Random Musings of a Frogged Mind

It was either that title or “how the hell do you go from feeding 5 to feeding 8 everyday but have no appetite for food except oranges?”, but that title seemed long and excessive.

One month ago today I took home new babies. One month. I’ve had an entire month of feeding new people and I’m still not used to it.

When people add to their family the average way there’s a period of adjustment, but feeding the extra being is usually much easier. Boob or bottle is the only conundrum in regards to food. There’s years before you really have to start calculating if a recipe will have to be doubled or tripled, and by then you have an idea of their likes and dislikes. Anyone who adopts, typically, has a bit of an adjustment period much like ours, but on a much smaller scale as we are the only nut cases we know of who adopt 3 kids at once.

When you slap 3 extra people into a 5 person household, and none of those three is under the age of 5, nor are they bird-like eaters, it tends to wreak havoc on the family food stuffs. On top of that, throw in the main cook with stress/anxiety ridden lack-of-appetite and you have a problem. My breakfasts have consisted of oranges or nothing, my lunches are other fruit and my suppers are as small a portion as my system can tolerate without throwing up. I’ve lost too much weight in a short amount of time and I’ve taken to tossing full-fat cream in my morning coffee to try and halt the drop (not working yet btw).

I have been scouring online websites for meal ideas, crockpot ideas and big meal portions but what I find is either super unhealthy (I.e. everything canned and super high sodium) or stuff I can’t afford to even think about buying at the moment. I made hamburger soup last night and had to make it in a crock pot and a pot on the stove to have enough for all. That’s the quantities I’m talking about and recipes calling for 5 chicken breasts for 4 people are simply unusable. At the moment I also don’t have the freezer room to do a huge amount of freeze-ahead meals. We’ve been down to 1 small freezer since we moved and its due to time constraints to go find one!

This is one hell of a learning curve.

I’m at a loss. I’ve never had to cook in these quantities before for so long and I’m running into a rut rather quickly. We’ve had burgers, hot dogs, spaghetti & burritos twice, and I don’t want to keep running through the same old stuff. Thank goodness cool weather has come because then I can at least fire up the oven and do lasagna or other ginormous casseroles to fill their gaping holes. What the heck am I going to do when my boys become teenagers? Kick the others out so I can afford the grocery bill? No?

Wanted: cook who will work for nothing but giggles and hugs to feed a family of eight. Mom? You’re hired!