Setting up dinnertime.

Irisandoleander · 2016-10-11T16:43:39+00:00

The proper RPW way would of course be fine china, always let him carve the roast, and don't smudge your official RPW pink lipstick on your glass of sparkling water ;)

But for realz -- Dinner is chill at my house, just us two. We sit at the table for meals often, but sometimes we cheat and we sit in front of the TV (horrible habit I am working to break!). I love to cook so if I stuck to the same 10 meals I would go a little crazy so I rotate fan favorites with new recipes. Last night was Pork Cutlet With Peaches And Almonds. Delish! Sometimes I plate dinner, sometimes I don't -- it really depends on the night and the meal. But we typically each make a plate in the kitchen and carry it to the table and then eat together there.

sunfloweries · 2016-10-11T17:51:41+00:00

Growing up, we had family dinners ever night, and it just stuck with me. J and I sit down together. Sometimes we'll sit there and talk long after we're done eating, and sometimes he gets up and moves on to do whatever as soon as he's done. As long as we both sit down together, I don't care. But for me, that is something a family does. J loves it, but if he ever has more important things to tend to, obviously he can!

I'm a talented and adventurous cook, and J is a talented and adventurous eater, haha. I make a list based off what we have in the pantry or fridge, and what's on sale. I always ask for requests, but he usually doesn't have any. I'm a heavy Pinterest user (though I find there's rarely enough seasoning! or flavor! and too many cans of creamed campbells!)

This week's list: cider braised chicken & sweet potato/brussels sprout hash; pumpkin curry lentil soup; broccoli quiche; spaghetti squash chow mein; chicken makhani.

Flops are just an excuse to get creative and fix things.

am3liia · 2016-10-11T17:41:12+00:00

We are pretty simple! He likes to eat his favorite meals most nights, so I'll try a new recipe about once a week. I have a google docs list of recipes we like, so I'll add it there if we both love it! I don't stick to a strict meal plan, but I try to make his absolute favorites weekly. I'll set the table and make him a plate.

Littleknownfacts · 2016-10-11T17:12:42+00:00

I'm a pretty adventurous cook, I love finding things on Pinterest and experimenting. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's a flop. I keep a list of favorites, so every week when I'm making the meal plan, I try to make a good mix of recipes I know I can't mess up and some new things to try out. When I do flop, we either power through it and I just delete the recipe or we toss it and order a pizza. I try to stick with the meal plan, but I do schedule a leftovers day so that if I'm too tired to cook or whatever I can just shift the meal plan down a day.

I usually don't go to far in terms of setting up the table, I probably could, but I just don't see my SO appreciating that as much, so I just stick to the basics. Usually we just watch one of his shows while we eat. Sometimes I serve him, sometimes it's buffet style, it depends on what the meal is and where he is.

StillTraveling · 2016-10-11T20:58:33+00:00

I am pretty much a same-10-meals kind of person. I have four children, one of whom has food allergies, and I myself have a (different) food allergy. We're also on a pretty strict budget, and on many days are pressed for time. All these things lead to a same-10-meals lifestyle. I very rarely succeed at meal planning. When I do, it's great. Dinner itself is pretty casual here. We all tend to pick a spot on the couch. I ALWAYS serve my husband first, then the two little ones. The big ones serve themselves.

vanBeethovenLudwig · 2016-10-11T21:47:40+00:00

I split my recipes into three kinds - 1) simple, easy on the go, 2) time-consuming (usually noodle or pasta sauces, soups or dumplings) that I cook on my days off and then freeze, and 3) occasional treats such as fresh baked buns, steamed pudding or tiramisù (boyfriend is Italian). It's incredibly handy to have frozen sauces/soups to reheat then boil noodles or cook rice and stir fry some vegetables.

CoochQuarantine · 2016-10-11T17:19:51+00:00

What do you like to cook? Meat

Are you a same-10-meals person, or do you cook all kinds of different things? I rarely use the same recipe twice.

How'd you get your recipes perfect? The ones that I do use twice are simpler recipes.

Have any been flops? All the freaking time. That one time I undercooked a roast chicken. That one time with the whole head of garlic. That other time with the mustard pork chops yeacchhhhh

Do you do a strict meal plan or just go with what you're feeling? I'm using supercook now so that I don't waste stuff. So I just go with what it tells me to do.

whistling_dixie · 2016-10-11T17:34:17+00:00

I have a fairly small regular portfolio of meals that I typically use, although I'm investigating new meals now as it seems we are both finally getting sick of chicken. :) I have things I know how to make well that are simple, healthy, and filling - I work a demanding job (that I love) and so does he, function over form is much more important during the week.

