Food Solutions

Does anyone have any good ideas, tips, recipes or products so I can easily make lunches and dinners? With baby in a sling? Or with baby crying in the background? Or with baby needing most of my attention? Anyy suggestions would be much appreciated. I've been doing cans of soup and frozen lasagna by Michael Angelo's. What else??

Comments

[Pamela]

Amy's does some fairly healthy frozen and canned food that is pretty tasty and nutritious. A big challenge, I must admit. Even last night with a 14.5-month-old, I had to content with him standing between me and the stove, crying, holding up his arms, begging me to pick him up. Not easy to hold a 26 pounder while also dealing with food, especially if knives or hot dishes are involved.

[Michelle]

For dinners I find I use the crockpot a lot. You can put almost anything in there and it will cook nicely(soup, stew, chicken). Do any prep you need to(cutting ect) when you can(I tended to do a lot when Hubby was home in the evening). Then just throw it in in the morning turn it on and viola at dinner there was food ready. It can be as easy as some veggies in broth, or some chicken with a can of soup(mushroom is my fav). There are tons of recipies online but really anything you think sounds good together usually will.

[agness]

stew is a good one. Just cut up the veggies into chunks and add in some meat and let it cook a few hours. Even without a crockpot its easy enough if you are home.

Another favorite at our house is heat up some canned beans in a pan on the stove. Put some tortillas to heat with cheese on top or you can add later -- either in the oven or in a pan on the stovetop (not too hot). Put warm beans, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, avocado. We sometimes add on sunflower seeds or leftover fresh herbs (parsley, basil).

Make 2-3 per person.

Annie's Mac & Cheese with tuna, cheese and minced garlic is a quickie.

[Steph]

CrockPot, Baby! :-)

[plucky punk]

Hey on this your guess is as good as mine. I've been eating microwaved everything for months now.

[Mariann]

You can buy any number of pre-chopped veggies and fruits. Pre-chopped fruit salad is great. (Can eat with one hand.)Pre-chopped veggies=instant salad, just tear and dump and voila! Croutons or dressing can then be added if you are feeling fancy ;)
Or, you could prepare little baggies of chopped veggies and such. Good luck!

[Katie]

Getting someone else to cook for you and leave it in the fridge? That would be my first choice.

[Jen (yup, another one)]

You don't have Trader Joe's up there, do you? If you do, they have a LOT of stuff that's invaluable - just heat and eat - and more affordable than a lot of other premade foods.

If not, one thing that's helping us a lot is cooking on the weekends (when we're both home) and freezing 2-person size batches so we can just defrost during the week when we're both working. We make a lot of recipes from Moosewood Cooks at Home because they are pretty simple, but tasty and healthy.

Other ideas: a grazing dinner (hummus, pita, carrots, cucumber, grape tomatoes) doesn't take a lot of prep, salads from prewashed bags with canned beans & shredded cheese for protein, scrambled eggs, spaghetti with jarred sauce... we're eating a lot of stuff like this these days.

[Cathy]

My favorite hurry-up meals are pancakes with fresh fruit and omelets with fresh or leftover veggies. We also make extra food when we cook real meals together and eat the leftovers for lunch reheated in a tortilla.

[Myra]

if you buy a bag of the large frozen ravioli you can make a great lasagna. Just boil the ravioli, fry up some meat w/ spaghetti sauce, buy some shredded cheese and stack. In thirty minutes you've got lasagna!! Buy a bag of premade salad or have your hubby hit the salad bar at your supermarket before heading home. I do this all the time w/ my little one in a sling!! She has GER so she has to be kept upright all the time!! So, this is a great recipe. You can also do this w/ frozen spinach and premade alfredo sauce. uh, I also make it w/ that roasted chicken they sell in the market and spinach w/ alfredo.

hmmm...Oh those pre-roasted chickens can also be used to make chicken salad. When Noa is in the sling sleeping, shred the chicken in front of the TV (so you can actually get some rest!!) and just combine w/ a can of veggie medley and some mayo (and a little mustard if you like it) and the serve on pita bread or "tostadas".

I hope these help.

[Myra]

oh I forgot, to tell you. 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven or until the cheese is melted for the lasagna.

[aliza at babyfruit]

these are great! I pulled out the crock pot, threw in ground beef, mushroom soup, frozen veggies and spices then tossed in cooked egg noodles before serving. Tonight? Tacos!

