Calling all Nurse Mamas... Please help me!!

carolmaccas66, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2011

I also get wholemeal lebanese flat bread (like big flat tacos), chuck tomotoe paste on top, and throw on pizza toppings - anything you have in the fridge or in tins will do, left over vegies, tinned pineapple, salami, any left over cold meats, buy lots of tinned food like mushrooms, carrots, legumes, etc then it doesn't go off in the fridge like fresh food. I usually add mixed herbs and/or spices too. Then grate some cheese on top, or grate a ton of cheese when ur off, & keep in the fridge to put on different dishes. They only take about 15-20 minutes to make. Cook in the oven for about 20-30 minutes - delicious! You can buy garlic bread to have with this or buy crusty bread, very filling. My little nieces and nephews love them too :)

Also try buying the small chicken thigh fillets, wrap a strip of bacon around each one, secure with toothpicks, add a small amount of olive oil to bottom of the pyrex dish & bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or till tender. I throw a salad together or have crusty bread with these, or tinned vegies - a very easy meal to make when ur busy and very tired. You can keep the chicken fillets in the fridge for about 2-3 days and eat them with different things as well - they only take a few minutes to heat up in the microwave. Or have these with 2 minutes noodles and tinned vegies mixed in with the noodles - easy and filling and fairly nutritious.

I also get my pyrex dish and make a lot of potatoe bakes. Grab a heap of potatoes, put sml amount of olive oil in the dish, slice up potatoes really thin, chuck in a tin of soup like Campbells potatoe and leek, or chicken & mushroom, layer potatoes with differen vegies - cauliflower, brocolli, tinned carrots, etc, add cheese inbetween layers (I use 2 different types of chees), add bacon spice or all seasoning pice, bake for about 20-30 minutes or until vegies & potatoes are soft. Yummy and very filling.

Here's a joke: my niece's friend asked her one day - how long does it take to cook 2 minute noodles? She just looked at him and said '10 minutes'. By the time he'd cooked them that long, they were a soggy mess in the pot!

Thought that was quite funny, hehe!

BrookeeLou_RN · Mar 20, 2011

Funny off the topic...My mom used to ask me everytime we were in dollar store.."I wonder how much this costs?" Sorry she died 4 mos ago and I miss her so.. Please forgive me. Back to the topic ladies!

carolmaccas66, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2011

Thank you for some ideas, and for your stories. This is such a life-change for us and we feel that we're drowning. I already suffer from the I'm-an-awful-mom syndrome and meals are just making it all worse.
We have a grill, so I need to work on stocking up on stuff he can throw on. And I like the weekly menu idea. We've just been a fly-by-the-seat family - but I can just look in the pantry and throw stuff together. I did talk with him tonight about getting the garage cleaned out and maybe getting a second fridge or deep freeze where I could have more room to cook ahead and freeze. Come to think of it, I have no idea how we made it through me going to nursing school??? I don't know if my kids even ate :)
Any other tips, that maybe isn't even cooking related?? Like I said, this is the first time that we've both worked. I already lay the kid's clothes out for the entire week. But he really only takes them on the 2-3 week days that I work. (By the way, our kids are 2 & 4)

I had a mum come in like this to our mental health unit. She thought she was a bad mom too, but she was just very stressed trying to keep everyone happy. I told her running a busy and efficient household - being a professional mom - is not seen as a 'job' by most others (including men and husbands unfortunately), and is a fulltime, very busy, unpaid job. She also had younger and older kids. You also work in a paid job too, so this is adding to your stress.

I'm not a mom but am an Aunty and try to help my busy niece with her kids as much as possible. My niece was saying most of her time is taken up with keeping the kids occupied and happy whilst trying to do washing and cooking.

I did much of my washing (laundry) at night, hung it out or put it on drying racks - could you do that after ur kids are asleep? Also try to get relatives/friends to help out as much as possible.

Also, try hard to spend a day away from the house, go out and eat or have a barbie at your local park. Try not to stress too much re the food issue - if kids don't eat lunch, they will ALWAYS eat at dinner cos they will be starving. If they don't eat lunch, put it in the fridge for the next day. My niece also slices up apples etc ahead of time, adds a little lemon juice and puts these in freezer bags in the fridge for the kids to have healthy snacks whilst watching cartoons. She adds grapes, bits of carrots, cheese cubes and buys low-fat youghurts to mix with the fruit - which fills kids up quickly too. I will ask my niece if she has any tips as her kids are about your kids age.

Don't be too hard on yourself. You are doing the best you can and your kids come first. Can you afford to get someone to come in and help with cleaning, or ask relatives to help out?

Also I invested in a freezer - best thing I ever bought. You can freeze anything now - cream, cheese, drinks, make your own popsicles for summer for the kids to suck on.

Let us know how you get on.