Just Because I Love You

I tend to be quite simple when it comes to making meals. I could live off of portobello mushroom sandwiches, vegetable fajitas, baked potatoes loaded with veggies, homemade veggie pizza, salads, the occasional Hough spaghetti, and grilled chicken. I don't add spices- not even salt. I'm pretty sure this simplicity stems from how I had finally lost weight after being overweight for a good chunk of my life. Eating "healthy" like that, also allows me to enjoy the delicious desserts that I love to eat on a daily basis "guilt free" whether it is brownies, ice cream, cookies, or sherbet. In my mind they balance each other out.

Unfortunately, I married a man who loves full-flavored foods. My "go-to" meals are the ones he'd rather pass on. He watches the Food Network, plays with a variety of ingredients, and often makes a delicious dinner that I can only enjoy if I don't know how much butter, oil, or creamy ingredients that he added. This makes our evening dinners pretty basic. I'll offer to make my meals and he'll quickly say, "No, thanks." Once in a while he'll make something if he's feeling motivated, otherwise, we tend to compromise and make something we both can "stand." Perhaps Chop Suey, a frozen pizza (half of one of his full flavored meat lover pizzas, and half of one of my thin crust veggie pizzas), a chicken dish, Hough Spaghetti (which I'm SO THANKFUL that he enjoys),  or a Viola frozen meal. His overall preference would be if I made a full-flavored (meaning HIGH CALORIE) meal with venison or  beef.

So once in a while I try to make a new recipe. Something that sounds good to me that will hopefully taste good to both of us. I might be at 2:20- two meals that were satisfying to him and twenty that were just average and not worth making again. But I still try. I tried tonight, making a creamy chicken pasta dish. I found it over-salted and bland-if that's even possible. It also needed vegetables to add some color and personal appeal to me. When I asked if he thought it had too much salt, he just reminded me that it probably tasted that way to me because it actually had flavor - something I didn't typically have. Boo to him. I love my happy, simple meals. To me, they taste delightfully delicious.

Anyhoo, what was the point for sharing this? I suppose it was just to remind myself that loving someone means doing something you think they will appreciate- even if they don't see the good intentions behind it and still wish you made something full of red meat and fat.

Happy Monday!

Laziness

I woke up this morning completely refreshed after sleeping for 10 1/2 hours. I went to bed at 7:30pm last night, and could do so, because I wasn't worried about my husband thinking that I was a loser by going to bed so early (he was down by the river with his cousins for their annual "Tra Fest" (a weekend of camping by the WI river with intentions to hunt, but unfortunately always ending with drinking too much)).

With getting up so early, I knew I could do just about whatever I wanted. I had time for a full day project or tons of little ones. I started on the little ones. The kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, and basement all got cleaned. The workout area in my basement is now user-friendly again, as I did round two of cellar spider vacuuming, freeing the elliptical machine from their intricately designed webs.

Then the husband got home. Surprise, surprise, he wasn't feeling all that well. And as no surprise to anyone, I wanted to talk with him since I hadn't seen him all weekend. He, on the other hand, had no desire to spend any "quality" time together as it IS football Sunday. So, I went upstairs and did the last bit of painting that was needed in the baby room. Then I did something I haven't done in a LONG time. Nothing. I sat in front of the T.V. for about 2 1/2 hours watching movies- or parts of movies depending on what was on. During that time I thought of everything else I should be doing... Maybe working on my wedding scrapbook, finding another area in the house to organize, fill out my much needed maternity leave paperwork for work, do something with the bag of apples, trays of tomatoes, rotting peppers, and last summer's butternut squash that has taken over the kitchen counter... but no, I sat. Oh, and I made brownies... brownies with chocolate chunks. Yum!

Finally, after feeling worthless for wasting my afternoon away, I went upstairs to clean the second bedroom (which accumulated everything that was once in the room that is now going to be the baby room). It took just a few seconds before I spotted the book titled Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy. I had acquired this from my sister who had picked it up at a garage sale while she was pregnant. So, I left the room with my book in hand and decided to sit and read- something else I haven't done in a long time (if you don't count school-related materials).

Reading this book, which was a fast read, made me realize I've been blessed with a very easy pregnancy (knock on wood). I haven't gotten hormonally crazy nor had to deal with nearly anything Jenny McCarthy apparently went through. But, I still have about 10 weeks to go, so, we'll see. Reading the book and eating brownies persuaded me to go upstairs and take a nap. A nap? After already sleeping for 10 1/2 hours the night before?

So now it's after 6:00pm and I still have loads I could do- but nothing I'm really motivated to do. Packers play at 7:00, so I probably shouldn't start anything big. Supper sounds good, but making something requires effort. The rain isn't helping either.