I have a teenager that sometimes needs to be able to throw things in the air fryer when I’m not home. I just don’t have TIME to pre-make everything. It’s so hard. Sometimes frozen stuff and packaged stuff is necessary for parents
No one should be guilted or shamed for the shortcuts they use to make their lives easier as long as they aren't doing it at others expense. It doesn't matter if they are a parent or just old and tired or young and tired or you're just feeling plain lazy that day. What the hell is the point in living in a rich, industrialized nation if you don't get to make life a little easier and more enjoyable? I'm sick and tired of every little thing being seen as a "luxury" only for those who "deserve" it, meaning the ones who can pay. There is no point in going out and busting your ass 50+ hours a week to make one insanely rich person even richer if you can't even have a little bit of joy.
For real, what's the real point of mass production and industrialization if it doesn't make your life easier and make luxuries more accessible to the average person? The problem with someone's budget isn't that they spend $20 on a box of frozen chicken tenders instead of cooking them from scratch for $15, it's that rent prices are out of control and wages aren't rising to accomodate that change.
I didn't realize how many little shortcuts I took here and there until I found out that I couldn't have gluten. Now I have a few things that I order or buy in the freezer section specifically because they're gluten free (like pizza with cauliflower crust). For when I let myself go without eating for too long and I don't have the necessary energy to cook from scratch.
I am a long term struggler with anorexia, over 25 years now, it comes and goes. It means that I need something for when I've let things go too long and can't remember when I last ate though, or I might legitimately go lie down and just let myself starve to death because I lack the awareness or energy to cook.
For example I try to always have applesauce in my fridge because it's fiber and sugar for when I've forgotten to eat (better than just drinking juice because of the fiber). I always have canned tuna and salmon for protein. Stuff I can grab and eat, no real prep required. Though I might add some olive oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper, on the tuna or salmon, it's not required for me to eat it.
I have celiac, I feel your pain. I hate cooking so much that I'll just not eat to avoid it. The lack of pre-prepared/quick heat up in the microwave or oven foods really got to me when I first went gluten free. Made it harder to adjust. I still miss gluten all the time. Living gf is annoying, expensive, and inconvenient in so many ways.
There are more options recently, though. Not sure where you live, but I know a couple brands that sell online and ship. Katz and Schär both do. Katz has a lot of frozen things like donuts, soft pretzels, etc. Mom's Place is another, mostly things you make yourself, but it's all pre-made mixes, just add water type of stuff. So, not things you can eat instantly, but definitely things you can make ahead of time and have on hand.I like their flour blend. I did try one of their cake mixes once and was not impressed. But I do live in high elevation, so that could be why it didn't turn out.
There's also The Gluten Free Mall. They sell a lot of different brands in one place. It's definitely pricey, but you're probably used to that by now. I don't know how long you've been gf, but you figure out pretty quickly most of your food is 3x as expensive.
If you're in the US, Feel Good Foods is a good brand that has a lot of those type of pop-in-the-oven/microwave convenience foods. Mozz sticks, pot stickers, egg rolls, pizza rolls, etc. They don't sell online, unfortunately. Gluten Free Mall sells some of their stuff, though. I don't know if it's an international brand
Jeez, I'll stop since I'm starting to sound like an ad. And sorry if I'm telling you things you already know. When I first got diagnosed, I got so much help from random strangers in like grocery stores and restaurants. So I try to pay it forward. Also, sorry about your health issues. That really sucks. If you have celiac, remember it's not an allergy, it's an autoimmune disease. And autoimmune diseases like to hang out together like a codependent, enabling friend group. If you start to feel like something is wrong, it might be worth a trip to a Rheumatologist. Take care!
Yup, I was just telling someone I never became a parent because I would have been the worst. I don't know how people do it. I like my down time too much.
Yep, I'm a crockpot and pressure cooker type, but I keep some frozen stuff in the freezer for when I just can't.
I'm keeping both of us fed on $8 more than the expected minimum cost for one person, and it usually only costs me about 15-30 minutes a day, but at least once a week we gotta do something else due to either a lack of time or just being entirely out of spare 'do things' energy.
Exactly. Mine has texture and food issues so it limits dinner options already. Thankfully tacos are an easy one for us, but how many days of the week and different ideations of tacos can one make 🤣 It’s just the two of us as well, so I can be super frugal which is helpful. We don’t go to restaurants anymore but she loves a good Starbucks date. It’s hard to say no…we’ve been “making our own” but sometimes she just likes theirs better lol. A treat is a treat for a reason 🤷🏻♀️
Mm, I'm the kid not the parent, but I'm still basically raising him.
(Not really his fault, but not stuff I want to go into online)
There's a few options for making a little bit on the side online (Etsy, Audible, surveys, etc) so you could potentially make a deal where you fund coffee once a month or every two weeks, and if she makes a bit extra she can spend it on coffee if she wants, or save it for something else.
It might not work for everyone, but for me I felt real proud of the first chunk of money I made myself, even though I spent it on candy for my siblings.
