After I shared our “Day in the Life of FPIES“, I got a lot of comments about how much time I spend in the kitchen and how focused we must be on food all the time. So I thought it would be fun to document everything we cooked for a week just to see if an FPIES/Fructmal Mama/family really does spend more time in the kitchen than most people.
Here is everything we cooked last week from Sunday to Saturday. Let me know if you think this is a lot of cooking or if I whine more than I should about how much time in the kitchen we spend!
Sunday:
- One loaf of bread
- Double batch hamburger hash
- One serving of hash browns
- One package of pork sausage
- Two trays of quinoa tortilla bread
- Pitcher of quinoa milk
- One steak
- Heated up one serving of quinoa for me
- Heated up a bowl of quinoa for Zac
- Heated up two 1 oz. servings of pork for Zac
- One batch of candy bars without chocolate
- Chicken, carrot and bell pepper stir fry w/ leftover mac ‘n cheese
- Strained off pork broth that had cooked overnight
- French fries for a snack
- Ran the dishwasher twice
Monday:
- Double tray of quinoa tortilla bread
- More quinoa milk
- Heated up leftover sausages
- Heated up 1 oz. serving of pork for Zac
- Made a triple batch of hamburger hash
- Hash browns with chopped up leftover sausage
- 2 hamburgers for Jed
- Heated up dinner leftovers from Sunday night
- Made a mix of Quinoa and ground beef stir fried in olive oil
- Ran the dishwasher twice
Tuesday:
- Made a double batch of hamburger hash
- Made a pan of bacon (in the oven of course)
- Three hamburgers
- Cooked a steak
- Made millet flour brown gravy w/fresh sliced mushrooms
- Fresh green beans w/red bell pepper and mushrooms
- Tray of quinoa biscuits
- Quinoa/hamburger stir-fry mix for me
- Bowl of rice cereal for Jed
- Ran the dishwasher once
Wednesday:
- Bowl of rice cereal for Jed
- Steak and hash browns for my breakfast
- Turkey sandwich w/ potato chips
- Cut and served a bunch of candy bars
- Heated up leftovers from last nights dinner
- Ground beef/quinoa stir-fry mix for me
- French fries for a snack
Being worn out from the reaction caught up to me today; I didn’t feel well and was very tired so went for leftovers as much as possible.
Thursday:
- Rinsed and cooked a pot of quinoa (3 cups)
- Piece of toast with sunbutter
- Turkey sandwich w/ chips
- Quinoa stuffed peppers
- T-bone steaks
- Big pot of mashed potatos
- Homemade lemon-lime soda
- More Quinoa/ground beef stir-fry mix
- Ran dishwasher twice
Jed ate two bananas, too!
Friday:
- Bowl of rice cereal w/ banana
- Double hamburger hash
- Sirloin steak
- Leftover mashed potatos
- Cooked another package of sausages
- Ran dishwasher once
Another wiped out day; Jed ate lots of quick foods (leftovers, bananas, candy bars).
Saturday:
- 10 pieces french toast
- Heated up leftover sausages
- Sliced bananas
- Heated up 1 oz. of pork and quinoa for Zac
- Steak and Hash browns
- Pot of quinoa (4 cups)
- Spaghetti squash
- Pork chops
- Green beans
- Steak for me
- Heated up more pork and quinoa for Zac
- French fries as a snack
- Cleaned out our deep fryer
- Ran dishwasher twice
And of course, several times every day, I fed Zac bowls of quinoa. I only mention this because I may or may not have documented it each time, since all that involves is scooping quinoa from the big pot in the fridge into a smaller bowl for him! It doesn’t really feel like food preparation because it’s so easy!
So what do you think? Is that a lot of cooking or pretty normal for you, and are you an FPIES family or not?
I feel like it’s pretty normal; maybe even a little lightweight. I didn’t cook up any bones for beef broth this week, or dehydrate the broth. I also didn’t make any beef jerky or potato chips from scratch this week. And I couldn’t claim credit for the pork roast because I cooked that right before my “document the week” began!
Also, we had a bit of a rough week and a few days I just didn’t get much sleep, so, I was tired and went for our version of convenience food for a couple days there.
