I used to be the one buying groceries, preparing meals for the family. Sincerely, I know I did a poor job, and I didn't particularly enjoy it. I found myself always buying the same ingredients, making the same meals. Worst, I lost even the motivation to cook dishes I used to cook. My husband pointed out : he barely sees curry chicken, clay-pot chicken anymore.
Things just gradually changed. I needed to cook dishes that I know my kids would at least eat. And, time was pressing, after picking up kids from school, I didn't have much time nor energy left to prepare somethings more decent.
Since I was the one buying grocery, there was a bookkeeping in my mind. We just finished this, we were running out of that, we needed to buy this, the kids demanded that. I was not used to plan ahead neither. I started planning dinner when I drove home, or the night before. And I remembered I had that and this ingredient left in the fridge.
Except that, it was mostly hubby who handled meals during the weekend. And sometimes he did complementary groceries for his own needs. I would complain : why did you buy bacon again? We had three packs sitting in the fridge! You know we had two bags of potatoes here, and you just bought the third one? Due to my complains, he would buy according to what I ask him to use in the fridge. But then it created another problem, I didn't know what he was going to cook, and when he was going to use the last pack of "lardon", I protested : No! I needed that for tomorrow dinner! He was so frustrated that he yelled at me : everything I do it's just wrong to you!
Then it comes this planning change, a change I welcomed with my heart. He decided to take care of the kids on Wednesdays (4/5ème). Now he works 4 days a week and I switched to full time. Since Awena goes to school as well, we can finally do the one parent sends them in the morning one parent pick them up at the evening model. I choose to send them because I'm not a morning person. Most of the time during the week, when I got home, the dinner is served. Except evenings when I work from home so would pick them up right after school, and sometimes I prepare dinner.
But mainly, hubby handles grocery.
And what happened? The other day, I heard him saying : did you use my mushroom?
No I didn't.
He finished them without realizing.
Did you use my fish?
No I didn't.
The fish just went missing. We didn't know why.
Ah, the logistics of grocery shopping! We have "our" ingredients that we each buy here. Like, Feng buys meat (I don't usually eat meat) and I buy bread and cheese. But it's annoying to have to remember if we have enough veggies, bananas, etc. because between the three of us, things do go "missing"!
ReplyDeleteI very feel the same for food preparation. My mom used to complain about dinner everyday and grocery shopping, now it's my turn. My daughter is a fussy eater, so it's very difficult for meal preparation. She is not a fan of rice (how is this possible for someone with asian heritage). I usually cook "french" meals during the week, and asian in the weekends. But what I hate most is to prepare 2 different meals when the kid won't eat adult meals. I hope she will less fussy when she gets older. I remember eating chicken and fried ginger at 5 years old.
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