They say a change is as good as a holiday, well whoever "they" are, they were WRONG!!

I decided to try a new and very simple recipe for dinner tonight as I am somewhat sick of eating the same things over and over again, but on a budget and with food intolerances/allergy, this is not always as easy as it sounds. To make it harder, I have a child that cant cope with change, even simple little things changing can cause him (hmm trying to think of a single word that can describe it) issues.

The recipe called for chicken, basil, peanut oil, shallots, chinese cabbage, garlic, lime juice, sugar and fish sauce.

I bought wombuk. My kids stood in the shop and argued whether it was chinese cabbage or not, thankfully that argument ended in laughter when Boo argued that the label said it was a WomBAT not a cabbage!! (there is nothing wrong with her reading, its just that information goes in, gets muddled and comes out funny sometimes, generally causing Moo and myself to disolve into fits of giggles at innapropriate moments while Boo either giggles with us or stomps her foot and cries in frustration).

BUT heaven help me, silly me, I let Moo read the ingredient list, he argued most of it, and he wonders why his mother is losing her sanity!! It is at this point I wonder WHY I got the really smart kid that questions everything, yet doesnt understand if its not all black and white and exactly as its written. He is MINE and I wouldnt give him up or change him for anything in the world or beyond, but I do sometimes wonder WHY, and these wonderings are generally at moments like tonight, when trying to rationalise a shopping list to a prepubescent, precocious, PITA, Moo!

The bloody shop didnt have anything with a label that said shallots:(

Dont they know that if it doesnt have the right label then I am going to have to spend half an hour explaining why i am buying the wrong one that is the right one or can be used inplace of the right one, just so the child with the list will hopefully let me get back to the car before my head explodes!!

So after all of that I i bought spring onions and on the way to the car at least Moo said they look similar so he thought it would be ok if we used them instead (Thanking God for that revelation occurring so bloody quickly, at least next time I will be able to grab spring onions and not explain them). He then spent the trip home arguing the difference between shallots and chives with his sister, as Boo was trying to explain that she had seen the plant i wanted in flower in my garden (garlic chives, similar but not).

I bought the fish sauce from the thai place downtown just before Boo's dance lesson earlier in the afternoon. Well if that didnt cause me a headache and a half!! They were still arguing about it after the lesson and all the way into the grocery shop.

Did you know that if it has a picture on the front of the bottle that is a squid, then the stuff in the bottle MUST be made of liquid squid??

Dont worry that it MIGHT be a BRAND NAME rather than an INGREDIENT!!! Oh and have a child having very noisy verbal palpitations because now the meal is going to TASTE LIKE SQUID instead of chicken. How dare I subject him to such CHANGE during his favourite activity (eating apparently rates higher than computer games or tv). The other child thought it might be soy sauce with a bit of fish added. Funny enough neither of them actually asked me WHAT was in the bottle (anchovies and seasalt to be precise). I try not to look or notice the faces of the people trying to shop near and around us, its easier if I dont see the looks.

At least the basil in a tube (wasnt any fresh basil), garlic in a jar (dont ask me why, but my son likes eating it straight from the jar!) and lime juice in a bottle ( by this stage my head was hurting too much to work out how many limes i would need to make 1/4 cup of juice) were easily grabbed and the only argument was from Boo who wanted to know (and I quote) " Are you looking for something Mummy or are we just aimlessly wandering down the aisles??", gee i wonder where she heard that from??

The chicken wasnt contested for a change, probably because it didnt have skin or bones!! Neither was the bottle of milk i requested, but thats because i promised never to buy kids milk again, the added omega three made it taste something shocking!! However we did have the argument that carrying the milk through two aisles meant they had numb fingers, but for some reason ended up with 2 x 3ltr bottles, I think maybe my kids like milk??.

I did mean to buy a few other things, but by the time i got that much my head was pounding, my broken and sliced up toe was throbbing and my knee (really got to stop injuring the stupid thing) was aching from trying not to step on aforementioned toe, so with all the ingredients for the meal I wanted to make, I decided to get out of there while I was still slightly sane and capable of actually preparing and cooking it. Good thing said children desperately wanted to watch the spearman experiment (or whatever its called), because it got them to make their beds and clean their rooms while I destressed infront of the computer for a bit and then kept them occupied while i cooked, so they dont know that I didnt follow the recipe exactly, i modified it to suit myself amd didnt have to answer or explain that to anyone (yayy).

On the bright side they loved the meal, gave me glorious rave reviews (apparently my meals are being reviewed and marks are being recorded in a notebook somewhere) and then went to bed without too much argument (only a few whines from the male child). I think I shall make this meal again (well I had to buy a litre of fish sauce, was the smallest bottle I could find, got to use it on something lol).

I guess overall the change wasnt too bad, would be nice if it was just a little less blood pressure raisingly painful to get through, especially when it occurs on a regular basis and it normally takes the same thing over and over and over and over and over until we can do it without the conniptions and palpitations and stress headaches.