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June 10, 2010

Ben experiences weeknight dinner...

Ben's schedule of late has been all nights, all the time.  So that means that five nights a week it is just me and the boys for dinner, which has completely relaxed my cooking expectations.  I was still trolling recipes for the grocery list or cooking up a batch of this or that, but after getting burned by "I don't like it" so many times or just have so many leftovers even after we all had eaten our fill I have decided to most often to slap something together.  We have a lot of salads with balsamic vinegar for our veggie, we some kind of pasta probably twice a week, which is more often than Ben would tolerate, and occasionally we just have chick-patties with veggies and toast.  But tonight Ben did an early morning assignment so he would be home for dinner.  

Home for dinner!  What on earth am I going to make?  I'm not saying I have to make something fancy, but cooking for me, a toddler and a four-year-old is basically like cooking for me.  The two of them don't eat that much more than I would on my own and making something elaborate is no fun if your dinners are afraid to try it.  We had enough leftover sloppy joe for me and the boys, but not for Ben, too.  We had enough ravioli for me and the boys, but not for Ben, too.  Oh, well.  Ben was going to have to experience what weeknight dinner is like without him.

I made omelettes.  Chopped and steamed a little broccoli and asparagus, grated some cheddar and Parmesan, put some bread in the toaster and heated up the veggie-breakfast sausage we had in the freezer.  

As we sit down to eat Ben looks at the sausage on each boy's plate.  "I don't get any sausage?"  "There were only two," I explain.  See, I try to have a sure-bet in the dinner just in case the boys don't like the main dish.  I couldn't give Ben and myself the valuable sausage.  Then he looks at Art's omelette, oozing with melted cheddar.  "How come I don't get any cheddar?"  Well, Ben usually doesn't like a lot of cheese so I made him asparagus with Parmesan.  Maybe he was just feeling a little small because the weeknight meal is not the parent-centered production that our full-family meals are.  But it was kind of cute to watch.

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