Tired of cooking 4 different meals!!!!

[Danielle]

  i am just about to give up!!! there are 4 of us, and each family member likes different meals. my kids do not like anything the same, my husband only eats hamburger meat, and i love mostly vegetables. i spend most of my day in the kitchen(i love to cook) but this is getting a bit ridiculous!!!! someone tell me what i should do about this?? do you all have this problem or is it just me??? comments???

[Audrey]

I would make large portions and then serve it at least 2 or times per week. So..if on Sunday you make 3 servings of each, you'll only have to cook one or two other nights during the week

[Danielle]

  as asual audrey, you come thourgh for me!!! love ya! i have roast in the crock pot as we speak..it is raining cats and dogs right now, the kids are in bed, worried about the thunder and rain.. but mommy is here to keep them safe!!!  i love rain, it helps me sleep better!!! it is calming to me, am i crazy!! LOL

[Audrey]

I can not believe the rain. It's just unreal. It's July. It's summer time!!!

[Danielle]

  i know.... it has totally cleared up this morning, you can't even tell that it rained.. thats louisiana weather for ya...hot, humid, and dry!

[Audrey]

Danielle,

We were blown away when we were there and it POURED, then within 10 minutes you could barely tell it rained.

[Candid Carrie]

I am sure this is not new information to anyone, but when we bring home the ground beef from the grocery store it gets fried and stored in one pound increments ... we just pull what we need out of the freezer when we need it. 

I also use my left over meat like this:  I make a mashed potato shell in a greased 9x13 pan going up the sides, kind of thick-like.  Then I put in whatever left over meat I have available and if there isn't any use a pound of that frozen hamburger.  Then pour on top of that two cans of some kind of "cream of" soup with whatever spices you want to add (lemon pepper, or cajun, or ital seasonings, whatever) and shredded cheese on top and then bake until hot and bubbly which is great because everything in it is already to eat so you don't have to worry about getting food poisoning from something undercooked. 

These freeze well baked and you can also slice them into freezer containers for easy reheats too. 

I don't measure a dang thing.  Ever.  So don't even think about asking me!

[Danielle]

carrie, god bless you, you are aclone of me!!! for real, i can remember when i was pregnant with my first child, i cooked stored food, made menus, i was organized!
thaks for your input, i never measure anything either!!!! you should look at my blog www.afantasticfamilyoffour.blogspot.com  got some tips for cooking on there and i daid that i never never measure, the one time i did, it sucked so i just don't do it anymore!!! stay in touch-- we could really have a great time

[captain_mommy]

As for my house.... what momma cooks is what everyone eats and if you don't like it here's a slice of bread and a jar of peanut butter -- I am not a short order cook!

Ok, so maybe that's not practical for everyone  but I just thought I'd add my $.02 since you asked.

[Audrey]

Captian....are there things you make that either your spouse or your kids don't eat?

[grocerymama]

My daughter is super picky - like so picky it has ruined many a dinner!
I had to get down to why she was picking it apart. She doesn't like certain textures like sauces.
So I make the same meal, I just don't cook hers with ours. If I'm making something with noodles, I will keep out a portion of noodles and meat for her before I mix it together.
If it's something that she just won't eat, she can eat leftovers of another meal if she wants.

I don't cook different meals, I just try to make the meal I made work.

It is very frustrating to have a picky eater. And tears at the dinner table isn't worth it. So I do what I can without adding more to all I already have to do!

[captain_mommy]

Well, I don't have a spouse. As for the kids; there are a few times that they will sit down and push a plate away from them and get that grumpy face/voice and tell me "I'm not eatin it". I always tell them they have to eat "some" of it, especially if it's something that I've made before and they've eaten. There is only one time that I make something special; 1/2 the kids hate Spanish rice and as for me, I hate tacos. So I when I have a craving for Spanish rice I make Spanish rice and tacos together. The kids that hate it don't have to eat it. I figure I'm cooking something I won't eat so I don't make them eat something they hate.

