Monday, September 28, 2009

What should I make for dinner

So I don't know if any of you have days like these, but I have days where I literally cannot decide what to make for dinner. Usually these days occur when I don't really feel like eating dinner, and for some reason Everette is really wanting something. Plus you know I have a kid and he needs to eat too.
There are many days when I would be extraordinarily happy to eat cereal for dinner. I LOVE CEREAL.
My husband doesn't really even like to eat cereal for breakfast. I could just tell everette he is on his own, but that usually results in him ordering take out. And me feeling guilty for not making dinner and for the money we just blew because I didn't feel like making something.
I mean its one thing if he or I just really want to go out, but its another when I just can't decide what I want to make.
Last Night was one of those nights. We had a gigantic lunch at Olive Garden, their never ending pasta bowl which I never can seem to get to a second bowl.  After salad and bread sticks and a giant bowl of pasta, there just isn't room for another bowl.
But it is cheaper than most things at Olive Garden, and it was still delicious.
We managed to get home before our blood sugar crashed and we we entered post-carb letdown. Or food coma as it is commonly referred to in our family.
The afternoon was lovely and delightful. until 5:30 rolled around and I realize it was getting about dinner time. I was consumed with the question of what to make for dinner. I began to withdraw as a rolling list  of menu items scrolled through my brain. My whole demeanor changed. I sighed a lot. I stopped interacting with my family. I was just thinking about what to make for dinner. Nothing sounded good to me. Nothing we had in our house, nothing I could think about at the grocery, not even anything we could order and have delivered.
I wanted cereal, but we didn't even have any good cereal, and I didn't even know what kind of cereal I wanted. Plus I knew that cereal would not thrill my husband who was really the one who wanted dinner anyway.
So out of desperation, while Everette was giving Jonathan a bath, I went into the office and googled "what should I eat for dinner" Are you realizing my desperate situation?
Not expecting much in the way of actual decision making help, I was completely shocked when the first hit was
"What should I eat for dinner?-Hunch"
My jaw fell the the last 6 inches to the floor when after clicking on the link I was asked a series of questions to determine what i should eat for dinner. I was asked if I wanted to make it or order it, if I liked spicy foods, if I wanted something quick or if I had time to cook, if I liked chicken and beef, if I wanted something ethnic or traditional, and best of all on almost every question there was an "I don't care" option.
Not putting too much stock, save the irony that you can now truly google everything, in this program really being able to determine what I should eat for dinner; I wasn't surprised when I wasn't interested in making any of the top four choices.
However, at the bottom of the page there were pictures of and advertisements for other foods, and that's where I saw it. Pancakes! That was the only thing that sounded good to me. I started to make the argument that it probably wasn't a wise choice after our pasta lunch, but I stopped.
I could make pancakes, Everette would be happy with hot food in his belly, and appreciative that I made dinner for him. I could eat one or two and be satisfied. A light at the end of this dark tunnel!
So we put jonathan to bed and I went down to make pancakes.
Everette who had seen my earlier mood was concerned and kept telling me I didn't need to make pancakes. But the funny thing is as soon as I had a plan, I was in a much better mood. I was no longer stuck in my indecision.
Everette in an attempt to continually understand the mystery of the female brain (or a least me), asked me what the heck was wrong with me earlier.
And I explained to him that as weird and insignificant as it sounds, there are times, rare thankfully, that I am paralyzed by the decision of what to make for dinner. Of course this will no longer be a problem since there is a website devoted to helping me make this decision.

p.s. the pancakes weren't even that good, but they were better than wondering.

2 comments:

Annie said...

That's hilarious. I'm going to have to try that website, as I routinely have this problem.

What's worse is, sometimes I have planned out a menu for the week, have all the ingredients, but it no longer sounds good to me, and then I'm REALLY in a funk.

I'm glad to know I'm not alone. :)

what should i eat for dinner? said...

Here's a thought - if you're so indifferent to dinner why not let hubby decide? Don't worry about it so much...