When Mike Makes Dinner

IT'S FRIDAY!!!! Yes!! If only I didn't have to work at the hospital tonight... this Friday would be perfect. Really, I get kinda excited about working at the hospital. Especially on the weekends. First, there are a lot of young, fun girls that work the weekends on my floor, so it is always nice to catch up with them and gossip for a few hours. Second, the money on the weekends is almost double that of the weeknights. So, I pretty much have all of this fun money spent before I even walk into my shift. :)

Last night I ran around trying to get all of my shopping complete. Traffic was awful, but I didn't have a really hard time with anything else. I got a parking spot pretty quickly and the lines were not too long. I am THIS CLOSE to being completely done. Besides stocking stuffers, Mike is completely finished. I just know he is going to love the Nickelback World Tour DVD that I got him. ;)

I got home a little later than I had planned last night and was excited that Mike had made dinner. My plate was waiting for me in the microwave.

He grilled some chicken with some olive oil, S&P, boiled some broccoli and made the rice from a box. You have to love him for trying! :) I immediately cut all of my portions in half and put some in a container for lunch today.

I was starving when I got home, so I really appreciated the dinner he prepared. I also ate a few meatballs that were leftover from the girl's night on Wednesday.


I called Mike to let him know I was on the way home from shopping. He said that he had made dinner and that he would make me a plate for when I got home.  I was excited to hear that I didn't have to think about dinner and asked what he had made. He said "chicken, broccoli, and, I know you aren't going to like this, but I made a box of flavored rice." At first, I did cringe a little at the idea of eating that, but then I had to remind myself that it doesn't happen very often, so just get over it.
I will admit that I am a little neurotic. When I get things in my head, I just want to change everything about the way I live and do things, almost a "cold turkey" attitude.

When I started to read and learn about whole foods and eating more naturally, I went cold turkey on everything else. Anything that was pre-packaged, convenient, or ready-made, went in the garbage. I started to make everything from scratch including peanut butter, taco seasoning, beans, and rice. I refused to buy anything that came in a box or packet and I cut out fast food.

Although I still try to avoid most of those things, I am also not a picky person. I don't want to be the person that has to eat at home before going to a party because others do not follow my same dietary interests. I don't want to miss out on a dinner out with friends, even if they choose a "not-so-whole" restaurant. I am easy when it comes to these things, I always have been. I will quickly give up on my own wants, if it is something the group would rather do.

Also, I am pretty cheap. Wasting food makes me want to cringe. When we have people over or in town, I usually do not spend a lot of money on the food we have in the house. Maybe it is selfish, but I would rather buy my expensive food when Mike and I can enjoy it, not everyone else. So, when we do have people over, there are usually a lot of bad leftovers. Leftovers that I would not normally eat or have in my house. Then, we eat them, because it is food and it will provide a few meals that saves us money and waste.

I still make my own nut butters, but when we are out and I don't have time to make more, I just buy the natural peanut butter, with the least amount of ingredients. I eat a lot of beans from a can, but that is more because I can not seem to get the dry bean making right. They always come out so hard! But I justify this by rinsing the beans and draining all the liquid before using them from the can. For some reason, we still have a few boxes of instant potatoes and rice in our house, so on occasion, Mike will make them. I no longer buy them though, so that won't last forever.

Trying to balance a healthy lifestyle, time (that I don't seem to have enough of), our budget, and my sanity is not easy. I feel like I have made tremendous changes over the last year and will continue to take steps towards where I want us to be. Thankfully, I have a supportive husband, who sees that I am just trying to keep us healthy, even if he does sneak fast food whenever he can... that is a story for another post.

Have a great weekend!