Venturing into the kitchen to support family

P

eople say that time management is the key to having a busy life. People do say this. I have said this.

No one actually has time management, or if they do, the systems will fall apart eventually.

For instance, I am nearly finished my first semester of graduate school, I also have a full-time job, I am married and I have two children, one six and one is four years old and both of my children are in dance classes (except for last weekend, hallelujah).

On top of all of this, my husband is in rehearsals for the It’s A Wonderful Life at Theatre Northwest (opening this week). Once rehearsals are complete, then he will be busy most evenings heading into Christmas. Moderate chaos is my baseline but lately it has gotten worse because, now, I have to meal plan.

Oh, it is a horrible, horrible thing. A little known fact about me is that I avoid cooking whenever possible. This is for a number of reasons but mostly, cooking stresses me out. Also, I am not very good at it.

Luckily for me, for the past few years (probably close to a decade), dinner is made for me by my delight of a husband because he loves me and he is a far superior cook.

Also, I get home later than he does so it makes sense for him to cook dinner (at least, that is how I sell it).

But, now there are rehearsals and I get home first so now dinner is temporarily my job and I have to plan, prep and arrange a healthy(ish) meal for my family… all week, for a month.

So far, I have about a 50 per cent success rate for edible meals.

Recently I had a hankering for dim sum and I thought that I would try my hand at making it. Meh. I really wanted Lo Mai Gai (sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf) so I thought, how hard could it be?

Had I been better prepared and even a third of the correct ingredients (like the lotus leaf) then perhaps it would have gone better.

As it was, I ended up with sushi rice with a side of Chinese sausage stir fried with Shitake mushrooms.

Edible but not what I wanted. It was not very popular for anyone else either so I called my brother over and he cleaned up the leftovers.

Next week, I am planning to take it a bit easy and go with some of my more “classic” dishes: perogies, breakfast for dinner with pancakes, breakfast for dinner with waffles or breakfast for dinner eggs and toast.

It might not be a soufflé but it will get the job done.

I do not understand why some people like to cook.

If I could get my entire nutrient regime from a plate of perogies, avocado toast and a slice of pie, I would be very happy.

As it is, I will suffer through proper meals for the sake of the children (and the husband) but I don’t have to like it.