I accidentally wake her up there is lots of crying and fussing. She just wants to nap on my lap with access to the boob.

I've got a chicken downstairs, but it is going to take me a while to get it in the oven... my kitchen looks like a tornado hit it. So I'm sitting online ready to order some unhealthy pizza and I'm totally disgusted with myself. But I am STARVING and the rest of the night will likely be this way.

How do you find the time to cook? Will this get easier when the baby gets older? The only reason I was able to make so much today was because DH was home and I didn't work this morning (I WAH part-time.) I think things would be a bit easier if DH had a 9-5, but until then...

[Imakcerka]

There will always be obstacles.  ALWAYS!  You just have to get into a groove of your own.

[homemademom]

Maybe you can prep the dinner vegetables in the morning while you're chopping stuff for lunch? Also, do you have a crockpot? You toss everything in in the morning and its ready at dinner time! Good luck!

[SundayCrepes]

YES!!! It does get easier. Mine are 3 and 5.5. We recently had to change our diet to gluten, dairy, cane sugar, and tomato free. Even with two I have been able to learn totally new recipes. I've even learned to use cast iron recently. Suddenly I'm making my own broth, mung bean tortillas, bread, and new recipes. Because of the cane sugar, we can't eat out very often (who knows if there's sugar in foods) and fast meals like I used to make out of packaged foods are pretty unlikely. Yet now I keep various sauces, pasta, and rice in the freezer (along with tortillas, broth, bread, and other stuff.) It's still cumbersome, takes planning, and can easily be derailed, but I can do it. Most nights. Last night I had to go out of town unexpectedly so we switched around the menu. My husband made the curried bean dip in the blender using beans I'd cooked and frozen. He even discovered adding craisins to them.

So hang on. It'll get easier. And I agree with the crockpot idea. After my second was born I used to throw the dry ingredients/chopped veggies in the crockpot after the kids went to bed, put it in the fridge, and plug it in the next morning. What a lifesaver!!!

And use your freezer and ice cube trays to freeze small servings. Pesto and other sauces do well in the freezer.

[1love4ever]

Have you tried a baby carrier?  I dont know how I would have done it.  DH is gone A LOT for work, I am home alone most of the time.  Something like a sling, wrap, mei tai, etc?   I would post in the Babywearing forum if you have questions

[mommy212]

how old is your child? maybe she can sit on the counter, or be on a chair or in a baby carrier

[Adaline'sMama]

DD is 16 months and I try really hard to plan her highchair/babycarrier/stroller time during dinner. My DH works until dark and then has a 30 minute stop at the shop and then drives an hour home, which will get better as the winter wears on, but right now that's putting him home at about 9:45 pm. High summer its 11 every night. I will pop open the stroller and let DD sit in it and watch or "help" (giving her pieces of food) or I will give her a snack and let her be in the highchair, or I will wear her. Wearing and being on a chair isnt great right now though because she is squirmy and climbing on everything and LOVES to put her little fingers where the knife wants to go.

some advice: get quick with the knife. dont peel vegetables. have scissors handy. start grains, pasta, beans, ect hours beforehand in the crock pot or on the stove on low. make lots of things like quiche where the prep time is short and the bake time is long but you dont have to pay attention.

[katelove]

Yep, it's hard but it does get easier. We almost always have leftovers which we freeze. Mostly DH takes them to work but I also eat them on nights when he's working and it's too hard to cook from scratch.

[jenniferlynne]

I remember those days.  They are the hardest!  I agree with the other suggestions:  the crockpot can be a life saver, and I usually double the recipe and freeze half for nights like the one you described.  Sometimes I do the prep work the night before, once the kids are in bed, then just plug the crockpot in in the morning.  When I have some time, I'll chop up tons of extra veggies and bag/freeze them to use later. Usually the chopping is what takes so long, so skipping that step can really streamline meal prep!  This may not work for all veggies but it's great for the ones I seem to use most often (onions, peppers, carrots, sometimes zucchini, which I'll mix and use as a base for lots of things).

Hang in there.  It will get easier!

[Calliope84]

Thanks all! I made a chicken today and when I went to pull out my rice cooker, the KNOB fell off the lid!!! Makes a mama want to cry lol.

I was expensive, too, as it is the only one I found with a stainless steel pot.

I think I'll just be making my planned stir fry meal tomorrow.