But We Have Food to Eat, Right?

How I like to cook

NOT dinner last week

Fresh bread isn't necessary

This past week was incredibly hard for our family. As a result, meals were at odd times, with sporadic mish-mashes of leftovers, frozen nuggets, and cereal, there's always cereal. We finally had the opportunity to sit down as a family of four and enjoy a quick dinner together. After telling the kids to get to work eating, I apologized, saying “Sorry, guys. I haven’t been on my A-game for dinners this week.” Everyone said dinner was great, and David looked at me like I had three heads, sixteen eyes, and an extra arm. He said, “What’s wrong with what we ate this week? Didn’t we have food to eat every night?

My kids love "Dinner at the Coffee Table"

After picking myself off the floor that this wasn’t a complaint from the kids as usual about tomatoes in chili (oh, the horror!), broccoli cooked the wrong way, green stuff in pasta, meat being too chewy, and “WHEN CAN I HAVE DESSERT???” I realized that I was overthinking this whole dinner thing, and sometimes life needs to be simplified in the way only kids can. Wow, what an amazing reminder that we don’t need to be Instagram or Pinterest perfect for our families, or ourselves, for that matter. We are together and we aren’t hungry. That’s enough. Who cares if there were too many bowls of cereal and not enough homemade, beautifully plated, modern-day Norman Rockwell scenes?

Sometimes, when cooking a real meal seems too daunting, I cheat by cooking nuggets, fries, and add whatever vegetable or fruit happens to be available, throw it all on a cookie sheet and serve it without plates at the coffee table. We then eat while watching a movie. This happens to be a favorite treat for the boys, and is almost no work for me, which is a win-win.

"A meal in shades of red and orange"

I like to equate food to love, as well as something beautiful to create and delicious to eat. But sometimes food is just food. It doesn’t always have to be creative, spectacular or even delicious. It just needs to provide nutrition to fuel the body. When things are hard, don’t make it harder by placing self-imposed, unrealistic expectations on yourself. As long as nobody is going hungry, you are doing great, and that’s how love can be shared with your family and yourself.