Sick of my own cooking RANT!

I'm so bored with my own cooking that I could scream. This whole "trying to buy more natural ingredients" thing that I've been doing since last spring (thankyou Nourishing Traditions...more like BORING Traditions), combined with B being on the gaps diet means we've been eating ground beef, and a whole chicken for our meat (fasting period excepted of course) for lo these many many moons, and I am SICK of hamburgers on sprouted grain buns, I'm SICK of roasted chicken and vegetables, I'm SICK of meatloaf-especially the gaps kind, and I'm SICK of meaty pasta bake (ground beef, pasta, sauce and cheese...yay rah!)....What else is there? I don't cook much else. Boring, boring, boring. I'm in SUCH a rut!

I can't think of anything to cook, and I've been making the same darned thing over and over and it's just not good.

Yeah, sometiems I'll take some of that ground beef and do a stir fry with curry powder. Oh, the thrill! (Not!).

I want to buy breakfast cereal. I'm SO GLAD that convenience got ruined for me. NOT!

Perhaps my new year's resolution ought to be finding RECIPES, and actually using them. And then what would Bethany eat? Meat and veggies, veggies and meat. poor kid. Well, that's all she eats anyways. And what would Eric eat? See, he's got aspie food issues and stuff has to either be hyper processed or super plain. Perhaps I should just buy a stack of frozen pizzas for the boy and wash my hands of his food issues.

It all gets to be a bit much and I truly wish sometimes I could try an exotic recipe on this family and have it be something that people would or could actually EAT.

Can you tell I'm needing to go grocery shopping right now? Should I spend it at Kroger, Aldi, Whole Foods (aka WHole Paycheck) or the dread Walmart? Maybe I should find a balance between my pastured beef, raw milk and some Lucky Charms?

And to top it all off, I need to lose some serious weight in 2010...and I have no idea where to begin other than drinking black coffee and gagging down eggs for breakfast.

It's all so complicated, and yes, I guess I'm crying right now. Happy homemaker I am SO NOT. Good thing no one is going to fire me.

Comments

margaret said…
I don't really understand your family's food "issues" but sometimes a change is as good as a rest (if they can eat it). These are good resources, even out of the fast (to me at least).

http://thriftyliving.net/
http://www.themahanandi.org/
http://elizaveganpage.blogspot.com/

Hope you feel better soon. And a Happy 2010.
Shelley said…
Wish I lived near and could invite you for dinner! I always think other people's cooking is interesting, especially since *they* cooked it :)
Has said…
Hugs to you from the other side of the world. I read your blog and never find it boring, because you are so honest and tell it like it is, and real life is never actually boring. I hope you can climb out of the food rut soon. I hate the food rut. Have been there and done that a few times, although never with the complexity of your family.

I was glad to hear some negatives about the nourishing traditions and whole food concept, because I suspected that's what it would be like for me, but almost nobody online is admitting it.
Marsha said…
Alana, I hate cooking. I suspect my girls have some food issues I need to address and I know for sure they shouldn't be eating the things that they do.....but I hate the whole idea of food SO MUCH that I don't change.

And dh's gluten free diet, which apparently I forget the rules on (caramel coloring, yes or no?) which means he doesn't even eat what I cook half the time....

And I"m just glad I work a few nights a week and don't know theylive on peanut butter and chips and salsa..all off brand and as cheap as we can get, too.

I hear ya, girl, and I admire the way that you do cook what you can cook!
deb said…
I have no idea if this would appeal to you, but I like Mark Bittman of the New York Times. He does a short video on the NYT site, in a series called "The Minimalist," in which he cooks something quick. About weekly or so, I think.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/dining/30mini.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=minimalist&st=cse

And he has a blog at the NYT, called "Bitten."

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/starting-the-new-year-with-a-classic/

Don't let the topic of the current "Bitten," that fancy French restaurant, fool you. He usually writes about simpler things.

There's this page, which appears to be the gateway to all the stuff he's done for the Times. Handy:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/mark_bittman/index.html?inline=nyt-per

I recommend him because he's mainly all about simple, healthy (but never a health-food cop), delicious cooking. Not ever frilly or complicated, but very appealing. He's pretty much in league with the Michael Pollan school of food culture, too. He also has some very popular cookbooks out: "How to Cook Everything" and "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian." New "bibles" for contemporary cooks. I have "How to Cook Everything" and refer to it often.

Again, I don't know if he'd appeal to you or not, but you're looking for inspiration, and I find him inspiring. And his recipes and suggestions blessedly simple and sensible. He has a sense of humor, too.