(no subject)

[the_rck]

Bah. I waited long enough that I really can’t order food for delivery. If I did now, it wouldn’t arrive until after Cordelia gets home at 3:15. I’ve looked in the fridge and rummaged in the cupboards, and I can’t find anything I’m interested in eating, but I need to eat in order to take my meds, so I really don’t know. I suppose a piece of bread and butter might work. I don’t actually want that, but I don’t loathe the idea and won’t find preparing it exhausting. I have to eat something.

Comments

[kaffy_r]

I've been in the place where food looks like nuts and bolts to me, even when I desperately need food for meds, or to help stave off migraine-friendly physical condition, or when I'm having a bad day with my RA. Bread and butter has often been my go-to. Good luck - my thoughts are with you.

[the_rck]

Thanks.

I ended up going back to the cupboards and finding a can of hominy and a can of collard greens. I suspect that the collard greens, at least, were better for me than bread and butter would be.

[kaffy_r]

The hominy probably provided some energy as well. Glad you were able to find something to eat, and I hope you're doing better now.

[laurajv]

I *hate* when I'm in that mode. Lunchtime meds when things are bad and I can't make lunch for the life of me are just...the actual worst.

This is also known as "why I have instant oatmeal for lunch so often", I guess.

[the_rck]

I should have thought of instant oatmeal. Cordelia dislikes the blueberries and cream kind, so we have quite a lot of it.

For a while, I ate a pre-cooked cheddar chicken sausage for every lunch. I've got an unopened package in the fridge, but I couldn't face opening it, and I've also got most of an opened package that is now too old to eat. I've also got three week old leftover pizza. ::sighs::

I need to clean out the fridge.

[laurajv]

fridge cleanouts are no fun!

i should see if there are precooked sausages I can get nearby that I can eat. it'd be nice to change up the instant oatmeal diet for bad days.

[the_rck]

I've had the best luck with pre-cooked chicken sausages. The cheddar chicken sausages I like are made by Miller. They also make the same sausage without the cheddar and a version with jalepenos that I've never tried. All of those come six to a package and should be freezable.

The other kinds I've liked were by a company called Al Fresco. They make an apple chicken sausage I like quite a bit, but they're harder to find than that Miller sausages and only come four to a package. I've also had their garlic chicken and spinach and feta chicken. Those were decent, but I didn't like them as well.

My main limitations are the level of fat and the amount of black pepper in the mix. I can't deal with a lot of either.

Frozen chicken patties and frozen hamburgers/turkey burgers do okay in the microwave. The packaging will always say that they don't recommend that as a method of preparation, but the patties will cook all the way through. Breaded chicken patties will come out a little soggy and do better if they're cooked with a folded paper towel between them and the plate. Hamburgers and turkey burgers cook off a lot of liquid so they work better on those trays that they make for microwaving bacon, the kind that have ridges and troughs.

This fridge cleanout, fortunately, will consist entirely of grabbing two big ziplocs and hauling them a few feet to the trash. We don't have a big accumulation of ancient leftovers right at the moment.

[laurajv]

that is all good info to have!

[maramcreates]

I'm sorry that you're having to deal with this. Not knowing what to eat really hits you where you need things to just work already.
I've been having the same issue most days for months now. It was getting ridiculous, so I made sure that we were stocked with canned proteins (like tuna in water and sardines in oil), canned corn and peas, canned soups, crackers, and various condiments. There's enough variety there for me, they're simple enough to prepare, and the long shelf life means it'll be available when I need it.
Still, there are days when I'd pay someone to just deal with it all and plop a plate in front of me.

[the_rck]

Part of the problem is that I try not to have stuff in the house that isn't healthy because I know that I (or Scott or Cordelia) will eat it in preference to less appealing/more difficult to prepare foods. I think I need to lean more on canned foods at this point. Sometimes, opening a can feels like too much, but most of the time I can do it.

[maramcreates]

Yes, I know what you mean. I have to make sure that the canned stuff I'm using is low/no sodium (since most of it is fairly healthy in terms of saturated fats and sugar), but that's not usually an issue with the items I use (low/no sodium varieties are easy to come by in my area).

[the_rck]

I'm not hugely concerned with sodium as none of my health issues involve it. My blood pressure has always been on the very low end of normal. Sugars of various types are a much bigger concern for me. My blood sugar numbers have always been pretty good, but I'm twice the weight I was in high school, and I don't get much in the way of exercise right now.

I have issues with certain herbs and spices, though, and those can be a minefield

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

Pancakes?

[the_rck]

Sadly, there are two barriers to that-- First, I don't currently have the stamina to make them. I'd fall over about the time I got the griddle plugged in. When I'm healthy, I can manage about fifteen minutes of cooking at a time. Right now, I'm at about five. Second, I would only eat one or two, and I don't have any recipes that I can adapt easily to make that few.

