Popcorn, Pizza, PB&J and other Survival Meals

What are your top choices for rough times?

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This past Friday, Cade (12) said to me, “I think you should start writing today because Monday’s coming soon.” And, he was right. But I didn’t listen and here we are at 7:07 on Monday night and I’m abandoning more draining essays to talk a little about survival mode and how life changes sometimes call for convenience foods. When my kids were super little I was an 80% organic no fast food kind of parent. Not because I thought I was better than anyone but mostly because I have a healthy distrust of our food systems and the things the people who run corporations will do to save money and harm humans they deem as disposable. I’ve always believed in trying to make an effort to eat well but what that means varies greatly from person to person and among situations and medical needs. Like Planet Fitness, this is a 0 judgment zone. 

Having said that, when I was diagnosed with MS we pretty quickly switched to a vegan plus fish diet, a complicated method of eating called OMS developed by a doctor who specialized in helping folks with MS make the disease relatively dormant. There are a few other methods people will suggest for MS including the Wahl’s Diet which is heavy on organ meats, a general gluten-free diet, and who knows what else. If you have a chronic illness, then you’ve gotten at least a handful of unsolicited suggestions of what you should or shouldn’t be eating and you know the list never ends. I stuck with Overcoming MS because it was the diet and accompanying lifestyle changes that made the most scientific and accessibility sense for me.

It’s confusing to tell people you eat vegan plus fish because that is actually not a thing. And to add to it there was supposed to be no added oils other than olive oil and and very few processed foods or baked goods. I kept up with this whole OMS lifestyle change which involved making my own tortilla chips and complicated from scratch recipes for a long while and you can still find its influences in my commitment to consistently raising my step count, my high vitamin D intake and other weirdly specific, not exactly food-related things I do. 

However, in 2020 when I was suddenly alone with two kids and in pandemic-induced social isolation and things like whatever pizza place was cheap and would deliver, microwave popcorn, and already made snacks became an absolute necessity. It’s kind of funny that my kids still don’t like dairy and the only form of it they’ll accept is in or on this very limited list of fast cheapest foods that are necessary for my mental health. I imagine one day someone will tell them it’s also not a thing to love cheese pizza but refuse cheese quesadillas or baked ziti or whatever other form of dairy they don’t think they like.

Counterbalancing the added convenience foods, I also became a master of not real soups. These are soups that do not start with chopping or sautéing and don’t end with measuring or method but are solely about quick, nutritious survival. A guaranteed way to get vegetables in and knock calls of “Mommmm, what’s for dinner” out. Last week, I threw frozen kale (this and frozen spinach are lifesavers I am never without, black beans, frozen mixed veggies, adobo, and a few supporting seasonings in a pot with broth and it was unexpectedly delicious. Wildly easy. So, today, as I’m deeper into this latest MS flare-up (eye pain, up and down fatigue and some brain frog but could be worse), admitting to ordering pizza twice within the last week, and heavily focused on getting into stable housing and away from where we are right now (more about that one day), I am wondering what are your survival foods? What are your go-tos for when your family demands to be fed (the nerve!) but your spoons have been all used up. How have you adjusted your expectations to fit your reality, maybe not in this current moment but perhaps some time in the past? 

Okay, well, now it’s 8:15 PM and after a fabulous dinner of popcorn and PB&J I’m ready to wind down for the night. See you next week, with a more essay essay, I hope. 

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