Grilled Cheese and Berries and Why the Hunger Games is like Being a Mom

My husband is constantly giving me a hard time for eating random things that we have in our pantry.  I’m not really the type of person that can dig up any other group of ingredients and then suddenly I am writing a cookbook.  Instead, I’m constantly putting together “meals” (using the word “meals” very loosely) that kind of go together, if I’m lucky.  Mostly, though, they just sort of suffice and I’m able to choke it down.

Here’s a sample of my weekly eating schedule:

Black Beans straight from the can.

Day-old rice.  Cold.

Cold chicken breast dipped in cold mashed potatoes.

You get the picture.  

And this, was one of those meals.  Grilled cheese and berries.  Fresh, seasonal berries from the Farmers Market with sharp Cheddar Cheese on Squaw bread.  And actually, it was pretty delicious.  See the thing is, is that I just don’t have time to make something.  I’m always running around like a crazy person and then suddenly I’m famished to the point that I don’t have enough patience to actually make something good.  So, I have meals like this.

I haven’t really thought this was an issue until recently.  I’ve started reading the trilogy the Hunger Games, and as I’m reading it, I realize that the two main characters at the beginning of the book are eating a berry and goat cheese sandwich.  Awesome right?  Wrong.  These people ARE STARVING.  As in, they literally have no food, live in a town where people die of hunger daily, and this is all they could drum up.

I read on.

I begin to make a list of things in this story that stand out about the way these people live their lives.  Is it just me, or do these seem a bit familiar?

1.)  They eat anything they can find, most of the time it doesn’t go together and sometimes it’s stale.  It’s ALWAYS COLD.

2.) They don’t shower often.

3.) They must walk REALLY QUIETLY otherwise they are afraid that they will wake a sleeping beast.

4.) They make friends with a mocking jay, a bird that sings the same song over and over again…and again…and again…

5.) They look totally different with make up, and it’s a once in a lifetime occurrence.

6.) If a sleeping animal is near by, they sit in the same position for hours, waiting for the animal to wake up.

7.) They are disturbed in their sleep by loud noises.

8.) Getting up before dawn is a normal occurrence.

9.) They name their children after food. (Chocolate chip cookie anyone?)

10.) When they do get a hot meal, they stuff their face because they have no idea when their next one will be.

Moms, can I get an “AMEN??”