I feel like such a bad mom....

[Sydnee]

I really do pride in the fact that most all the meals I make are from scratch, I don't normally ever buy processed, pre made foods, but since the m/s has kicked in, I've NOT been in the cooking mood. We've eaten out ALOT, and I find myself resorting to boxed mac-n-cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets, etc. Makes me feel awful. When I have a good m/s day, I NEED to cook and freeze meals. What are you other mamas doing about meals?? Any good suggestions??

[starlein26]

luckily m/s hasn't fully kicked my a*# yet but i was just telling dh that we'd better prepare to start eating more unhealthily... :LOL he just said "no, problem!" but asked me if maybe this time, since we've been eating so healthily for 2 years, i might actually crave healthy foods and i just thought "not" but we'll see...it might happen.

i say go with the flow...you'll be back on your feet in a few months and will be able to make better food choices. just keep taking your prenatals!

[mamacatsbaby]

I know how you feel mama. We're used to eating pretty healthily and now nothing satisfies me. Most of the time I'm just repulsed. After working all day, or even on days when I don't work, I'm just too wiped out to deal with all that. DH has been so great about getting me breakfast and making me choke it down. :LOL But he works a lot of 12 hour shifts himself and neither of us is up to the cooking thing, even though normally we love it. We have been eating so much crap. : Yuck...

[alexisyael]

Yeah, not so healthy here, either. We've been planning on getting a slow cooker, and maybe when we do that'll help things...

but nothing beats a bean and cheese burrito you can just nuke for 1:15, KWIM? (Next time, I'll at least try to buy some Amy's Organics! But they didn't have them at the store we went to yesterday).

[Naughty Dingo]

Sydnee, cut yourself some slack honey. I too have been feeling a bit : myself about this. But you know what? It is only for a little while. And I be the kids gobble it up with great abandon don't they? Mine do :LOL It is hard during this barfy stage. Stressing about the meals isn't going to help, and it could be worse. So give yourself a break and let the kids enjoy their little "Vacation" soon enough it's gonna be brown rice, homade spelt bread, and varous other mysterious grains again

I froze a bunch of stuff last week and we will be eating that.

Could you compromise and make a bunch of little lasagnas to put in the freezer? You could buy a healthy jar sauce so you wouldn't have to make a sauce. You could even direct DP to do it, lasagne is pretty easy and it is really yummy. You could do one with veggies and turkey in it (if you are meat eaters) so that the lasagne can be the whole meal. Easy to cook just pop the whole dang thing in the oven and go lie down. Oops by lie down I mean chase kids around and turn green.

ND

[tiffanyrk1786]

I know how you feel, thats how I was with baby #2... I felt like pure poop! So we did a lot of Stoufers frozen meals and I felt bad (not really because dh and I were eating it, but my son) Anyways, its not gonna last forever and just a few weeks or a month of eating unhealthy didnt do much damage to him lol.. he now asks for french fries when we pass McDonalds occasionally but occasionally isnt bad (about once every month he asks for them)... So just relax, it wont hurt anyone! At least, not for a few weeks (just be sure once you are feeling up to speed that you start getting back into cooking for the family.. it took me a while after I realized how easy microwave dinners are LOL)

[Peppamint]

I've been feeling the same way. We ate Marie Callender's chicken pot pies last night. : I normally cook from scratch as well to avoid too much consumption of MSG (Migraines) and other food additives, in addition to trans fats. I feel terrible when we eat out... partly because I know it's not good for us and partly because it doesn't set in my stomach as well as home food.

This will make you feel better... the Mom's Guide to Meal Makeovers has a chapter in it that compares different brands of convenience foods and tells you which are the healthiest in regards to sodium content, food additives etc... Check it out... and the Taco Chili recipe is and easy!!

[fiacre]

Sydnee - I agree you should cut yourself some slack. I firmly believe in moderation and an 8 week spell of less than stellar meals for your family won't do any permanent damage and your kids will still be way better fed than many (either by choice or circumstance). There are better choices today in 'convenience' foods anyway; Annies for Mac & Chez, she also has some canned O type pasta now that I saw. There are less processed chic nugs and fish sticks too; these are all pretty widely available - at least around here.

Being of the moderation-is-ok sort, we eat home cooked stuff when time allows, maybe 3 or sometimes 4 nights a week. Often though, I just need to get dinner on the table for my kids at a decent hour so they can bathe and get to bed on time. Sometimes that just means so-called convenience foods popped in the toaster oven. It also means that they get the occassional lollipop at the bank or smarties from a birthday pinata. I sort of think some of that is just part of being a kid and it's my job to reinforce good habits, to maintain perspective and balance out any negatives.

There's so much pressure out there to be the BEST mother/father/parents, but I am reminded of the article from the last Mothering about being the best you can and that being good enough. Screw perfection. Just my $0.02!

[NurseLaurie]

It's hard to cook at home when the only things I can eat are chicken salad sandwiches and granny smith applesauce. Don't ask me where those cravings came from, but it's lunch AND dinner! I usually drink my breakfast. Big glass of milk and then one of OJ.

alexisyael: On the slow cooker... I used that to do some plain chicken in veggie broth to make my own chicken salad. It worked out great with one MAJOR side effect. The gosh-awful smell that comes out of a slow cooker permeates the house for hours. I would gag just walking in the door. I may have to retire the old crock pot for a few weeks.

[alexisyael]

Thanks for the tip, Laurie!