Diary of a Middle-aged Woman

02/08/07 - What's for Dinner?

"What are we having for dinner?" Do you know how many times I hear that question? Too often! The thing that really irks me is that on a weekly basis I prepare a menu that plainly lists what we are having, and I post this on the refrigerator door. How hard is it to look at the door and see what we are having on any given night?

As I sit down to prepare the menu for the coming week, I ask my husband and daughter for dinner ideas. They either have no ideas at all, or all of their ideas involve fastfood, junkfood, or Italian food. They just can't seem to get with the program.

Fastfood is something we don't eat on a regular basis, but they keep trying to sneak it past me. They seem to think that I will miraculously forget that point, or if they ask often enough I will give in. First of all, when you see a commercial for a burger at a fastfood restaurant the food looks delicious! It looks like it's piled high with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and cheese. But, when you actually hold one in your hand it looks like someone sat on it! They are always 'smooshed' down and the bun never lines-up correctly - part of the patty is hanging over the bun. I hate that! And how many beef patties do you need in one burger? Have you seen some of the commercials for these restaurants? They show three or four beef patties in one sandwich! One more thing, should these places really be called "restaurants"? How about outlets? It makes more sense seeing as how this food, when compared to a good home cooked meal, looks like dogfood. However, if you grew up eating anything similar to my mother's cooking I could see how you would think this is the best food ever.

Junkfood I've come to realize is something they will never fully give-up. I buy them the 'portion-size' bags of chips and pretzels, for their lunches. That is the extent of my junkfood budget. Do they complain that there's nothing (a.k.a. junkfood) to eat? Yes. Do I care? No.

Italian food is another one of their favorites, and I can't blame them. When I was pregnant, all I wanted was Italian food. I craved it on a daily basis which didn't make sense since I had killer heartburn on a daily basis too. But that didn't stop me from eating it. It was to the point where we were eating Italian food five times a week. My husband, the Italian, finally asked me, "can we ease up on the Italian food?" So, I have nothing against Italian food - but in "moderation". My husband and daughter are not familiar with this word. They pile the spaghetti and meatballs, hot Italian sausage, and mountains of parmesan cheese on their plates. I had to limit the number of times we eat it for this reason. They can't control themselves.

So, now I'm sitting here with only two days of my menu filled in. I'm racking my brain for more dinner ideas. You know, to make this easy on myself, I'm just going to copy a prior week's menu. They won't know the difference and they'll complain no matter what. Besides, they don't even look at the menu!

Have a Great Day! The weekend is almost here!