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!