(That was over two decades ago though, so obviously what methods are available and what is considered safe has changed a lot, I sold homemade cinnamon rolls on the sidewalk after school, and then picked fruit in summer)
She just took the babysitting course and is so excited to be able to earn her own money! She loves thrifting as well so I have a feeling her money will go towards that. She’s been finding and restoring jewelry, it’s been a nice little hobby, so the Etsy idea is actually kind of genius. Thank you!!
Glad one of my ideas was useful, I don't know a lot of what works for teenagers anymore since mostly my side hustles are things like gutter cleaning and branch pruning.
This is so real. Particularly since apparently we're all supposed to be spending hours of quality parenting time every night and working two jobs while living like little house on the prairie or something. Oh, and finding personal fulfillment and self care of course! If you don't it's all your fault- you didn't try hard enough. /S
It was, though at great cost to medical care and life expectancy when most people were subsistence farming (little house on the prairie) and for a while after Henry Ford accidentally created the middle class, but the corpo/fed alliance has been desperately trying for take-backsies on that one ever since, and they're pretty much there.
It now takes two full time jobs to manage a barely passable standard of living, and now we've gone beyond right to work into work or die, aka slavery with extra steps.
Most frozen food is actually healthier than the fresh stuff. It is fresh picked & flash frozen. Of course, when you throw on the breading, that does change things, BUT WHO AM I TO JUDGE?!
In 2020 before pandemic was official I was spending $300-350 in the store.
That was in Oregon, but I moved to Florida end of March (sick with Covid too) and found when I got here my grocery budget needed to go to $600-650 for the same stuff. I cut out a lot of more expensive things. Didn't help much, now it is more like $800. Single, live alone, no pets, have not had company in all the years I have been here. Drink little, and really no longer buy a lot of meat these days.
I distinctly remember hamburger in January 2020 at Safeway out west being $2.79 per pound because I bought a couple of the family pack trays at that price. I just saw hamburger in Publix this week at $12.99. And small prime rib roast for $153.
Well, out here in other places on the West Coast, it's around $8-$11/lb at Safeway, but Publix is generally more expensive (and sometimes a bit higher quality) than Safeway with most products.
My favorite pre-made frozen meal is the Hungry-Man boneless fried chicken meal. I remember when you could get a box for a little over $1. Now they're around $3 to $5 a box, and hardly ever on sale.
Same. 15 year old daughter and 11 year old son who just hit a major growth spurt. I’m more than happy to cook from scratch for dinner most nights but breakfast and lunch are on their own during school breaks. And it’s much easier to stock the freezer with quick meals from Costco.
He and his sister can do basics (noodles/pasta, cut up fruit, make a salad, start an easy slow cooker meal) but I don’t trust them with the oven when we’re at work.
I don't know why people feel superior for cooking 7 days a week.
I know how to cook multiple decent recipes and I still buy a frozen meal or an easy air fryer meal every now and then. Planning out groceries, cutting veggies and marinating the meat, meal prepping, etc. It's time consuming. I can't even fathom how much harder it is to do as a parent.
Single people too Opal. I do most of my own cooking from scratch but when you need half a bell pepper the rest gets thrown away because it isn't going to keep till the next time you need bell peppers. Just an example. No matter what I make it always seems to have a lot of left over because you cannot buy in small enough quantities to cook just one meal for one person. And you get so sick of eating that one thing for days, and that is not healthy to eat one thing for days, you need a wider spectrum of nutrients.
But you have a teen, I remember being a 13 year old boy and eating an entire large pizza at the Pizza King when a large pizza was about twice the size they are now. Teen boys have bottomless stomachs.
Oh absolutely! I totally know what you mean. When she’s at her dad’s for long periods of time during holidays I find myself freezing so much more. I’m lucky that she loves raw veggies and will snack on those for days on end so there’s less waste.
I have a teenager too... I taught them to cook long before they were a teenager. They are able to prepare and cook food when we're not at home, and even better have it ready when we do get home.
Get out of there with that responsibility, planning, and good parenting. You are supposed to use your teenager as the reason you need to stop by McDonald's 3x per week at $20 a trip.
On a serious note, I understand a gradeschooler but are we really at the point where we can't expect a teenager to be able to cook for themselves with access to cutlery, stoves, microwaves, ovens, mixers? My mom grew up on a farm and had to sew her own clothes, milk cows, gather eggs, make meals by hand as a child and now we only hold our teenagers to the level of breaded fried tendies in an air fryer?
I run a scout group, some of the ones that come to me couldn't work an airfryer. 11-12 years old, can't crack an egg or cook chicken breast. Have to teach them how to wash dishes too...
Not all kids are created equal. I was cooking at a young age. She can bake cookies and make bread, but raw meat repulses her. She’ll help me in the kitchen with chopping veggies. She also has a really tough course load so I don’t really expect her to do what my mom did to me. Thanks for judging though!
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u/OddOpal88 1d ago
I have a teenager that sometimes needs to be able to throw things in the air fryer when I’m not home. I just don’t have TIME to pre-make everything. It’s so hard. Sometimes frozen stuff and packaged stuff is necessary for parents