So exhausted from all this cooking.

amother

Wine

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 9:24 pm

Totally feeling the yontiff burnout and food overload. I was also just thinking how nice it would be if someone else shopped, cooked, set up, decorated, served and cleaned up so I would have a lovely, relaxing yontiff. Sort of like the magic Sukkos fairies. It must be so nice just showing up and having someone do that for you (ahem like a guy). Makes me very appreciative of my mother (z"l) and MIL for the years that they hosted. But I am grateful to HKBH for having a kitchen, a fridge with food, a Sukkah to serve in, and a family to serve.

ysydmom

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 9:35 pm

Deli sandwiches and a quick fresh salad! that being said I am making one massive pot of soup we will have fish and soup for night meals and for day meals I am making some shnitzel, a deli roll and a pastrami and some fresh challah and that's it. If we need anything else I'll cook on yom tov. Nice and simple.

amother

Arcticblue

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 9:38 pm

amother Wine wrote:

I'm grateful that my husband and kids are super helpful taking a bit of the burden off me. Yeah I do most of the cooking but my boys (don't have big girls) decorate and set the table majestically. Everyone helps clean up while I get to sit with my feet up and relax.
I cook a lot in advance so on yomtov I'm mostly just removing pans from the freezer.
Even so, with all my help and advance cooking I'm pretty mealed out by now. Can't think of another meal.

amother

NeonPurple

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 9:54 pm

It’s exhausting! Maybe buy lots of fresh fruits and veggies. So many fun salads . Taking stuff out of the freezer lends itself to the same old meat and soups. Try fresh salads, interesting soups, roasted veggies . No one really needs so much meat and chicken at this point .

amother

Stone

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 10:14 pm

amother OP wrote:

I have no koach to cook anymore. Who else feels like me. How are you getting on with your cooking for second days when u have zero strength.

Get some takeout.

amother

Stone

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 10:17 pm

Not_in_my_town wrote:

Feel free to change your menu, you don't HAVE to serve those things.

And honestly, I'm sick of yom tov, in general. I hate chol hamoed. It's like 4 sundays in a row...

It's an endless cycle of cooking, serving, cleaning, and kvetching. But I don't have to love it. I do it for Hashem because He loves it. That's okay. I'm human with human failings.

Um, you are supposed to like it. V’samachta b’chagecha…

amother

Mintgreen

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 10:23 pm

The cooking cleaning and having kids underfoot is a lot!
And trying to be calm…
BH I did most of the cooking before yt but I have some sides etc that I am doing fresh. But the hardest part is keeping young kids entertained while cleaning or while making sure the house stays clean… and entertaining them on yt when a lot of their friends are away or playing with their cousins (we don’t have cousins local)…

Not_in_my_town

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 10:46 pm

amother Stone wrote:

Um, you are supposed to like it. V’samachta b’chagecha…

What one OUGHT to do and what one does are often different.

There is idealistic and there is reality.

I live in this world. Not oiven in himmel.

Not everyone finds cooking and cleaning fun. Not everyone find cranky kids who off schedule a pleasure. Not everyone enjoys to sit around talking about how much they paid for their children's yom tov clothing... Some of us enjoy other things, such as going to shul and learning, feeling inspired... and yet our life situation doesn't lend itself to that in heavy doses during yom tov. So it can be a let down.

Leave room for being human. Hashem does. He tells us the goal and hopes we'll get there one day.

CPenzias

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 10:51 pm

I went to the kosher grocery store on Wed for meat and looked at the expressions on the women's faces and felt so much better. No one is alone. We're all in it together.
I'm davening for moshiach. I think back then they ate together, no one cooked like this, they ate delicious meat (karbanot), they all davened in the same shul (bh"mk). Yes please. I would love that.

dankbar

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 11:04 pm

Peanut mama,

I made fish in different ways,
Once regular gefilte, once salmon cubes over salad with green apples and pom, once Flaky cup filled with spinach topped with salmon roses, once baked salmon with crunchy onions. Rosh hashana baked salmon with honey and pom.
Morning seudos no fish only different appetizer.

Shabbos chicken soup, or when serving kreplach I do the chicken soup.
Yt night different Soups, I did cream of chicken, veg split pea, veg flanken.
Yt day seudos no soup.

You can do different kugels
Lukshen, apple, any veg,

You can do different side dishes on Yom tov too.
Doesn't have to be kugel.
I did at night Challah kugel, lukshen with honey, lukshen with pudding, Broccoli kugel, cauliflower kugel, zucchini Mushroom kugel.

By day no kugel.
Sides I did cabbage noodles, Pasta with crumbs, frozen bag shlishkes, potato knishes ( you can also buy frozen) Orzo with pastrami n mushrooms.

You can buy frozen mini Frank's & blanks or egg rolls and finish.

You can buy a container of ice cream for dessert instead of compote

Last edited by dankbar on Sun, Oct 16 2022, 1:04 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Periwinkle

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 11:27 pm

I'm not necessarily exhausted from cooking, it's just very monotonous and get's kinda boring. I serve trinational food only on shabbos and every yom tov meal is different type of food (not fancy just different) and still I'm just bored of challah and dips and serving and table setting.
find me someone who isnt!

amother

Trillium

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 11:28 pm

amother NeonPurple wrote:

Can I please have some salad recipes?

amother

Diamond

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 11:32 pm

amother Quince wrote:

Not drained at all BH because im literally on vacation at home-I cooked every single thing ahead of time, besides fish.
I work full time (40+hours weekly) and yomtov is my very very very needed vacation. So every year I start cooking 3 weeks before Rosh Hashana and freezing, and my family and friends all tell me im crazy and im working so hard for nothing and why dont I just cook on yomtov....and then every year all I do over yomtov is wake up, pop food on blech and in oven, Daven, eat, read, eat more, read more etc and it is pure bliss.
It was very crazy and hectic the month before, but definitely worth it for me

Do you have a schedule or menu of what foods you cook & bake?

amother

Amaranthus

Sat, Oct 15 2022, 11:56 pm

Not_in_my_town wrote:

True.
But there is the goal, which is vesamachta bechagecha.
You did say you don't have to like it, which is what she was quoting when she said, yes, actually, you are supposed to be happy.

amother

Cyclamen

Sun, Oct 16 2022, 12:01 am

amother Quince wrote:

Huge difference. Im cooking when life is already busy, so it just gets busier.
Cooking on yomtov, when you could be off from all of life's other pressures like jobs, school etc is different. To me, I would feel so much more resentful if I was cooking when guests/kids/others were having time off

By cooking earlier, I set it up that I actually have pure vacation right now, whereas if I had not cooked weeks before, I would not have been on vacation then, or now.

How is it pure vacation if we have to prep, serve and clean-up round the clock? Even if you take cooking out of the equation, there's still loads of work for the home, for the kids, and for serving.

So again, you're taking the cooking out of the equation now and just moving it to a few weeks before. Either way these weeks leading from end of summer thru YT are way overwhelming for most of us.

I just with there was ways to really change things up - to stop all this overload. Moving it out doesn't solve much, it just moves the work around. It doesn't lend to easier times.

naturalmom5

Sun, Oct 16 2022, 12:34 am

DVOM wrote:

I sooooo feel you!

We are going away for the second days to family and I'm so greatful. If we were home, it would scrambled eggs and noodles. I don't have any strength, interest, desire left in me to cook!

MY husband does all the cooking
Thats his simchas yom tov