I should also point out that I am not the only person who did all this cooking. Some of these items were cooked entirely by Darrel on days that he was home. This was just to show what is cooked in our house in a week – not necessarily who cooked it! (Thank you, honey!)
__________
Have you ever written down everything you’ve cooked in a week? What did it tell you about your lifestyle?
Do you make your quinoa milk? And tortilla bread? My twin have FPIES and are not on any solid foods yet. We will start trialing nutra tomorrow. They are 11 months. My older kid has a myriad of igE allergies. So, these two items of food interest me and possible foods for the older one.
Hi Helen!
I do make my own quinoa milk. Thanks for asking this – I usually link back to any recipes used in my posts but flat forgot to this time. Here is how I do it: http://cradlerockingmama.com/frugal-friday-homemade-quinoa-milk/
The tortilla bread is still in the experimental stages. I haven’t posted it on the blog because, well, I’m constantly tweaking to figure out what works best and further, I don’t really know what to call it! It winds up puffing up in the oven more like a sopapilla, so it’s not really a tortilla or a chip. It’s more like a less-doughy biscuit or a puffy tortilla. When I can name it, I’ll post it! In the meantime, you can play a bit with it on your own. What I’m doing is taking different quantities of cooked quinoa and water, blending them together, and pouring them on to a cookie sheet to bake.
I keep varying the oven temp, the time cooked, the ratio of quinoa to water, etc. so feel free to play until you find a method that works best for you. 🙂
Quinoa nuggets are a sure hit for almost everyone. Zac had just started getting bored with them, so I was trying to find another texture/type to make for him. http://cradlerockingmama.com/quinoa-nuggets/
Hope this helps you. And hope your littles like them, too! 🙂
It seems normal to me (we are an FPIES family too). We cook completely different stuff – different triggers than you guys, but each week I make my own yogurt, bread, chicken and broth, muffins/granola/other items. I make a “real” dinner every day, and we always run the dishwasher twice a day. I enjoy cooking, so I don’t mind, but my housework definitely suffers because I spend a lot more time in the kitchen than on cleaning. Oh well, at least we get tasty homemade everything to eat! 🙂
Hi Sara!
The housework suffering is the most frustrating part to me! I feel like outside of the kitchen I’m constantly playing catch up! LOL
We also cook a good deal. I’m gluten free and 1 child has a life-threatening shellfish allergy, so we cook mostly regular food. But cooking from scratch (almost) all the time is a lot of time in the kitchen. I do have 6 kids (16,15,13,10,7,and 6 years old) who help as they are able, and my husband cooks when he can. Dumping the standard American diet and eating whole foods was a big adjustment. My usual whine is having to make the ingredients to make a recipe. No can of coconut milk, no box of bread crumbs, and no little cans of beans or broth. I grind our flours and flake our oats. We make kefir and kombucha, sometimes yogurt, bread products, and many fermented foods. There are days I don’t want to make one more thing, but I usually try. The older kids are a big help. We home school, so they are home cooking and learning along with me. The dishwasher is always run twice, sometimes three time. It depends on how much we cook.
Buying in bulk, cooking in bulk, and a really big freezer. With 6 kids eating real foods it’s how we live. Press on.
Hi Amy!
I agree, making the ingredients to make a recipe is one of the more irritating parts of cooking from scratch.
That’s quite a lot of helping hands in your kitchen! 🙂 I think it’s wonderful that they’re learning how to do all this from you while they’re young!
How do you flake oats?
You’re right: buying and cooking in bulk makes it easier. It’s hard to do sometimes, with the many restrictions we work with, but I try. That’s why I make a HUGE pot of quinoa each time. Having it in the fridge is a lifesaver!
Thanks for sharing your story – you’re inspirational! 🙂
I have the Family Grain Mill with the flaker attachment. It is like this one. http://www.everythingkitchens.com/fgm-hand-crank-flaking-mill-fgm-1013.html (I’m sorry I don’t know how to just link things without having to put the whole link.)
They sell an attachment to hook it to my Bosch mixer. I think they also sell attachments for the Kitchen-Aids. I buy oat groats in 5 gallon buckets and flake into oatmeal as needed. I got my flaker used. The oats are cheaper, better tasting, and more nutritious fresh.
Thank you!
Pingback: I Don’t Consent. - Cradle Rocking Mama