need to whinge about cooking for our family with cost and allergy factors etc

[eragon]

am SO fed up with trying to find evening meals that everyone enjoys without endangering health iyswim!

I dont have energy or concentration to cook different meals for everyone or juggle meals that mean concentrating on cross contamination issues.

I am on a diet, to loose weight, but have severe IBS, so am now on a exclusion diet as well. so that means i can have 1 small portion of something with wheat, and lactose free milk. can only eat 3 veg, carrots , broccolli and cauliflower and 3 fruits, strawberries, blueberries and banannas.

son, allergies to beans, peanuts, eggs, yeast extract, kiwi, poss seeds, poss some high histamine fruits.

daughter , (hospital to establish soon) milk allergy. poss ige etc.

meals take ages to plan, and cook for, and i am exhausted by the sheer effort of it all.
packed lunches in the morning require a great deal of concentration, and many knives and chopping boards. as different spreads, etc must not cross contaminate.

Am so fed up when everyone comments on the meal choices i make and complain. am driven mad by it all.

Food is complete hell at the moment. esp when our food bill is so high, and find the product choice so limited by the labels etc so cant always buy cheaper options. wonder how we can sustain such large amount of money every week.

anyone else feel the same lately?

Oh eragon, it is defintely not easy :( I hope you're doing ok.
I definitely get fed up with all the foods we need to buy being so much more expensive and having to order from several different websites with all their delivery charges too. And even having to be in for whenever they end up delivering too.
Luckily at the moment my allergic two are very young so can't complain about food choices yet. But I definitely sympathise with you. And I just generally have my fed up days and desperately want to have just one allergen free day please from time to time.
I hope having somewhere to offload and share helps a bit.

Hi Eragon

I don't do as much as you do as I don't know how to but I am feeling and have been for months now, completely fed up with the routine of everything. I am still washing ALL of the kids pots pans cups etc by hand as we don't have enough to run the dishwasher everyday, and if I did use the dishwasher, I'd probably need more pots, pans, cups, etc etc as all their stuff is separate.

I can't even be bothered to cook for me and DP so we live off convenience meals which adds to the cost but the last thing I want to do is think about food for us when the kiddies are in bed.

I'm actually at the stage where I just can't think straight anymore. I'm tired of having to think of everything all the time.

My kids are lovely though and funny and keep me smiling but I'd just love some time off from thinking about food and meals and all that sort of stuff!

Not quite what you asked but, I do feel the same. And I'm trying to lose weight too. But all I want to do is eat eat eat eat eat.

xxx

That does sound very difficult for you. I get annoyed that people always seem to suggest to bulk out with lentils or beans, not going to happen in this house!!!

I just spent a fortune in Tesco in free from products

Sympathies - we are spending nearly £200 a week on our shopping with 2 adults - a teen and a fussy child. We have wheat, egg and dairy intolerances to contend with.

Argh!!!! Sounds a nightmare Eragon! Don't s'pose the kids are old enough to help in any way?

Oh yes I feel the same too eragon. I am a terrible cook and more importantly I HATE it! I always feel totally rubbish and inadequate when others say 'if you've got a child with allergies/coeliac/intolerances you simply have to cook everything from scratch'.... well I don't! It would probably be cheaper if I did rather than paying over the odds for freefrom alternatives but I simply don't have the time, energy or inclination to spend hours in the kitchen peeling, chopping, boiling, steaming etc etc. I'm working full time at the moment so it's even harder to find the time to cook anything let alone something from scratch that everyone can eat (DS allergic to milk, wheat, eggs & nuts, DD coeliac, DH allergic to nuts, me - eat anything!).

I too get sick of having to constantly remember which chopping board/knife/spoon etc to use to make sure I don't contaminate either of the kid's food and trying to come up with new ideas for lunch boxes or evening meals. It's draining. I also really need to lose weight and have always been pretty good at dieting in the past but these days it's just too difficult because it would mean yet another different meal or variation and I can't face it so end up eating the same as DH and the kids (can't make DS's meals low fat in particular because he doesn't get enough fat in his diet as it is). I also suffer with IBS (not severely like you though) and candida so have been told by a number of people that I really should go on an elimination diet but I really can't face it. I guess eventually if the symptoms get bad enough I will have to give it a go but right now I am eating whatever I bloody well like (and feeling guilty that my family can't do the same!).

Feels good to have a moan sometimes and this board is the only place where there are people who really understand what it's like. I hardly ever moan about these things in 'real life' because nobody gets it.

I feel for you all . I also feel like I have it easy as I only have to think about DS2 - allergies to nuts,peanuts, peas & pulses, soya,dairy, egg & sesame - and I never thought I'd say that!

I don't have to hand wash anything though, and my other son doesn't have allergies. He 'doesn't like' potatoes, but he's not going to die from having one!

I do find that cooking a wee bit extra of some favourites at the weekend and freezing them helps. In this house we all can have (& like) bolognaise & Annabel Karmel's chicken & apple balls (made into burgers for adults). Then when I can't be bothered to cook, I just use something out of the freezer.

I do go through a million pieces of cutlery (I have 3 full sets in a drawer) with every session though. And at least 2 chopping boards. Tis a bit wearing.

I looked at the food boards for inspiration recently. Every single recipe I looked at was unsuitable for DS2. Sigh...