Fun with Hospital Eating

This one is going to be super, extra fast because I am typing this on my phone from a "couch/bed" in my daughter's hospital room.  Food-wise, I've been scrounging it for the past two days.  Yesterday, after our very first ER visit (what a milestone, right?), I realized I had not eaten in over 8 hours.  That's A LOT for me. (I work out a lot, so I usually end up eating every 3 to 4 hours).  I was literally about to fall over from a super fun combination of hypoglycemia and stress, when my sister presented me with the Best Sandwich Ever.  EVER.  It was so good - turkey and mustard with all the fixings, plus jalapeño kettle chips.  Yum.  My husband brought me a burrito for dinner that was probably the size of my head.  Again: awesomely tasty.  

Today's been slightly less yummy and as weird of an eating schedule: I grabbed a latte and pumpkin bread from the hospital cafe mid-morning, then, mid-afternoon, I had a Clif Bar, beef jerky and a Coke Zero. Yeah, that's right...be jealous.  Be very jealous - not of the food, but of my apparently cast iron stomach.  

So, by the time I made it back across town to our house for a shower and some time with my littlest munchkin, I was craving anything real and especially anything green.  I made myself, my son and my mom (who was keeping my son this afternoon) BBQ chicken sandwiches with a salad of romaine hearts and cherry tomatoes.  Good gracious, it tasted good and fresh.  I'm kind of living for tomorrow, when I hope we get to go home for good, mainly because my breakfast is already in my purse, awaiting consumption: a Clif Bar sans beef jerky.  Breakfast of Champions!

Last Day of School!

Wow!  Here we are, on the morning of the last day of school!  I said it on my Facebook page and I will say it again here: this is always a bittersweet time of year for me.  Even as much as I am looking forward to more time with my kids (which is saying something after a VERY difficult night last night - that is a different story altogether) and all the fun things that summer brings with it, I still look at the end of the school year as just that: an ending.  For us, it is the end of an era - one of my daughters will move on to a different elementary school next year, which will necessitate quite a number of changes in our daily routine, my little one will start preschool, not to mention the more obvious fact that they are all getting older and so am I....aaaaannnndddd I just veered into a Fleetwood Mac/Dixie Chicks (depending on your age) song. 

So, before I get too weepy, let me just say that the last day of school, for us at least, brings lots and lots of food treats.  The girls will each have classroom parties, which my son and I will attend, and which will be packed with snacks and drinks.  Then, as a way to distract my girls, who tend to be as maudlin as me on the last day of school, I promised that if they went easy on the junk at school, I would take them out to get burgers for lunch.  Finally, as is our "tradition", they were allowed to choose our dinner for the last day of school, which will be: shrimp (since my son can eat it now.  Yay!) with spicy ketchup (homemade cocktail sauce), cheese fondue (homemade because I decided I was too cheap to buy the ridiculously priced pre-made variety, imported from Switzerland) and chips and salsa (store bought).  I think....I think I just gave myself a stomach-ache reading our meals planned for the day.  Ah, well.  I have plenty of anti-acids in the medicine cabinet, and we will get back to a semi-normal eating routine tomorrow.  Tomorrow: FIRST DAY OF SUMMER VACATION! 

To Eat Out or In...That is *Tonight's* Question

As you may have guessed, I cook a lot.  Like all the damn time.  Like breakfast, lunch and dinner for five people.  The only day that I don't cook dinner is usually Sunday, when we have dinner at my mom's house with her and my sister.  Every other night though, whether I am inspired or dragging my feet, you will find me in the kitchen, whipping something edible up for my family to consume as their nighttime meal.  Some nights, however, I am too tired (or too busy, or too frustrated or too... anything) to cook dinner and we end up going out to a local restaurant or grabbing low-brow burgers to fill our bellies.  Some nights (or in this case, days), I call my husband at work and he casually says, "if you want to go out tonight, we could.  You know...instead of cooking."  I am sorely tempted and then spend the next several hours having this conversation in my head:

Me #1 (also known as the Stingy Chef, a character who despises the waste of food and who intrinsically believes that no one can make food as healthy or as cheaply as she can): *sigh*  "We don't need to go out.  You are going to the grocery store tomorrow and can make do until then.  There are at least two different meal options in the fridge at this very moment."

Me #2 (also known as the Lazy, Harried Mom of Three, a character who procrastinates using food up and who enjoys having anyone else cook for her, not to mention bring her alcoholic drinks): "Awww.....come ON!!  You know you don't want to cook tonight!!  You have a blog post to write, a cake to make tomorrow, the three little people to deal with all afternoon.  Who cares if the tomatoes sit another day?!  *sing-song voice* There might be margaritas...."

Me #1: "Quit whining!!  There won't be enough room in the fridge if we don't finish off the tomatoes and the milk and the bread and the lunchmeat.  Do I really have to go on?!  I will get you a treat at the store tomorrow instead!"

Me #2: "Nah.  I'm still going to think about going out tonight.  I mean, it makes sense, right?  We have an errand to run and there might not be time to do it if we DON'T eat out."

I could go on, but now you just think I am crazy.  Regardless of my mental status, it is a struggle for me to decide how to best spend our money and really how to utilize the food I have already purchased.  Yes, it is nice to eat out and yes, we do that every once in a while, but there are lots of difficulties in doing so on a regular basis.  I have to say that I am leaning towards the Stingy Chef on this one - it would be nice, but there is food in the fridge that needs to be eaten and both meal options should appeal to all five of us.  We will see though - right now it is nap time, the big kids are at school and I am happily typing away at a soon to be finished blog post.  When 4 pm rolls around and I have three screaming banshees running loose and wreaking havoc in my house....well, that margarita might just look too damn good to pass up.