This afternoon I had to make a choice: Skip hanging out with my kids to prepare a dinner that I could cook/bake/etc WHILE hosting a small pack of teenage girls who I am going mentor in clothes reconstruction (yipee!!!), or just make the boxed dinner my mama imported all the way from Germany :).
I really did not want to prepare this made from scrap, home-made, healthy meal. The whole process of stopping what I was doing, feeling inadequate because I did not prepare something before (frozen, crockpot???), the thought of trying to cook instead of tinkering....
In my cupboard sat 2 boxes of Miracoli. A box that takes me back to my childhood...because yes...I grew up with a single, working, mama. I was in charge of the household by the time I was 12...and Miracoli was a part of it :). Since the expiration is sometime in 2017, I think we can assume it is not organic.
I spend lots of time & money make sure our food is organic, local, grass fed, cage free, happy........I grow what I can to make sure it is “clear”. I make lotions and shampoos because commercial ones are filled with chemicals. I even make my own washing powder :).
But there are days when I just don’t care about all that, days when my priorities lie in simplicity. Days when I buy my kids a chemical, BLUE or RED slurpy just because it makes them happy...
Today, I opened a box and made dinner in 9 minutes. It took me 9 minutes to relive some fabulous childhood memories (food does that to me), 9 minutes to serve my kids food that made them say: “Mama, this tastes SO good!” (go figure!), 9 minutes to simplify my life and do what I want.
Yippee!!!!!
5 comments:
Personally, I think it is okay to do something convenient in order to enable a more important activity. My problem is that my body has gotten so used to food without additives that when I eat something that has a lot of chemicals, it makes me feel "sickly" afterwards.
a lot of the boxed things that involve pasta aren't really that bad, they have that little package of herbs and seasonings that is convenient and fast, and a little overpriced. I don't use "hamburger helper" because it is so bad for me, I don't use it because it is an expensive way to buy macaroni and herbs!
Taking your kids out for fast food does not make you a bad mother. NOT FEEDING them makes you a bad person!!! We all do what we have to do!
Convenience foods are not inherently bad. There are many that are basically pure. What they are is fast and convenient! I choose not to use Hamburger Helper not because it is full of chemicals, but because I have pasta and herbs already in my kitchen.
Personally, I believe that a "bad mother" is not one who feeds her kids fast food occasionally, but one who doesn't bother to feed them at all!
We always feel the "burn" :)....yet, it will not stop us! I agree, as long as convenience food does not become my staple, I think we are good!
Hi Heike!
My mom, who is 83,always says "once in a while won't kill you" and she also says "what doesn't kill you will make you strong". I grew up with good for you food, mostly organic food that we grew ourselves, and once in a while, for a treat, we got convience food. At 58, I'm still breathing and mostly healthy, so mom must be right.
Don't beat yourself up over this, life is too short!
Have a great week.
Lois
Smart Mama :)...no worries, Lois, we are good :).
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