First, I graduated from medical school. Then I got married. Then I "officially" moved to Washington, DC. Then I officially start work as a "real doctor" in a week. Holy cow. Needless to say, life has been hectic. And despite a few meltdowns over U-boxes and missing makeup bags, I think I've handled it pretty well. It's really quite a bit of progress if you know a little about how I used to be. I could talk for hours about the things I have experienced in the past few weeks, about graduating, and moving, and trying to navigate DC without a GPS, but really I want to talk about marriage.
Chris and I have been waiting so long to call each other husband and wife. I have had plenty of time to work out possible obstacles and challenges we may encounter; you all know how I like to think ahead. Really, so far, we haven't run into too many husband and wife scenarios that I had not already considered; yeah that's right, not "too many". So what is one of the challenges I have unexpectedly encountered?
Wait for it...
Keep waiting....
In case you were wondering, these are some of the images that pop up when you type "surprised animals" on google image search.
Now onto serious matters: the first challenge I have hit, is mealtime. Pretty anticlimactic, huh. Well, it wasn't for lack of trying. I really just wanted an excuse to show some cute animals. Seriously though. I have never been much of a cook; I mean, I can cook for myself, but usually it's super idiot-proof stuff like salad, mac-and-cheese, and ramen. Thus we encounter our first food dilemma.
1) I don't know how to cook I don't even know what good food should taste like if I've been spending the last 8 years of my life eating ramen and hamburger helper. Oregano, cumin, basil, salt pepper, I have no idea. Does it really matter which spices you add, really?
Chris grew up eating....a lot. And eating lots of rich hearty foods. I grew up on the standard low-middle class American cuisine: hamburgers, tuna casserole, and spaghetti. (of course we ate more than that, and my mom is a very good cook. I'm just trying to illustrate a point.) So the point is:
2) Chris and I have very different expectations for food Chris consistently tells me in a playfully teasing, yet truthful way, that I make bland foods. So what if don't add spice to my store-bought spaghetti sauce and I don't season my rice with anything besides bouillon and minced onion? Also, Chris is a "live to eat" type of person, while I'm an "eat to live" type of person. The only requirement I have of food is that it should fill you up without being disgusting. Am I right?
Lastly, and probably the most challenging problem is our schedules. We will both be working full time and my schedule can be a little unpredictable.
3) Who has the time to cook a balanced meal for two? I've heard that meal planning is key for the most cost and time-effective meals, but it's hard to plan meals when you're not sure if you'll make it home at a reasonable hour or not. I guess pre-prepared meals will have to become our mainstay. Meal planning advice, anyone?
That's probably enough jabbering about food for awhile. I'm hungry now.
Seriously though, if anyone has any advice on this, or any recipe sources that they like, or really, anything at all to contribute to this dilemma, please do!
Until next time,
Jessica
There are a ton of make-ahead freezer meals and crock pot meals on the internet. I don't really like to do it, but a lot of people find it's easier to spend one day preparing a ton of meals that just need to put in the oven when they get home or in the crock pot in the morning.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how is Chris at cooking?
ReplyDeleteHe's okay at cooking. We just don't really have the same tastes, and he's already told me that he won't be including many vegetables or fruits with the meals. I like to have balanced meals and that's definitely not something that's important to him.
DeleteHe cooks the entree and you make the sides!
DeleteI don't know if I can handle that kind of chaos!
DeleteWe eat a lot of frozen veggies because they're easy, tasty and you don't have to worry about them going bad. I try to buy fruit on Sunday when I have a chance to actually cut it up and then I just pull it out of the fridge during mealtimes. We buy lots of different marinade/seasoning packets and cook them, usually, with chicken breasts. Adam doesn't cook much, but he will grill. That's when it works really well for me to prepare the sides and he is in charge of the meat.
ReplyDeleteOur biggest struggle is getting home at the same time and one of us (Adam) not having eaten already!