How I Meal Plan and Cook Real Dinners (While Working and Momming), Part Two
Okay, so Part One was the navel-gazing essay. Part two is the practical stuff!
How I Meal Plan and Cook Real Dinners (While Working and Momming), Part One
For many of us, cooking feels like a chore and the idea that we could prioritize it in the name of self-care is beyond strange. I always liked cooking, but through college and grad school it was really a means to an end - the end being entertaining friends over a meal, which I loved doing. A turning point came in 2013/2014, when I was unemployed for nine months. Jon and I were long distance at the time and I lived alone in a studio apartment. My parents were nearby and I had Charlie, but I was lonely, directionless, and deeply depressed. I took refuge in food blogs, meal planning, and cooking elaborate dishes for myself.
Consider the Opening: A Poem for 2024
In November 2022, Kathleen Donahoe published an untitled poem on Instagram that regularly pops up in my mind to serve as - depending on the circumstance - a reminder, an admonition, or a promise. The two lines in the middle of the poem, in particular, have captured me:
Then you, and by you I mean me,
Might consider the opening
Normal v. Common: Women’s Pain
Get any group of women together and the conversation will, at some point, turn to shared pain. How much did it hurt when you had your IUD inserted? Have you physically recovered from childbirth? What works for your menstrual cramps? And, most frequent of all: is what I’m feeling normal?
