Celebrate the Hands that Prepare Your Food

And a week's worth of 15-minute meals

I logged into Facebook earlier this month for the sole purpose of connecting with my writing group and this image popped up at the top of my newsfeed:

Two seconds after reading the words, I felt my heart speed up. Fire rushed to my head. Smoke practically came out of my ears. I think I know where the intention of the post lay—to celebrate the beauty of a home cooked meal—but it infuriated me all the same. It’s that damn word, blessed. If my answer to the question is no, does that make me unblessed?

I almost shot off a response, but then I remembered why I pulled back from social media in the first place. Because of crazy shit like this. It just makes my blood boil. But here I am, writing about it now. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

The funny thing is, I am that mother. The one who strives for mostly homemade, from fresh ingredients sourced from a local farm. The mother who spends the bulk of her time in the kitchen, because everyone needs to eat at least three times a day. But I do it out of choice. I do it because I love being in the kitchen. And I am not blind to the life of financial privilege that allows me to make that choice in the first place.

My mom worked full time. She had to in order to pay the bills. But I suspect if given the choice, she would have chosen to work over cooking and cleaning all day. Her job brought an opportunity to make adult friendships; people to talk to besides the three tiny people she had to raise. Working allowed my mom the chance to get out of the house, to see things she might not otherwise see, and to maybe claim a moment or two for herself each day. 

The truth is, I don’t know what my mom would have chosen. I have never asked. What I do know is this: I never felt like I was less blessed because my mom made dinner from a box. Some of my favorite dinner memories as a child revolve around Hamburger Helper. Looking back now, I suspect that box was the very first thing I learned to make on my own. Similar to how a box of Annie’s Mac and Cheese was the first thing my children learned to make on their own.

Mom almost always cooked dinner. And there was almost always something processed from a box, a jar, or a can. When we got home at 6:00, we were hungry. Mom was too. She didn’t have time (or the desire) to make spaghetti sauce from scratch. She would plop us in front of the TV, brown some ground beef and mix it with a jar of Ragu. Some nights we were extra lucky and she’d heat up garlic Texas Toast to go with it. From freezer to table in fifteen minutes or less. 

One of my favorite dinners as a kid was individual chicken pot pie. The kind you found in the frozen food section of the grocery store, on sale: 4/$1.00. A tiny foil pie pan filled with minuscule chunks of rubbery meat mixed with peas and carrots in a creamy, salty gravy. One pie left you feeling full until lunch the next day.

When Mom took us to the grocery store, we’d beg for Totino’s Pizza Rolls and Chef Boyardee’s Spaghetti-O’s. Fast forward thirty years and my kids don’t have a clue who Chef Boyardee is. The only pot pie they’ve ever eaten is one that takes me an hour to make; although I often use Pillsbury pie crust instead of making my own. I have introduced them to the frozen pizza roll, but only after a failed attempt at making my own. And friends, they are just as delicious now as they were when I was ten years old.

I don’t know who created this social media post, but I wish I could make it disappear. With more than 478,000 likes, 398,000 comments and 16,000 shares it’s potentially doing far more harm than good. The wording is divisive; lifting up one kind of mother over another. 

Merriam Webster defines blessed as “held in reverence,” “honored in worship,” and “of or enjoying happiness.” Dictionary.com defines it as “consecrated; sacred; sanctified,” “worthy of adoration, reverence or worship,” and “divinely or supremely favored; fortunate.” This one tiny word at the end is the closest thing to what I think people mean when they use the word “blessed.”

And yes, absolutely, I am fortunate to be able to stay home and cook meals from raw ingredients several times a day. But I was also fortunate as a kid to have a mom who loved me unconditionally and did her very best to put a meal on the table every night. Homemade or not.

I’m coming at you today with more than a week’s worth of failed meals. I screwed up the cupcakes for my daughter’s 11th birthday party, putting in one too many egg white and not enough brown sugar. I made a rainbow stew that tasted like trash. I suspect it was the turnip, but maybe it just needed more salt. Whatever it was, I didn’t like it. And I couldn’t bear to serve it to my family. But I did have my husband save it because I couldn’t bear to throw it out. “Maybe I can create something brilliant out of it,” I told my husband, before heading upstairs for the night. He cleaned up his dinner, storing the uneaten soup in a plastic container in the fridge, and I went upstairs to mope. 

At least with frozen meals, you know exactly what you get. Frozen chicken nuggets are better than anything I could ever make myself. Food is meant to be enjoyed. Around a table filled with love. In the end, who really cares if it’s frozen or homemade? Does it really matter if you’ve spent hours carefully preparing it or threw it together at the end of a very long day? 

Celebrate the people who prepare food for you to eat. We’re all just doing the very best we can.

P.S. I did not create something else with that failed soup. Two days later I threw it all down the garbage disposal. Some meals just don’t work. It’s okay to let them go.

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Here are six meals you can get on the table in fifteen minutes or less (and a grocery list!) These don’t require any forethought or meal planning and prep, so they are perfect for those nights when you have no idea what to feed your people.

