We all know we should be eating better but sometimes it is all we can do to eat never mind preparing something somewhat healthy. How do you manage it?
I discovered a couple of tricks to eating well with painful joints. One is chicken broth. Simmering a chicken that has had most of it's meat removed (can even be a store roasted one on bad days) in a crock pot with some veges, peppercorns and a bay leaf over night makes a great broth. This can be used for all kinds of casseroles and soups.
The food processor. The veggies don't always end up exactly how I pictured them, but it really can be a lifesaver when I'm having a rough time of it.
If I could do more casseroles, I totally would. My family somehow likes to leave me standing in front of the stove. I was actually thinking that a kitchen stool to sit and work may not be such a bad idea.
I think a stool is a great idea. Maybe with wheels like Seenie's?
I like food I can make when I am feeling well. I do casseroles and crock pots when I am able, usually in the mornings as I fade in the afternoon. Tonight we are having spaghetti and I have a sauce that doesn't need all day to simmer, it is better when fresh. It features our tomatoes from last summer. Yum!
I like the stool idea, too. I like to pre-cook my hamburger meat and my chicken. Then portion it into one pound containers and freeze it. I also freeze the chicken broth from the cooked chicken. This makes dinner so much easier when all you have to do is throw the hamburger into sauces and the chicken into soups, casseroles, and dumplings. I also cut up and freeze onion, bell pepper, and celery so those are ingredient ready.
Okay Seenie- I'm curious now. . . What type of stool do you have?
I must have read Stoney's mind because I just bought a food processor. It saves a lot of chopping. I also have various jar opening devices these days. I have started having groceries delivered. Before I was toughing it out in the stores and the more pain I was in, the worse food choices I made. Worse yet, if I was having a major flare I ordered take out.
To counter act my bad food choices, I only order groceries when I am rested and doing well. I am trying to use the time I would have spent shopping to prepare foods at home. This is for both health and financial reasons. In order to cut down on cooking time I am looking at using a pressure cooker though I have only gotten as far a buying a cookbook. Chicken broth sound like a great idea. I was think of making fish stock and make dishes based upon that, omega-3 oils and all.
A stool is a great idea as well. Great topic!
Memory foam kitchen mats...they are amazing and there is no way I could stand on the floors and prepare meals with out them! I have two, one large one at the kitchen sink and a smaller one that I move around. My feet burn in pain if I am on them for any length of time and I find these mats work awesome!!
Where have you gotten the kitchen mats from?
For the past year I have been at the point where even hauling out the food processor is impossible. The crock pot works well, as I can put in some chicken breast tenders (no cutting up the chicken), spices, and a jar of some sort of thing to make a sauce. I have a rice cooker and can scoop the rice into that and it stays warm for a couple hours so I can make it ahead.
I buy a bunch of pre-made things from Trader Joe's. I can buy a chunk of delicious pot roast (1-2lbs), have my husband cut it up on the weekend, and add that to canned pea soup for a homemade tasting lunch. At Trader Joe's I can also get pizza dough in a blob for $1, or container of mirepoix (pre-chopped carrots, celery, and onion) to dump into the crock pot to make chicken stew. They have frozen, pre-cooked chicken strips or breasts, without added artificial stuff. Can you tell I really like Trader Joe's?! The store is small, and they unload your cart and pack it up, so shopping is very easy. And nothing in the store has high fructose corn syrup! (one of my kids has a major sensitivity to it). A TJ's just opened on Friday about a mile from me. We'll be eating better now that the store is closer :)
On days when I can't do anything, my 13 yo makes waffles, or my 16yo makes grilled cheese and tomato soup. If my husband wants something in particular, he can prep the food on the weekend (the chopping and putting in appropriate baking dishes) and I can do the sauces or seasonings easily.
My husband has also learned how to make tuna casserole and spaghetti. Cooking just never been one of his skill sets, no matter how hard he tries. So, I'm proud of the fact he has honestly mastered spaghetti, tuna casserole, and more often than not a stir fry turns out (this has been a gradual progression... for awhile the stir fry was awful but we ate it grimly LOL).
I bought the big one from Costco and my sister gave me one two smaller ones for Christmas. I also bought a great one for the bathroom...also from Costco.
Stoney said:
Where have you gotten the kitchen mats from?
We got our mats from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I agree, they are amazing!
I bought some handy things from Pampered Chef: a hand chopper (stick onions, carrots, or celery in it and press the handle a few times for chopped) a jar opener, and really nice padded silicone bottle openers. These have been super helpful. I also found a slicer for herbs. It has 4 blade wheels and you roll them over your fresh herbs. Works great. Found that at Target.
We went though our bowls, bakeware, and pans and replaced everything that we could with lighter versions such as melamine mixing bowls and replacing my heavy pottery dishes with Corelle. For storage, we picked up a set of plastic with snap lock lids. These are so much easier to get into. Sterlite makes a great set. We found ours at Target for under $20. Another big help was getting rid of non essentials. We really pruned the junk and now I don’t have to move a stack of pans to get to the things behind them. It helps that we have pull out shelves in all of the lower cabinets too. You can buy these and have someone handy install them. They are a HUGE help for me.
My husband is my “chopper”. If I don’t feel so hot, He preps all of the chopped and sliced things for dinner and I put it together. I can manage to sit on my stool in front of the stove if I don’t have to do all of the prep work. We also have a pull out counter top. I can pull my stool up, my legs go under and I can use it as a work surface if my legs are tired.
My best friends in the kitchem are my mats, crock pots and mini chopper.
I do batch cooking whenever possible (making LARGE batches and freezing meal-sized portions for my family of seven) - so on my best days I'll cook as much as possible to have stuff ready for my not-so good days. I especially love hosting "tribal batch cooking" events at my house - other moms and I get together, each bringing some of the ingredients, and take turns prepping and cooking and wrangling kids, each doing what we're capable of, and we all go home with a meal or two or three.
All of my kids, from my 6 year old to my 15 year old, can cook breakfast, lunch and dinner, so when I'm not up to it on the four nights a week my husband isn't home, they can take over.
Some things I do:
- boneless chicken breasts and a bottle of italian dressing in a crockpot (or baking dish in the oven) makes wonderful, juicy chicken
- brown ground beef or ground turkey and add that, beans, and a jar of salsa to a crockpot / pot for easy chili with no chopping
- I use leftover chicken, garbanzo beans, leftover steak, black beans, or hard boiled egg on spring greens for a tasty salad
- one of my favorite protein-rich pick-me-ups is chia seeds in water with a splash of mango nectar