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Another MIL rant…
We didn’t want her to cook, as has been well documented. A big part of the reason we used to convince her not to is legit - we’ve both been losing weight and her cooking is about as far from healthy as it gets. Oh, it’s tasty… but it’s like 8 zillion points and a million fat grams.
So she decided she’ll just cook sauce. We’ve been building up to talking her into bringing it here frozen. Well, she ordered the chop meat online… and she’s having it sent here the week before they get here. And what else does she order??? Hot dogs, bratwurst, t-bones, pork chops and chicken. Out of all of that we can only really eat the chicken.
Now this would be annoying under any circumstances. You don’t send that much food to someone’s house without clearing it. Our freezer is tiny. I’m not sure we’d be able to fit all that stuff and still have our normal amount of food in there! Not to mention, they’re only eating here one night, so most of that’s for us. The problem is, she knows better…
You see, we went through this last summer. She sent us the hot dogs, some clam chowder and other crap. We were trying to diet then, too. We ended up bringing all back to them. We explained that we just can’t eat that stuff. One of those hot dogs (which are amazing, of course) has over 20 grams of fat!!!
If she’d just asked us, we could’ve told her to order top sirloins and triple trimmed filet mignon. If she’d just asked us we could’ve explained that our freezer’s really small and we won’t have room for all that food.
When my husband explained the diet aspect, she just said they’d eat some of it when they are here. Great, so he can slave away over the grill making bratwurst, steaks and hot dogs we have to watch them eat??? Yeah, that’s fair.
My husband is pissed… and I don’t blame him. I don’t know why she’s such a saboteur, but she is. She’s also sending dark chocolate covered pretzels. Now I happened to know that those won’t be so bad for us to eat, but she doesn’t. I happen to know dark chocolate is low in points (relatively speaking) but she doesn’t. She’s sending a pound. So I told my husband we could freeze those… but of course, there won’t be room for anything else in our freezer!
He’s planning to tell her that if she doesn’t cancel or amend the order, he’s throwing the stuff away. I’m hoping that in the process it’s made clear that even her sauce is not something we can eat. If she does make it, I’ve already decided I’m not eating it. It’s the principle of the matter… it’s our home. We have the right to decide how we want to eat in our home.
I’ve had a rough few days of just getting by, and I’ve been really working to keep my focus. The last thing I need is an invasion of high point, tempting foods. It’s especially hard for me when it’s real food. Desserts are easier… I can eat just a tiny bit, but with real food you need x amount to be full.
I’m not even angry for me. I’m angry for my husband. I don’t know why she wants to cause more friction between them… and it complicates things for him and his father whenever she does… and granted, I don’t like to see him upset by her, so yeah, it pisses me off for that reason, too. It’s like she’s spoiling for a fight… I just don’t understand her. I’d say she means well - but she can’t possibly when she is well aware we’re dieting AND we’ve gone through this with some of the exact same foods in the past year!!! She’s not a dumb woman… which leaves one conclusion.
Apparently, my FIL, after talking to my husband, sensed a rather major fight on the way and intervened (though he denies it). By the time my MIL called back she had canceled the order. What a relief.
BTW, donating it wouldn’t have worked. There’s one place in our area that would take food donations, but only food that is easily stored and prepared, like cans or pasta. However, my husband’s not into charity and I’d rather give to help animals. In the case of perfectly fine food, I’d probably have tried to find someone to give it to… like if I were working, offering it to a co-worker or something like that. With frozen stuff, up here in the mountains, there’d be no place to donate it anyway. Fortunately, it isn’t coming to that - and hopefully, this means she’s giving up on the sauce, too.