personal chef??should I?
 

I am flirting with the idea of hiring a local woman who does personal cooking in your home. She meal plans, shops, and brings it all back to your home, to prepare for you. She can come once a week, or once a month if you like, but the idea is that you will always have yummy, home cooked food in the freezer so on those days that you dont feel well, the rest of my family isnt sitting around wondering what to eat. She will make 4 different dishes and portion them out into 8 servings. or 6 different dishes and make it into 16 servings.

pamelaspantry.com is the service. She is quite reasonable in price, and I spoke to her on the phone. She was knowledeable about the swank diet, Atkins, Gluten free, and other such things. I liked her spunk, and the fact that she would be able to take one more thing off my plate.

DH said it would be a very attactive option since on those days that I am sick or dont want to eat, or dont feel well enough to cook he is tempted to just eat badly or sits down to double portions or is tempted to ring up a pizza.

As it is now, I spent way too much on food that goes to waste. I grab at least 2 or 3 weeks worth of food at the store, because I simply never know if I will feel well enough to come back next week. Then I open the fridge to find things have spoiled, gone past their date, or if I get convenience stuff its full of salt, MSG, HFCS or other such things I work hard to avoid. After careful figures, it would cost me less money on food to use her, and portion control is handled.

Am I really lazy? Have I gone too far? Am I being really self indulgant? is this crazy? Part of me feels like this is a way of giving into this disease, but another part of me feels like this is a way to save spoons for other things. What say you?

Dej, what I did all the years I worked and had a big family to feed was to shop with DH if possible, and on the weekends or while watching TV in the Kitchen at night, just sit and prepare lots of large portion meals for the 6 of us.

Then shove it all in the oven, two at a time. DH would take it out of the oven because I toss things. Lol

I never fried food. I made everything in the oven, even meatballs.

I cut all of it up into smaller portions for individuals, labeled and froze it all. I made bread, deserts, cookies, cakes, casseroles, stews, soups, fish, meats, you name it. With the food in the house it was easy to toss together and make meals for at least a week.

If someone came home on a different shift, or school time, they just nuked it or used the toaster oven, or even the regular oven when old enough.

It worked great for me. We could pull out tray of lasagna and eat together too. No waste, and cheaper than store bought. I still do this.

Buy it all, cook it all, freeze and eat it all. Great if company dropped by too.

For the two of you it would be easy. Would that work for you?

Truth? Personal chef does sound indulgent, unless you are not able to cook like this. Then you need some help.

well...since I know you Dej, I know how you shop, I know how well you cook, how you enjoy cooking, how well you plan out meals, what a great organizer you are... that you post this question says you have to feel absolutely craptacular! otherwise you would have already done what Lady suggested.

I say go for it, give the cook a try. sounds like you have already wasted a lot of money thinking maybe in a day or 2 you would feel like cooking, etc. and that aint happening so far. Give her a try and see how it goes, remove the stress of worrying about a decent meal from your plate :hug:

At my house, we'll often cook double what we need for dinner, dish up the extra meals and freeze them on plates ready to go.

Every now and then on a good day I'll have a cooking day. I might bake a pie, cook a couple of casseroles, including one in the slow cooker, maybe make a pizza, and I'll make some pasta sauces for freezing. We always have enough in the freezer for around a week, and I assure you they get used.

Pay some-one to do it for you if you think it would help.

I say: "Quit flirting and give it a try!" :)

Dej

My first selfish, jealous thought was ME, I need a chef. I can't cook at all anymore, used to love it, now can rarely make others do it the way I think it should be done at my instructions. The good news is DH loves to cook,does it all. The bad news is he's not a great shopper, is wasteful, expensive, and fattening (I think)(and not into cleaning his mess well) We're having Shrimp Scampi tonight, shrimp and tons of butter! If I bought something, knew some would be left-over, planned a second meal to use it. DH sticks it in the frig, forgets it, throws it out later when it "dies."
MS is expensive. I used to clean my house. Now I can't and must hire someone. Food out is way too expensive. I think a cooking person would be great and kinda a better choice - cost and calorie-wise. Let us know how it goes.

I think (and hope) you'll find this better.

Vi is correct. I am a great cook, and my meals are fabulous, but I am so exhausted, sick, and struggling lately that many things have slipped. Cooking is only one. I dont know what happened to my husband, but it seems on days I dont feel good even tho the house is full of great choices, he cant seem to figure it out. I guess I could go back to prepping my own freezer meals. I guess I could have a talk with DH or I guess I could sit down and figure it out for myself how to nab one day a week for meal prep, and freezer runs. I used to do that all the time, but lately I feel very bad, very tired, and my stomach is so nauseous that just the smell of food prep is making me go green.

Spoke to DH who said he would love to give it a try for a spell or two, but then said "what if she cant cook as well as you do?" OMG! its not about yum factor when I am sick, its about being able to feed HIM! I admit his response brought out some anger in me that he wasnt jumping up saying "but honey! If you cant, I will! dont worry about it" but no, his response was to worry about the ability to match my cooking!

Im going to chew on this for a few days. its not the money, altho it would hurt me financially. I can eat cereal on days I am sick and be happy. or scramble an egg, but DH has that small child face that says "what about me?" Maybe I should stop worrying about others and just take care of me.

I can understand the anger in response Dej, I'd have been angry as well if my DH made the same remark. I believe his comment though to be 100% in good intentions - he loves you and loves YOUR cooking! That's a huge compliment for you from DH. :)

With that said, he's still entertaining the idea of the cook, which I think personally is a fabulous idea and I'd go with it and try!

One last small, but very important thing: :hug: (((((((((((((Dej))))))))))))) I hope your energy level improves in days to come.

I kinda snapped. Spoke to DH about the need to hire on help to keep meals rotating in this home if I am down, and he is unwilling or unable to get up and figure it out. its like since my dx his own anxiety has skyrocketed and he simply cannot figure out simple things when pushed in a corner. I have always been the "go to" girl, and super organized and prepared. I am the girl you want to look for in a crisis, but now that I myself am in crisis, I guess I expected that he would pick up the torch and carry it for me till I felt better. esp since HE is the one eating those meals! I am not eating much more than broth/jello/pudding at this minute. my tummy is simply broken.

His last statement was that he didnt want some strange woman in our home cooking meals that he may not even like. Thats alot of money to spend for crappy food. I then pointed out that he will eat at the nasty bluebird cafe here in town, but wont trust a woman who does this for a living? anyway, I got upset and dug out the freezer. I have thrown out A LOT of food. stuff that is way past its date, and he got on an impulse buy in the market saying "this would be good!" well, it never got cooked, and we both forgot it. He stacks new meat on top of old meat, so we have been eating the new meat first, instead of rotating stock.

I have declared that this week is strictly a clean out the fridge and feezer kind of week. We shall eat nothing unless it comes out of that freezer. I am dragging out those "it would taste so good" things that were long lost and fixing them. I am clearing out an entire shelf that is going to be devoted to pre prepped foods in a container that is safe to microwave or use in a toaster oven. I will start making meals for 4 instead of 2 and freezing left overs. This way on days that I am down and cant/wont cook he can simply stick his big paw in there, and drag out something quick.

Why is it as women we feel the need to care take even thru our own illness? Can I tell you that my DH used to be an italian chef in his sisters restaurant? Can I tell you that he can cook circles around some of these TV stars? Can I tell you that he is creative and inventive, but give him a sick wife, and he becomes incapacitated! So...looks like I will have to fix this myself. I guess it will do me good to get out of bed. yes?

Awwww, nuts, Dej. Why can't husbands make life simpler instead of more complicated? *sigh*