My husband has never been one to give me a hard time for not cooking dinner on a regular basis. However, we do have a running joke that the only thing I cook is popcorn.
I often ask myself why I don't cook dinner every night. I want to eat healthy. I am plenty proficient at following a recipe and delivering a yummy meal. Most often, the reason is because I didn't plan ahead and don't have the right ingredients on hand.
A week ago Saturday, I made a concerted effort to create a menu of 5 meals we would enjoy eating this week. These consisted of Chicken Fajita Soup, Veggie Lasagna, Black Bean Soup and roasted veggies, Taco Salad and Chicken Pot Pie from scratch. I even cooked up several pounds of chicken on Sunday, since three of these meals require pre-cooked, diced chicken. I was ready to go!
I can't remember exactly what was happening each night of last week, but I think we finally got around to making veggie lasagna on Thursday. It was a hit. Friday night we camped, Saturday night we ate out at Maria's, Sunday I think I was comatose with my cold and may have had a peanut butter banana sandwich.
TODAY I worked from home, due to my unfortunate and contagious cold. I always have 2 hours of conference calls on Monday, so I decided to multi-task! I hit the mute button on my phone and chopped up some vegetables to roast. I sauteed onion, garlic and pulled together the black bean soup I'd been planning. Hubby was sleeping during this time, as I'd banned television during my conference calls. The soup was on when dear hubby awoke from his slumber, to say, "You know, I had that slice of pizza for lunch and I think I'm good."
Now, he doesn't do this on purpose. It's not that he doesn't like what I cook. But, I asked him, "How is it that on the rare occasion I take the time and effort to cook dinner, you're not interested??" I explained that I realize he doesn't intend to do this, but at some level it affects me and I am even less motivated to make the effort the next time. He explained that he'd been very careful in the last week about what he'd eaten (notwhithstanding the pizza I talked him into picking up for lunch today), and had lost 10 lbs. (BTW, how do men lose 10 lbs a week?) I assured him that the black bean soup I'd just made was ALL vegetables with a tiny bit of chicken--totally healthy. And what could be more healthy than roasted veggies? He said that maybe he'd have some soup when he gets back from getting his hair cut.
As I was typing the last paragraph of this post, he returned home and piled some roasted vegetables on a plate. But, my question still stands. Why, oh, why is he never in the mood to eat when I'm in the mood to cook? Any ideas from my fellow homemakers?
