Burger, fries, and a Coke

Before married life, deciding on what to eat was a fairly simple and straightforward activity. There was virtually no need to plan on what to cook for dinner, since dinner often meant eating whatever was left over from yesterday, or just ordering a personal pan pizza. On many lazy winter days, dinner was just a plain grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup. But, since leaving singlehood and becoming a wife, dinner has transformed into worrying about what to feed two people without cooking the same damn thing over and over again. Cooking for one was easy – small portions! For two, it becomes a bit tricky because most food items at the supermarket are packaged for families not two people. When buying a 2 lb. Container of ground beef for spaghetti, you can only cook so much of it with spaghetti or hamburgers that I end up without an appetite by the time it’s time to eat. Moreover, when one comes home from work, cooking is the last thing on your mind, but nowadays, it is the first thing I think about when kicking off my shoes. Shortly after arriving home, the words: “what’s for dinner?”, inevitably comes up. On PMS days, it’s even worse. I’m left wondering whether to just call out for Chinese food, or brave the kitchen and cook up something that will keep us from starving. I’m still quite amazed at how my mom managed to cook for a family of five everyday considering that she had to wake up for work at around 5:30am. Every time I think about her, I find myself thinking how the hell am I going to do that when we start to have kids of our own. On certain occasions, a flash of inspiration comes by probably from watching Rachel Ray on the Foodtv Channel, and I cook up something that my husband actually LIKES. Comments like “everything tastes the same” become nonexistent and a simple doze of praise makes me want to cook up something special the next time unless of course, I'm too damn tired to cook and clean up after dinner!