Home Cooked Meals and Candlelit Dinners

Don't you hate it when you plan a meal, purchase all the ingredients and get ready to make it, only to have something come up at the last minute? Then you can't cook and all your food to spoils before you have a chance to use it.

It seems to happen to Mike and I all the time. I’ll plan the week’s menu on Sunday, go grocery shopping on Monday, and by Saturday I’ve only used up half the ingredients I purchased for the week.

The thing is, I always have every intention of coming home from work and fixing a nice meal for Mike and I. Usually I've taken off my shoes, put away my coat and  even donned an apron (highly necessary when I cook - for me and anyone else who happens to be within a 20 foot radius of the kitchen). As soon as I take out the first ingredient, I’ll get an unexpected phone call from a friend asking me to hang out, or Mike will call saying we’re going to dinner with some friends, or an episode of Modern Family comes on and I have to watch it, or Mike and I suddenly need to run some errands so we eat in the car – and I end up not making dinner and our food spoils.

When we were first married, I had visions of making a home cooked meal every night that was filling, healthy and used seasonal ingredients. Mike and I would eat by candlelight and we would wash dishes together after dinner, laughing and flirting late into the night.

Via

Yeah, right. Like that ever happened.

For some reason I thought it would be achievable. It wasn't like I was going to ground my own flour or something. 

At first, I felt terrible. I wished that I hadn’t wasted our money or the food, and that I had gotten a nice healthy meal on the table, serving my husband in the process and being a “good wife.” But the truth is, the most important thing is that Mike and I spend time together, no matter if that’s eating on the run, over at a friend’s house or heck, eating a frozen pizza at 10 p.m. Those memories are worth it. I love the spontaneity of our lives and am enjoying the fact that we can drop everything in a moment. I know these years will be short lived and once kiddos come into our lives, we won’t have the same kind of freedom we do now.

Besides, who defines what a “good wife” is, or her duties? I’m learning that as long as my husband is happy with how I do things, I shouldn’t punish myself because I didn’t to live up to the nonexistent “wifely standard.”

So for now, I’m working on planning fewer meals (I’m aiming for one to two a week), being more creative with leftovers and spicing up Suddenly Salads,* and enjoying the impromptu evening plans.

Besides, if we really did sit down to a fancy-schmancy candlelit meal every evening and washed dishes late into the night - I don’t think Mike and I would be laughing and flirting – we’d probably set the house on fire and be arguing about who washes dishes the best and whether or not to let them air dry or towel dry. (Yes, it is a MAJOR point of discussion between us.)

*If you haven’t heard of Suddenly Salad, allow me to introduce you to it. I lived on this stuff in college and it is the easiest, most tasty “instant meal” you can find. Add a bit of chicken and fresh vegetables and you have a rockin’ pasta dinner.