My husband usually makes either pancakes or waffles at some point during the weekend (varies depending on which days he has off). He eats three or four. I eat one or two. Our daughter eats one or two. We often end up with leftovers that sit on the counter until I throw them out a few days later.

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping you found something tasty.

[the_rck]

I went through the cupboards again, after a rest, and found a can of hominy and a can of collard greens. I put butter on the hominy and mustard on the collard greens. Now, I just have to put the leftovers away (and hope that my husband doesn't throw these out because he thinks they must be ancient if he doesn't remember what they are).

So, yeah, something more appealing than bread and butter turned up.

[ken-3k.livejournal.com]

We try to keep several "emergency foods" in stock at our place -- stuff that one can grab and go.

6 oz yogurt servings (which have to be turned over every couple of weeks, but we use 1 or 2 yogurt cups most mornings). "Kind" brand bars and similar. Cracker-and-cheese sandwich packs from Keebler and Lance. Small microwave cup-meals from Dinty Moore and Chef Boy-Ar-Dee. Also, I'll just grab a couple of slices of cheese and some deli meat and make an improvised cheese sandwich, when getting out the bread is too much bother.

Little of these are worth anything as natural food, but they are at least vaguely protein-like and better than crankiness and growling tummies. Your family might have reasons to avoid any or all of these options.

[the_rck]

Part of the problem today is that Saturday is our usual grocery shopping day. Thursdays and Fridays are days of running out of things but not wanting to make a special trip to the store. We're out of the cheese I'm willing to eat and out of lunch meat.

We have yogurt right now, but I can't always eat that because the texture gives me problems. Because I don't regularly eat it, Scott doesn't pay attention to whether or not the kinds he's buying are things I can eat (I'm allergic to aspartame, and some companies are putting that in even their normal lines of yogurt).

We can't do much with packages of crackers, with or without cheese, because Scott and Cordelia end up eating them within the first two days after we buy them.

We do have some protein bars. I might be able to eat one of those, but Scott's buying them for him and Cordelia to put in their lunches, so he doesn't check for peanuts and/or walnuts before he buys. I also try to be cautious about eating those so as to be sure that the other two members of the family have enough to get through the week. It being Friday, I probably could get away with it if there are a couple left (Scott might have to work tomorrow and need one).

We've been dealing with this problem off and on for the last year because of my more limited than usual mobility and stamina. For example, I started eating bananas for breakfast frequently because I could dump one in the bag attached to my walker without it spilling or getting too dirty to eat and because getting one didn't require balancing on one foot for more than a couple of seconds. I've recovered my mobility, and I'm hopeful that I'll recover my stamina.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Bananas are a good standby. Have you considered the little tubs of apple or other fruit that doesn't need to be kept in the fridge? When Sis was recovering from an operation (on the days her or my workmates didn't turn up with food parcels, bless 'em) and she couldn't face me making dinner, they came in handy...

[the_rck]

I like those, but Scott does the actual shopping and prefers to buy larger containers. It's just that those end up going bad once they've been opened and are a lot harder for me to deal with when I'm tired.

When we have applesauce cups, for example, I eat them. Right now, however, we have two jars of applesauce in the fridge (one tastes terribly like nothing at all, but I keep thinking I can use it to cook with), but it's too much trouble for me to open them and spoon some out. And I often don't see the jars when I look in there because they've been pushed to the back and have larger things in front of them.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

We did try to keep an emergency food shelf... problem is that when one knows there is food there one likes, a state of emergency tends to get declared immediately and until it's all gone again...

Being one of the Great NonCooks of the Western World, I tend to rely heavily on fruit, even if it is occasionally the little prepackaged tuns.

[the_rck]

I'm cautious about how much fruit I eat because there was a point in my life when more than a single serving of fruit in a day had unfortunate effects on my digestion. I don't think that's true any more (I'm pretty sure that it was a side effect of stress in the same way that my constant pain and frequent headaches and problems sleeping were), but my instinct is still to be extremely cautious about fruit.

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

I'm glad something more appealing than just bread and butter turned up!

[the_rck]

Thanks!

[nucleosides.livejournal.com]

I know these feelings, especially with prednisone. With that medication it's basically "eat with it or regret it later".

[the_rck]

In this case, it's my multivitamin that really requires food. It upsets my stomach without, and my diet is so far from balanced that I really need the dratted thing. The other medication I take with lunch doesn't have to be; it's just that lunch is normally a useful reminder that I'd better take the wellbutrin.

[snogged.livejournal.com]

Good luck solving the food issue.

[the_rck]

Thanks!