How do you get a day off(from cooking)

cooking-mama

I mostly enjoy cooking,i get satisfaction knowing my family are eating healthy home made dinners,BUT,sometimes i get fed up,i want them to eat healthily and have probably made a rod for my own back by doing the majority of the cooking for years.
OH cant cook,he was brought up on frozen pizza and chicken burgers..I remember telling him to make sure the girls had a well balanced meal when i was at work(ie,protien/carbs n veg)..He made them fish fingers AND chicken nuggets.LOL..daughters(both teenagers).Eldest can cook,but makes very weird concotions,and likes hot n spicy food that no-one else would want to eat,,youngest can bake better than she cooks,(she enjoys baking biscuits n cookies etc),but she also has a liking for junk food etc,so have to keep an eye on her diet.
Today im meeting my friends for a late lunch/early dinner,so im not cooking today..Eldest will be ok cos her dinner is still in the fridge from yesterday(went out after Uni),and i know OH and youngest will most likely get a chippy or take.away..I dont mind from a money point of view,but i feel guilty from a healthy point of view(IYKWIM),They already have to depend on freezer food twice a week when im working late..things like frozen fish/chicken portions,/sausages etc..tho i always make sure theres plenty of fresh veg around to "health it up a bit"..as i say i do normaly cook every day,but sometimes i would like a day off from work and from "kitchen duties" LOL,how do i do this and remain guilt free,?

Mojisola

cooking-mama wrote: »

OH cant cook,he was brought up on frozen pizza and chicken burgers..I remember telling him to make sure the girls had a well balanced meal when i was at work(ie,protien/carbs n veg)..He made them fish fingers AND chicken nuggets. LOL..

daughters(both teenagers).Eldest can cook,but makes very weird concotions,and likes hot n spicy food that no-one else would want to eat,,youngest can bake better than she cooks,(she enjoys baking biscuits n cookies etc),but she also has a liking for junk food etc,so have to keep an eye on her diet.

There are four people in the house able to cook so set up a rota. It wouldn't do anyone any harm if one night a week the family ate your OH's idea of a meal.

Your daughters need to learn that they can't just cook what they like when there is a family to be feed. Organise the menus - even if they just have two or three meals that they prepare at this stage, it would be a start.

You could be down to preparing four meals a week and really enjoying cooking them.

Your daughters may not thank you now but they will when they go off to uni or move into their own places.

yorkiepud_2

I frequently freeze extra portions of home made food and then dish them up on days where I'll be working later - the hardest part is remembering to take them out of the freezer to defrost before I go out in the morning though!
Also, fresh veg can be prepared and frozen and chucked straight in a pan of boiling water.

trolleyrun

The slow cooker is your friend. Put it on in the morning, and when your family come home they can help themselves. If you put bolognese sauce in there, all they'll have to do is boil some pasta.

Having said that, a take-away once in a blue moon isn't too much of a worry, to be honest. You're allowed treats. My friend and myself treat ourselves to a fish & chips take-away every 3 weeks or so and we don't feel bad about it at all. You feed your family healthy and balanced meals most of the time, so please don't beat yourself up if you can't cook once in a while. Have fun with your friends and enjoy some "you" time. Don't worry about the family, they'll be fine.

squeaky

All of the above.

Deliberately making extra amounts of various meals and then freezing them in portion sizes is the ideal way to provide "stab stab PING!" meals for days when you want time off.

See... Batch cooking ideas please, Cooking for the Freezer.., Once a month cooking, and What can else can i freeze in bulk apart from spag bol?!

Any

I also cook in bulk and freeze extras.
It can be done with many different stews, spag bog etc.

Also just because your OH cannot cook now, it doesn't mean he shouldn't for the rest of the life!!!!!!
When my stepson went to uni, his granny and I showed him how to cook chilli, spag bog and quick pasta dish, wrote it down as well and since he is able to fend for himself. His mum didn't teach him as there was no need, but he actually enjoys it. Spag bog is not difficult!!! Especially when you show him once, recipe can go wrong if person has no confidence, but once you show them there are no excuses.

The same goes for your teenagers. Seriously, I cannot see the problem.

P.S.: I cannot see what the problem is with occasional take away or freezer food. I think you are over thinking it to be honest.

LameWolf

Definitely teach OH to cook a few basic, healthy meals. What would happen if (gods forbid) you broke your leg and were laid up til it healed?

I've made sure Mr LW can cook a few basic meals, drive the WM, that sort of thing, because he all-too-often has to take over for me when my lupus flares up.

Regarding your eldest DD liking hot'n'spicy, would she be able to adapt the way she makes it to just add the really spicy stuff to her portion? Just a thought.:o

Sunnyday

I will cook extra the day before i know that i won`t be around to cook.
I just plate it up and cover with film in the fridge and all DH has to do is take off the film and cover the plate with the microwave cover and nuke it. This works especially well with roast dinners and neither of us minds eating the same meal two days running as a dinner like this is a treat.

I`ve tried leaving things for him to cook but he is absolutely useless, and i do mean that. He doesn`t do it on purpose either to get out of doing things its just the way that he was made. He`s almost set fire to the kitchen on several occasions and we`ve had smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors going off. Last week he made toast and closed the grill door before going off to eat it - hence the CM detector. I`ve had to get rid of the toaster after he had an accident with that too.

He can warm something up out of a tin without too much of a do but i`d rather cook when i get the time and i know that he's eating well.

The microwave is a marvellous invention for times like these as is the slowcooker

SD

Sublime_2

trolleyrun wrote: »

The slow cooker is your friend. Put it on in the morning, and when your family come home they can help themselves. If you put bolognese sauce in there, all they'll have to do is boil some pasta.

Having said that, a take-away once in a blue moon isn't too much of a worry, to be honest. You're allowed treats. My friend and myself treat ourselves to a fish & chips take-away every 3 weeks or so and we don't feel bad about it at all. You feed your family healthy and balanced meals most of the time, so please don't beat yourself up if you can't cook once in a while. Have fun with your friends and enjoy some "you" time. Don't worry about the family, they'll be fine.

Definitely second the idea of a slow cooker. It has proved invaluable to me timewise. Not a slave to the kitchen, and have some yummy meals.

Mojisola

Sublime wrote: »

Definitely second the idea of a slow cooker. It has proved invaluable to me timewise. Not a slave to the kitchen, and have some yummy meals.

As long as it's not only used by one family member. It isn't a good idea for everyone else to be incompetent in the kitchen and rely on one person to produce all meals.

At some point that person will be ill, away on business, in hospital, coping with older relatives, etc, and the rest of the family need to be self-sufficient.

LillyJ

May not be cheaper than a takeaway, but if I'm working really late I tend to have some refrigerated filled pasta which takes 3 mins in boiling water and either add a spoon of low fat philly stirred through, or just olive oil, grated parmesan/cheddar and salt and pepper.
It takes the time it takes to boil a kettle, and has instructions on the packet! It's my "I really can't even be bothered to wait for a microwave meal to heat up" emergency back up plan!
It's not home cooked, or particularly money-saving, but then once in a while it won't hurt.