When You Don’t Cook

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I thought this was a good topic to tackle, considering this is a day dedicated to feasting.

Until I became a mom, I never realized how much cooking is involved in motherhood. Not only am I expected to cook 3 meals a day for my child, I’m expected to cook dinner for the whole family, host events for relatives, and bring potluck dishes to events too numerous to mention.

Here’s the problem. I don’t cook. I have tried to cook. I don’t like it, and I’m not good at it. I might have learned to be proficient if I liked it, but the bottom line is that I don’t like it. I would rather do just about anything besides cook. And when I say “cook,” I mean anything to do with preparing food for eating–cutting, slicing, baking, roasting, even microwaving. I sort of resent that I’m the one expected to prepare dinner just because I work at home. It also annoys me that I’m the one contacted to bring side dishes to holiday events. My husband is a better cook and has way more time to cook than I do. Why isn’t he asked?

But besides the sexism that goes along with cooking (not gourmet cooking–that’s a man’s world; daily cooking is woman’s work), there’s the embarrassment. When friends mention what they’re making for dinner or their favorite recipes, I have nothing to add. When someone asks what I cooked for dinner, it’s usually a microwave meal for me and my husband and a baked potato or soup for my daughter. The other night I did make the whole family lasagna. It was Amy’s frozen lasagna, and I paired it with a bag salad, and rolls that came in a tube. To me, that was cooking.

Recently, my daughter’s teacher sent out a call for volunteers with great recipes to bring either mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese to the Pre-K Thanksgiving feast. I had signed up for a pie and brownies because I can buy those easily. I did not volunteer to do more because I can’t deal with the stress of cooking mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese for 20 before school. Besides I don’t have any recipes. My mac and cheese is from Kraft, and I’ve only ever made mashed potatoes from flakes. Sad, I know. Just tell me to bring paper plates or something. Please!

All of this is not to say that we don’t eat healthy food at my house. We have tons of fruit. I buy it pre-cut and ready to be put in bowls so it’s always ready to serve. Same with vegetables. I also do a lot of SteamFresh vegetables.

Am I alone in this? Anyone else hate cooking?