I believe, or so I’ve heard, that there are working parents out there who’ve got it licked. There are working parents whose houses are tidy, their handbags are organised, their larders are well stocked and their lives in general are in order. I’m not saying I’ve ever met one of these people but they must be out there.
So last week I went to make our main meal for the week (to clarify I make a large bowl of something and we take it to work and heat it up) and discovered puy lentils, spinach, parmesan, courgettes and mint. I had no idea what I was going to make with them. I order the shopping on a Tuesday, it gets delivered on Thursday and I make our meal on the following Sunday or Monday evenings. A lot of time elapses between me deciding what we’ll eat and actually making it. Sometimes I mark the recipe in the book but I hadn’t done it this time. I gave up searching through the books and made some vegetable stew.*
Then at the weekend I had spent Saturday getting a few bits of shopping done, a lot of housework and just wanted to relax and watch the rugby. I made the dinner, opened the freezer, pulled out the top tray to get some dill, and couldn’t get the tray back or the door shut. It ices up a lot, this freezer and to make matters worse we’d switched it off by mistake the week before for a day or so. (The above working parents don’t do things like that.) Cross, tired, pre-menstrual (it’s not an excuse, I really was) and just wanting to sit with a cup of tea I did what all normal people do and hacked at the ice with a kitchen knife. (Don’t judge me, you’ve done this too – don’t deny it.)
I may have punctured something. We awoke on Sunday morning to an urgent beeping from the freezer and an odd smell of gases.
The moral of this story is:
Be completely different to me. Be organised. Embrace order. Be like one of the parents above.
This is now our kitchen. What’s that? you say. A new freezer? Well yes. One that has drawers that aren’t stuck together with duct tape because they got stuck in all the ice. And on the front – that’s a magnetic meal planner and shopping list. I’m trying, you see.
Who knows how long it will last – I give it 6 weeks.**
*I eventually found the recipe – lentil, courgette and ricotta balls from Anna Jones A Modern Way to Eat
** How often are you supposed to defrost a freezer?
You can lead a body to motherhood... 