Day One—Rotisserie Chicken & Veggies

Buy a Rotisserie Chicken from the grocery store. My favorite is from Costco because it’s only $4.99. Pair it with Roasted Broccoli and Green Beans. Save any leftover chicken for soup later in the week.

Day Two—Tortellini Soup

Bring 6 cups of broth to boil in a pot on the stove. Add the tortellini and cook according to the package directions. When the tortellini has 3 minutes left, add spinach, some minced garlic, and a can of diced tomatoes. Simmer until everything is hot and flavors have melded together, 3-5 minutes.

Day Three—Fried Chicken Salad

Start by throwing some frozen chicken nuggets in the oven. While they are in the oven, chop some lettuce and a cucumber. If you have some old bread, turn it into croutons by cutting it into cubes and toasting it in some olive oil with garlic powder and salt. Top the lettuce with cucumber, cooked nuggets, some shredded cheese, and croutons. Use your favorite dressing (this is mine).

Day Four—Spaghetti and meat sauce

You don’t need a recipe. Brown a pound of ground meat. Drain it and add it to a jar of marinara sauce. Rao’s is one of my favorite, but Bertoli Tomato & Basil is pretty good too. Boil some water for pasta, cook it according to the package directions. (Save a small handful of pasta for chicken noodle soup) Mix it all together and enjoy.

Day Five: Chicken Noodle Soup

Saute some carrots, onion, celery in some olive oil in a pot on the stove for a couple of minutes, or until translucent. Pour 6 cups of chicken broth in the pot. Add any leftover rotisserie chicken from your fridge. When it comes to a boil, taste it. Add salt if it needs it (this will largely depend on how salty your broth is). In a second pot, boil pasta of your choice until al dente. Put pasta in a bowl, top with vegetables and broth, and you have almost instant chicken noodle soup.

Day Six—Tacos

Taco night is my favorite night. Brown meat, add taco seasoning and water, simmer until the water is mostly gone. You can heat up a can of beans if you’d like, or just have meat and cheese tacos. If you have lettuce leftover, slice it into thin ribbons and put it on top.

Day Seven

You have leftovers in your fridge, right? If not, it’s totally acceptable to eat scrambled eggs on toast for dinner.

Grocery List:

1 head lettuce
1 cucumber
1 bag carrots
1 bunch celery
1 onion
1 Rotisserie Chicken
2 lbs ground meat (beef, turkey, chicken, pork will all do)
1 package cheese tortellini
1 bag frozen chicken nuggets or strips
1 bag frozen broccoli
1 bag frozen green beans
5 ounces fresh or frozen spinach
1 bulb garlic
3 quarts chicken broth
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 lb spaghetti noodles
cheddar or monterey jack cheese
taco shells

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February brings with it the midpoint of Winter, a lot of family celebrations, and the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Here’s a glimpse at what I’ve written in past Februarys.

Seven Years Ago

Due to bad conditions in our first apartment, we ended up finding a new apartment in the town that we are buying a house in, and moving two days later. Our first scheduled movers showed up with a truck the size of a mini-van, so we ended up cancelling that move and hiring another, much more expensive, mover – who ended up moving us in the middle of the biggest snowstorm we’ve seen all winter. ~From Friday Favorites, an archived blog post, 2016

Six Years Ago

Our love affair with food began with our real food journey back in 2012. By December of that year, we were cleaning out our freezer and learning to be creative with the ingredients we had on hand. Since then, we’ve been trying to eat as locally as possible, becoming a member of a CSA in Atlanta, and shopping from local farms once we moved to Massachusetts. ~From an archived blog post, 2017

We sold our house, we packed up our things, and we moved over 1000 miles away. We did it because D got a job offer we couldn’t refuse. We did it because Massachusetts is, in so many ways, such a better place to raise children. We did it because we knew it was the right thing for us as a family. But man … did it shake my world. ~On Being Deeply Rooted

Five Years Ago

Celebrating Candlemas—marking the midpoint of Winter

Snow Day Maple Candy—learning to love Winter and a recipe too!

Two Years Ago

Celebrating Ash Wednesday at Home—pandemic frustrations and a download for a family service at home

Ash Wednesday: 2021—sometimes the most impactful faith experiences happen around the kitchen counter

a pandemic love story—a tiny love story

a wedding and dirty dishes—this was no ordinary wedding

One Year Ago

Chasing Dreams—a poem about balancing dreams and motherhood

Love is an Exercise Ball—a poem about bouncing a baby to sleep

10 Things Saving My Life Right Now—A Candlemas tradition begins

Burning Confessions—a Substack newsletter about Ash Wednesday

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When things don’t go as planned, may you find the courage to give yourself grace, find ways to laugh about your mistakes, throw away the failure, and allow your kids to eat cereal for dinner.

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Until next time,

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I’m no longer active on Social Media, but I am doing all kinds of fun things on The Blog!