By the time I get home, he is already in the middle of something on his own, so I just feed the dogs and start dinner. We actually rarely eat at the table - we have an extremely tiny kitchen table that is currently housing our second TV until we do some rearranging of the bedrooms. He does not like to be served, and he especially does not like his plate to be cleared for him. I just tell him dinner's ready and he gets it when he gets a second to get up. We tend to eat at our desks or at TV trays in the living room.

As far as the kind of food, it's typically very simple. Again, function over form. It just needs to taste good, be healthy, and be simple in our house. I make chicken cordon bleu, smoked pork chops, bacon-wrapped chicken or turkey, or some other lean meat and typically pair it with a salad or veggies. A simple one I used to do more often was actually this weird stir-fry type thing where I cooked broccoli and chopped bacon up together in a pan and then tossed in some shredded cheddar at the end. Really good, simple, and good for keto!

RedPillRhonda · 2016-10-11T23:22:37+00:00

I rotate about six different meals throughout the week, though I'd like to start switching it up more often! I use place mats, serve him his portions, and pick up his plate afterward. Candles are nice, but not necessary. That's about it!

Trauma_Burn_RN · 2016-10-12T20:57:22+00:00

My mom always made sure we had dinner at the table with no electronics or tv, so we could all slow down and talk about out days. Even if it was just pizza!

I tend to stick to the same couple of meals since I'm new to cooking meat and still getting the hang of it, but we try to add a new dish every week.

My husband scarfs food and runs, because he's always got a project hehastodorightthisminute, but I'm trying to persuade him to chill and enjoy dinner, haha!

I definitely set the table, and try to light candles and have flowers and such, although that's not always feasible.... dinnertime is sacred to me!

I meal plan, or else I let food go to waste. I was trying to have dinner hot and ready by the time he came home, but then he told me it makes him a little uncomfortable and he would rather I wait and cook it with him, which is really fun for me! I always serve food family style, too, because that's what my momma did!

littlek1ttenprincess · 2016-10-13T12:27:05+00:00

It depends on if im at work or not. The food is pretty much the same because we meal prep and we have pretty strict eating plans (he weight lifts and he has taken control of my eating plan after expressing his want for me to get fit), and so everything is made and prepped sundays and set and ready for the week.

If I'm home, we sit at the table and eat together, unless he wants to eat in his computer room while he games, then he eats in there. I make sure I look presentable, I don't wear makeup everyday because it's not good for my skin, but I make sure my face is washed and fresh and my hair and clothes are neat. I don't see him often, so I like to be able to listen to him about his day.

MemoirsofaWife · 2016-10-13T14:23:07+00:00

This is my jam!! I love meal planning and grocery budgeting. It's a full on "Challenge Accepted" moment every week for me, much to my husband's amusement.

I cook a lot of meat, some vegetables, and minimal carbohydrates. We were on Keto for two years before I got pregnant and I'm returning back to a low carbohydrate lifestyle since getting the fetus beetus. So our tastes naturally lean to meat and veggies.

Every week I ask husband if there is something he's craving. There usually isn't but sometimes! Then I plan out 5 - 7 dinners, depending on how much we're working that week. It's a combination of tried and true recipes:

Roast Chicken with broccoli in an Alfredo sauce
Meatloaf with green beans and a small serving of mashed potatoes (to stay out of ketosis during pregnancy)
Roast with green beans and sweet potaotes
Spaghetti Squash Au Gratin (our current obsession)
Soups, soups, soups!

And the other half the recipes are things that I want to try. Usually from Pinterest but I try and find one recipe a week that's from my great-grandmother's cookbook. She was the queen of making somethin' out of nothin'!

I always take into account what my husband doesn't not like. And incorporate as many ingredients that he does like. He's a tomato and cheese fiend! Especially in the summer...speaking of summer...

I meal plan completely differently based on the season. In the summer, we take as much as we can from our garden. So this summer we ate a lot, a lot, a lot of zucchini. We planted 11 zucchini plants. Don't plant 11 zucchini plants. I may hate zucchini now. But, we did also have a ton of tomato plants that ripened all at the same time. We made salsa and tomato sauce. He loves tomatoes so much that we're out of our summer crops already! I thought it would last at least into the fall.

