There is so much to HATE about cooking....

My Mom did it... every night... for as long as I can remember....  she was a super busy Mom with projects going all the time.... a spotless house...  women have done it for all time...

Why do I HATE cooking???  I haven't given up and we are eating out a LOT less... but I HATE it.

Top 10 List of Reasons I hate cooking:

10  You need a list, if you walk into the grocery store with no list, then you have no idea what to buy to create a dinner

9  To have a list, you have to have planned a meal, so stop everything, sit down, and figure out what you are going to make for the next week.  Are you kidding me???

8  Grocery store with kids... if you go to the store with 4 kids 4 and under it's not going to be a pleasant experience.  But, if you wait until Tuesday morning when the kids are in "school" then you killed one of your two mornings w/o kids a week at the grocery store and putting up groceries.  

7  The mystery ingredient.  Ok, I've looked all over the nut section for Pine Nuts... no luck.  I ask, they are hanging between the dairy and produce section... ok, WHY... was the nut section just too hard???  I swear I can't read a recipe without wondering either what is it or where do you find it in the store.  Coconut extract,  unsweetened large coconut flakes, greek yogurt, loosely packed broccoli rabe.. WHAT???  Fresh flat-leaf parsley, is there a non-flat leaf parsley and will it taste bad if my parsley isn't flat???

6  The missing ingredient.  Ok, been to the store... got all the stuff...  let's get the meal going.  WHAT???  How the heck did I not get out of the store with tortillas???  It was right there on the list....  I swear I cannot get out of the grocery store w/o forgetting something.

5  The screw up...  yes, I will fess up that I have in fact screwed up Hamburger Helper not once, but twice. Yes, the easy idiot proof meal....  the 1st time I was making Hamburger Helper and Suddenly Salad.  They both have seasoning packets...  you can probably figure out what went wrong here.  The second time the meal was eaten as a soup due to a measurement mistake on my part.

4  The additional required items to ensure each child eats something.  Remember, Jadon is CRAZY picky and it's an issue in our home.  Therefore, I always include a bread, baby food veggie, and/or a banana/yogurt.

3  The clean-up... wholly cow.  You cook an hour and 1/2, then the clean-up that follows when you are full and tired.  I try to clean as I go... ok, casserole is in the oven it's time to clean up the casserole mess, but still.... UCK!!

2  The prep/clean-up/dining ratio:  Cooking time 1 1/2 hours, clean up time 1/2 hours, eating time 15 minutes.  I want to force everyone to sit an hour and savor each morsel with oooossss and aaawwwss about how good it is given all the time, effort, and emotional sweat I put into it.

1  The whining time....  We may eat for 15 minutes or so, but most of that time is listening to the complaining.  "I don't like this."  "I don't want one bite."  "Can I have dessert"?  "I don't like this kind of bread."  "What is this green thing"??  

Oh, I forgot one... here is one more for the list.  I HATE when I cook and cook and get a bad meal or a mediocre meal.  The meal below, sounded good (Crescent Cheeseburger Pie),  smelled good, looked delicious.... but was ok at best...  did I screw it up??  Who knows, but we will scratch this one off the list....  (Notice, this picture was taken before we ate it... hence I was proud of this meal and had a whole other blog post planned).

Oh, just thought of one more thing.... You are required to know what you are making for dinner when you wake up so you can start thawing out the meat... once again, are you kidding me???  Half the time I'm trying cook frozen hamburger or am running warm water over chicken breast to thaw it out at the last minute.