[Heather]

It really can be a trial-can't it? I agree with the crock pot-partially because mornings tended to be better and then dinner was dealt with. There are LOTS of recipe books-so I won't bore you with that. Cooking up LARGE batches of spahgetti sauce, stew or whatever and freezing also helps...or doubling up and freezing back. Meat, eggs and fruit are all very handy, and veggies come in cool pre-done packs now-or frozen. I didn't worry too much about "total" nutrition every day-just over the course of a week. That helped. The other thing I did do-was..and I think I let you know this one already? I just had a "cheap" wonderful Gerry back pack. Simple design-light and with a hip belt. Even when the babes were too small to sit-I would put a towel between their legs, and place them in the back pack sideways-with their legs sticking out through one hole, and their toweled, slung bum is resting in the other. Diaper pin the back part of the towel to the side of the pack where the spine is facing and the front part of the towel to the side of the pack that the nose is facing (make sure you have the pins high enough so that their little heads don't rest on them.) To re-inforce their position a bit-you can also take a smaller rolled towel and "pack" it around them as needed to keep them comfy and safe. I kept a long handled hand mirror handy so that I could check on them, if they were too squirmy or quiet-but they were usually just soooo comfy. I started this with the second one on her second day of life. I'm sorry-I'm one of those who was a total turtle with any baby pack in the front. My hands and arms weren't long enough, and it really hurt my back to have even more weight up front than the gigantic boobs. Backpacks gave me a whole new lease on life! As they got to the sitting up stage-they easily transferred to the "proper position" in the pack and lived there almost non stop. I put a diaper, or a sheep skin in it to keep it comfier-the metal frame shape always protected their little heads from the many doors I banged vacuuming backwards etc. I learned to squat again..had to cut my hair short or keep it up in a hat..great drool toy. Also diaper pinned a variety of hand toys to the edge of the pack within reach of their little hands. Most of their young lives were spent in the pack, at the boob, getting a diaper changed and back in the pack...oh yeah-and occasionally they were hauled out to get in the car seat. They loved it and would look over my shoulder at whatever I was doing, for well over three years apiece! The pack kept them close to my body, so I felt a good connection,with, the freedom of two hands. You could try it! Glad you remembered to try the nipple shield etc. and that things-for the moment-are looking up! They really do want to be ON your body most of the time. The back pack seemed the only way to comprimise on our modern pace and ancient baby needs. The fancier ones-such as LLBean etc-that someone loaned me-were too large-kept the baby too far from my body-which with my "impressive" length-(I am joking here!) always threw me off balance. They also had a good metal frame for the parents back-but generally-the baby is suspended off in space only enclosed in canvas. I always quickly went back to my favorite old Gerry pack. The hip belt is a must however! While The Gerry pack is not a "recipe"..it kept a sometimes fussy baby, held and rocked-without comprimising what I had to get done-provided I'd already done everything I could think of to shut them up. Also-kept the baby in BACK-when I had just had my fill and was going to KILL them! I literally would put them in-after trying everything else-diapers, feeding, burping, bathing you name it..make sure they were comfy-no stickers etc!:) and put ear plugs in -and depending on the weather-go for a walk-or just go on about my business, singing or humming through gritted teeth:) Sometimes they just have to release something, or are uncomfortable from whatever-and the best you can do for them is hold them and go about your business..cooking, vacuuming, laundry, typing. You also perfect the baby in the back pack "sway." When dad comes home-just take it off and transfer it right on to his back...ta da!

[Lori]

for cooking over the stove or with knives, etc., try using a mai tai with Noa and putting her in the back carry position. You will be able to use a MT with a newborn. you can email me if you want more info re MTs (I really like mine). I think when Noa is older you can scoot the sling to the back also ... but not sure how to do that.
as for food, I'm still struggling with cooking when I have a 3 year old and a 10 month old!

[Jess]

I know this sounds crazy, but there's a family that has 16 kids, and they also have family recipes posted on their website... some of them are quite easy, so you may want to check that out:
www.duggarfamily.com

Another easy recipe:
Take boneless chicken breasts, thights, fingers, whatever, and roll them in ranch dressing (if you don't have ranch dressing, you can use an equal mixture of 1/4 cup of milk and 1/4 cup mayo), and then mix up: 1 packet of italian dressing mix and some parmesan cheese. Roll the chicken pieces in the mixture and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-35 minutes, until done. (You can adapt this one by rolling the ranch-coated chicken in crushed corn flakes or crushed potato chips for different flavors.)

I have some other ideas too. I'm thinking of adding this as a section of my blog, so you may want to check there from time to time. There are plenty of us out here that can understand your plight! Right now, I've got a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a 4 month old- so I'll commiserate right along with you!
Blessings & hope you slowly can get into a new groove.
Jess