In the fall and winter, I really focus more on what's on sale and plan around that. Soups are so easy and cheap to make. And luckily, my husband is in love with every single soup that I make. This week, for instance, I'm making split pea soup with ham, roasted creamy chicken soup, and butternut squash soup. It's going to be a very cold week. Which brings me to my next point...

Where I live, we have four seasons. I always, always pull up the weather report when I meal plan. I don't want to make soup on a day where it's going to be 86 degrees. Husband doesn't want a huge salad on a stormy day. He wants soup. So it helps frame the week's theme and effort level when I have a good idea what will go well according to the weather.

I am not perfect. Some weeks I just can't get my head together and the meal plan isn't followed at all. Then I just go day by day. Just grabbing what sounds good. We're pretty easy on those days. Usually slices of tomatoes, baked chicken, and green beans. Egg salad. Bacon and eggs for dinner? Sure! I don't feel good about those days because I want to be on my A-game 24/7 but I'm learning more about grace and coming to terms with not every day can be how I want it.

Most of the time, we eat at the table. Some days...and most days recently, we eat on the couch. As I get further into pregnancy, our dining chairs are just not comfortable for me. He usually serves the portions. I love having food delivered to me and thanking him. And he always says, "Why are you thanking me? You made it!" I don't know. It makes me giggle. And he seems amused by it, even after 10 years.

And oh, yes. It took 10 years for me to get it down. I just started learning how to cook when I first my husband. I had a passion for it and put in a lot time and effort into learning the skills to be an excellent home cook. I was never taught organizational skills by my extremely liberal mother or how to take care of a home. I had to learn. I'm still learning.

The best things that's worked for me is keeping a notebook where there are no rules. I can write out my meal plans, grocery list, to-do lists, just how I'm feeling, or anything else! If I designated a notebook just for meal planning, my brain just...stops working. Too much structure for the brainstorming process? Who knows. It's what works. This year has been the best year for meal planning and grocery budgeting. And I like to think it's because of the notebook. I love that notebook.

Wewph! Sorry this turned into a novel. I love this stuff and my sister and friends have zero interest in it, haha.

sthutton · 2016-10-13T17:35:07+00:00

Our dinner is very relaxed and informal (no kids). We actually watch a recorded Wheel of Fortune each night with dinner and try to beat each other solving the puzzle.

I cook a lot of different things. I've grown a lot in my cooking over the last year or two, so I'm constantly experimenting and trying new recipes, but I try to have about 2-3 nights a week where I cook a solid "5 star" meal. This is 5 star hubby taste rating, not a fancy take-all-day meal....although those two often overlap, haha, so those get pushed to a weekend or two per month. If you'd like any recipes, I'm a recipe queen (with ratings and notes!). I can't just walk into a kitchen and whip something up. I don't have those skillz.

We always do buffet style from the kitchen, so sometimes I plate and serve hubby, sometimes I let him plate his own. Usually it just depends on whether he's physically in the kitchen when it's finished. I use real plates for the main food, and paper plates for the bread. I never light any candles because all my candles are scented, and I don't want anything competing with yummy dinner smells.

And obviously I drink my sparkling water from a fancy goblet :)

_TheFantasticMrsFox_ · 2016-10-13T23:28:33+00:00

We both really love to cook and we have opposite days off. On days where I'm off I like to have dinner waiting or going and vice versa on his days off. He has a more limited palate (like 20 meals I can rotate that I know are home runs) but I know what he loves/ dislikes so I can experiment with those in kind.

On days we both work (3 nights a week) it honestly depends. I know that if dinner isn't on its way when I come home, I should probably start it, I'll ask once what he would like. If he says he doesn't care, I know it's true. He trusts that I will make something he loves. Sometimes it's fun, he'll be like " I saw a recipe for spicy bulgolgi- let's make that!" And then we go to the store together and we make it together and it's an impromptu date night.

Our dining room table is currently his work space ( long story!) so we eat at the coffee table while catching up on our shows or he eats while working/ decompressing, but we're always within 10 feet. I'm from a dinner at the table/ no tv family, so it's not the most conventional thing, but it works for us and it's just as much his time to do what he likes/ unwind as he eats as it is mine so it works well for us.

Title	Setting up dinnertime.
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	7
Comments	31
Date	October 11, 2016 4:37 PM UTC (9 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/RedPillWives
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/RedPillWives/comments/56yxdk/setting_up_dinnertime/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/RedPillWives/setting-up-dinnertime.209493 https://theredarchive.com/post/209493

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