It is 4:30PM, the nightly drudgery approaches quickly..... what to make for dinner tonight? Tonight, 2 of the 4 members of my household are not here for dinner so it will be a slightly easier choice to make. My usual dinner choice flow chart looks something like this....what did we have last night? I don't want to repeat that....we can't have anything with gluten in it, it has to be healthy, tasty, something the kids will eat, not too fattening, if son #1 is home, no cheese, no dairy, oh and how many carbs is that meal going to be? (son #2 has diabetes & needs to know). This leaves me with a much smaller circle of options!
When I was growing up, I remember my Mom complaining not about cooking dinner for the 5 of us every night but about having to decide what to make every night. Back then, I never understood why that was such an issue for her. I would have thought the actual cooking would have been the real problem. She cooked once for the 3 kids and then again, when she and my Dad ate, much later. He took the train to and from New York City every night and was not home until 7:15 or later. So she cooked dinner twice every night but hated only the choosing what to make, not the act of cooking.
I now understand that emotion! Maybe this is an inherited hangup! We want to make wholesome, healthy, tasty meals that the family will eat and enjoy every night. In my family we have several dietary restrictions due to health issues. We all get stuck in a rut making the same few things over and over again. When I strike gold -try a new recipe that everyone likes- I then usually make it too much and as a result, everyone gets sick of it! Lately, I have been subscribing to a couple of cooking magazines...one that is all about simple meals, quick prep time, the other is about cooking lighter-fewer calories, healthier options. I have gotten some good ideas and have even tried some of the recipes. There have been some positives, and some neutrals. There have been no thumbs down, so that is encouraging. Maybe the family had grown as sick of my usual recipes as I was of making them!
So, for tonight, the choice is easy and obvious. The 2 family members who hate Mexican food, one who can't eat dairy ,will not be dining here. That leaves the 2 of us who like Mexican food, can eat cheese, need to count carbs and need to eat gluten free. Tacos it is. But healthier...ground turkey, light cheese, lots of veggies instead of just lettuce and tomatoes, light sour cream, healthy avocado.
Soon enough it will be tomorrow night and I will be back to that frame of mind. What now? Hopefully if I plan it right, there will be leftovers from tonight to solve tomorrow night.
The big picture here is that my family eats together most nights of the week. That is a big plus for us. I know a lot of families don't do that. We are able to keep involved with each other and air our issues before too much time goes by. So even though I struggle to keep it interesting and tasty the fact is that what we are eating doesn't matter that much. In the long run, they are not going to remember 99.9% of the meals I have cooked for them but they will remember that we took the time to eat together and stay connected.
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