How to Cook the Meal and Keep the Girl

This post originally appeared as part of a guest series I’m doing over at Building Camelot on July 21, 2009.

OK, so you already have the girl, but in our fast paced lives it is easy to forget what brought the two of you together in the first place. Therefore, it is important to figure out some way to slow things down and take the time to revisit that connection. With a 14 month old to care for, and a tight entertainment budget since we became a one income household, I try to do things for my wife that I know she’ll appreciate whenever I can.

One of the ways I do this is to make special meals by turning a night in the middle of the week into date night or maybe a nice brunch if we have no plans on a lazy Sunday morning. What I hope to accomplish through my guest post series here on Building Camelot is to provide you with a few ideas and recipes to help you do something similar.

Easy & Frugal Meals

These ideas are relatively budget friendly ways to create a nice meal at home even if you are pressed for time or not totally at home in the kitchen. Or, if you are a master of the Santoku, then I hope I can offer some inspiration and add to your repertoire.

The types of things I prepare for us day to day are nothing spectacular and can usually be prepped, cooked and served within an hours time. However, there are the times that I feel that I need to do a little more to let her know that the guy that went out of his way to impress her on their fifth date is very much alive and well – even if our new boss is there to command our attention.

The kitchen is my second home, figuratively speaking, since as a stay at home dad I’m also responsible for all meal planning and preparation in our household. I came about this role in the most dubious of ways – I set the bar too high for myself. This is a cautionary tale if there ever was one.

How did I get here?

On our fifth date I invited my wife to my condo and prepared what I thought would be a simple, yet impressive, meal. I served an arugala salad with a roasted garlic basil vinaigrette for the appetizer, filet mignon with a shrimp cream sauce, sautéed green beans and parmesan smashed potatoes for the entree and creme brulee for desert.

We had barely made it through the appetizer when she informed me that she was never going to be able to cook for me. We’ve been together nearly five years now and I can count the number of times she’s made dinner on one hand.

At the time I had just turned 30 and had been learning how to cook on my own for a few years. A good friend of mine was a really good cook in his own right and I started watching the different things he did and, of course, watched a lot of Food Network.

I’m a notoriously picky eater, but I slowly started to expand my culinary horizons and became comfortable in the kitchen. As my relationship with my wife progressed I started getting more adventurous with the types of meals I would prepare because I had an eager, and complimentary, test audience.

What’s to come in the series:

Over the course of the next few weeks I’m going to share some of my favorite recipes that will provide you with some options for a quick dinner in the middle of the week, a date night option that doesn’t require a lot of work, a brunch treat that is sure to please and something you can make if your special someone is always on the go and needs a healthy snack.

In the meantime if you are interested in some of my other culinary adventures, please check out my RMDM Kitchen feature over at my blog. I look forward to hearing your stories about what you like to do, or if you liked something that I’ve shared here that you’ve made yourself.

PJ Mullen is a stay at home dad manning the captain’s chair at Real Men Drive Minivans, a dad on music writing ‘The Crossroads’ at Dad-Blogs.com and host of ‘The Crossroads Blipshow’.