Buddy (one of the boys - you'd have to see the blog to know all the kids LOL) hates rice of any kind but I love rice and I make it at least once sometimes twice a week and he jsut has to eat it anyway. He takes about a tablespoon and eats more veggies or whatever else instead. Sissy hates baked beans and all the kids say they hate onions (what kids don't) but my dad made me eat them when I was a kid and I love cooking with them now and eating cooked onion so I just make them eat 'em anyway.

When I was married I didn't cook much differant than I do now; ours wasn't very friendly. (a year after we were married he said he never loved me and just married me because he wanted a woman in his life) I did at first try to his appetite but I could never do anything right anyway so I just cooked the way my dad and grandma taught me -- the only thing I really did differant then was that I did a whole lot more "from scratch" cooking because I was a full-time stay-at-home mom and homeschooled the kids instead of working. So we had potatoes several times a week, there were lots of pies and cookies, whole chickens roasted in the oven (instead of just the chicken breasts tossed on the grill like I do now LOL), bacon and egg or pancakes, or french toast for breakfast. I still cook from scratch a lot more than any of my friends it's just not as much as I used to do.

So that's your very long answer to if my kids or spouse won't eat anything. The kids sometimes refuse but I make them eat it anyway and then they have the option of peanut butter sandwiches (or leftovers like grocerymamma said) and the spouse he pretty much ate what I cooked and every now and then he would decide he wanted something that I didn't cook and would make it himself.

Also as far as the tears at the table -- I definitely agree with you. One big battle I have with my friends is that there are things that my kids do that would absolutely annoy the daylights out of them and with their kids they put their foot down and say this is my way and that's that. For me that issue may not be an issue; my philosophy is to pick your battles. If you can't stand the fight at the dinner table then do what is necessary for you to avoid it. For me it's a non-issue and I put my foot down about it. Each of us as moms are differant and we all have differant issues that we choose to pick as our own personal "battle" with the kids.

Okay, Rose had too much sleep last night and is already long-winded today! 

[Audrey]

I really appreciate the time you took to type out the answer. I know how long it takes to type so much. I did read it.

I don't agree with your philosophy completely.

I do agree we have to pick our battles however I don't believe food is a battle to pick. I've seen way too many adults and even teens with food related problems. Both of my daughters have had friends with eating disorders, to the point of being institutionalized. Many many times the underlying issue was the being forced to do what they didn't want to do.

I have/had a picky eater. We couldn't even eat at someone's home without bringing food for her. We'd let our host know right up front that we'd be biringing her, her own dinner. If the host was upset, we wouldn't go.

I did many of the same things as GrccoeryMama, I'd set plain pasta aside. If I made a chicken dish, I'd make her plain chicken, with nothing on it. If I knew we were eating red meat which she wouldn't eat, I'd make extra chicken the night before so she's have chicken the night we had the red meat.

I didn't usually make multiple meals but I did work at helping her have a hot nutritious meal every night.

I've also always made lots of side dishes to choose from. Side dishes are usually good for most of the week. So you can have any sides that are in the fridge.

That daughter today is 25 years old. She eats a lot more today than when she was a kid. She has zero eating disorders so I'd have to say what I did, did work. Oh and she still hates onion. when I cook with onion she just pushes it aside and doesn't eat it.

[Audrey]

I just read your blog. Wow, that's quite a story. There was no where to leave a comment on that story so I didn't LOL.

How awesome that your son is doing so well Is he still in high school or has he now graduated?

[captain_mommy]

I can see where what you are doing works for you; and I feel that it probably is something that more people do than how I do things too! LOL I love discussing various points of an issue with people; my dad's idea of "discussing" was attempting to point out that he was right and they were wrong. hehehe I know that differant doesn't mean right or wrong and every once in a while I may change my point of view on things. 

The story you read I think was on my "About Me" page; I haven't figured out if there is a way to allow comments on a static Wordpress page. I've investigated that quite a bit but haven't figured it out. Anyway, my son is still in foster care and will graduate next spring. Seriously when we put him in foster care we thought he'd be in jail by now and to be able to say that he's going to graduate gives me goose bumps. He was so bad that we felt there was no hope of things improving for him. There's still struggles with some of his behavior but he has gained so much over the past 4 years.