Why can't it be easy???! (a vent)

Saturday night, we're all lazy, not in the mood to cook, i've only just acquired my appetite back after gastro all week...

totally uninspired and after a visit to EB decide on chicken satay wraps for dinner. sounds easy peasy.

head to our local shops (the shops where around 2 years ago one woman stabbed another woman to death in front of the chicken shop. did it in front of their young children and about 60 other witnesses, yet has been out on bail since. i don't go there after dark anymore...) and start filling a basket. well, after i dodge way too many rude and ignorant people to get in.

not sure what we have at home so in goes 3 tomatoes, 3 bananas (not for dinner, just because when G shopped last week i didn't write 'fruit' on the shopping list so he didn't buy a single piece), 1 avocado, 1 bag of mixed lettuce (because this was an easy dinner, remember?). pretty sure we have cucumbers at home. buy chicken breast - lucky to get the free range for the same price as the regular stuff marked down - $9.20 for 600g. find both regular and gluten free wraps (the regular wraps are even preservative free, yay!! the GF wraps are $5 for 4 though)

ryan won't eat chicken so also buy some lamb steaks - $9+ for 300g, but still half the price of the lamb fillets. grab some sour cream, then head off to find some satay sauce or marinade.

half an hour and help from an employee later, I cannot find a single jar of satay anything, OR anythin similar, that is gluten free. not a jar, not a bottle, not a packet, nothing.

by this point i am seriously feeling like having a big tanty and throwing my basket to the floor and storming home to sulk!!

anyway, i pull up my big girl panties and join the huge queue to pay, noting on the way the extortionate prices of the fruit ($5 for a mango, in mango season? even with the floods i know for a fact taht prices have not gone up yet, straight from another F&V supplier). get to the counter and pay and nearly die - $40 freaking dollars for ONE bag full of groceries, for one meal!!!!!!!!!!!

get home 35 minutes later, still having to prep and cook everything and yell at G that if i'd only stayed home and called our fave pizza and pasta place it would have cost the same and been ready sooner, and been a lot less freaking stressful !!!!!!!!!!!!! aaagh!!!!!!!!!!!!

and then, to top it off, all ryan would eat was the tomato and lettuce, and that was only after a good 15 minutes of whinging. i suppose i shoudl be grateful that the girls didn't complain, even if neither of them ate anything but meat, cheese and sour cream (and rora may have had a bite or two of her bloody expensive wrap...)

i am SO over cooking for my family. *sigh*

EDITED TO ADD that i cannot even believe that i didn't include why it's so bloody hard to find things to cook - not only the whole gluten free thing, but ryan is developing many "food avoidances" (typical ASD thing), rora is also becoming fussier with what she will eat. add into that the things that G will not eat and me trying to avoid dairy and it's nearly freaking impossible to feed everyone one meal. i'm totally over mince and sausages. in fact i'm over chicken too (which is really only meat g likes but r hates). i'm over spag bol, over tacos. we cna't even eat risotto anymore as rora & emelia won't eat pumpkin and r is going off rice. aaaghhh