Home-cooked meals

I grew up eating dinner every night at home at the dinner table with no television. Since moving out on my own several years ago, I have found that it is much more difficult for just my wife and I to sit down for dinner at the dinner table. I get home from work at about 5:30 and she is tired from teaching kindergarten, first- and second- graders all day, so neither of us really want to cook anything and we end up eating out.

Last week, I took a new approach. I got my favorite cookbooks out on Friday and picked out seven different -- mostly healthy -- recipes and made a shopping list. I went to the grocery store with a list and a mission. My wife and I successfully navigated the store in record time and spent about $75.

I took Saturday to rest and watch my beloved Notre Dame Fighting Irish suffer a heartbreaking loss at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines. After recovering from the loss, I got to work on Sunday. I worked in my kitchen like it was Thanksgiving and I had the state of Missouri coming over for dinner.

I made a healthy meatloaf, a vegetable chili, a chicken tortilla casserole and some baked chicken parmesan. Since we went to the store and bought groceries to make everything, we didn't need to buy food for lunch because not only were we set for dinner all week, but with all the leftovers, we were set for lunch, too.

I am pleased to say that during that entire week, not once did my wife and I go and eat out for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. When I eat at home, it is a lot easier to eat healthier because I know what I'm putting in the dish and I can control how much I put on my plate. Not to mention that it feels better to eat a home-cooked dinner than it does to eat at a restaurant.

I enjoy cooking and I think this is a practice that I will try to continue.

I guess the next step is to get away from the TV and eat at the dinner table.