A hungry DH arrived through the door tonight, salivating, thinking about a scrumptious, hearty meal that he hoped awaited him. All I can say is, he was probably smelling the aroma of next door’s cooking on his way up the drive!

He married me knowing full well I am no ‘Nigella’ in the kitchen.  I like to eat but, spending an hour in the kitchen preparing a meal which will be domolished in under ten minutes, slobbered all over my kids’ faces, and of which a lot will end up on the floor, I am just not into that.

When he opened the door, sniffed the air, his immediate thought was ‘oh, spag bol again‘.  I am surprised he didn’t turn round, walk back out and go to London Fish and Chips.

The disappointment was so strong, my generally diplomatic, even tempered hubby could not gag his gob, and just came right out with it.

‘I am tired of the dinner menus.  It’s the same stuff every week.  I was looking forward to dinner but now am just getting bored.’

Good thing I am not overly sensitive (well not about cooking anyway)!

‘You like spag bol….What meal don’t you like?’ I asked a tincey, wincey bit defensively.

In my defence I try to balance out the meals having chicken, red meat, fish each week, all of which are accompanied by vegetables, rice, potatoes or wholewheat pasta.

‘I am not a fan of the fish or the chicken in red sauce dish’ he responded with the face of a 4 year old being forced to eat spinach.  (Note: he will eat London Fish and Chips which is deep fat fried in batter…..my fish isn’t!)

I can’t even blame this on my helper.  She may do the cooking but, I am responsible for the meal plan!

The thing is…..I completely understand why DH finds the lack of nutritious variety tedious.  But, it’s so hard to get kids, well, my kids, to eat anything apart from those dishes.  At the end of the day, all I care about is making sure they eat substantive, healthy meals.  As a mum of twins who were generally very picky eaters (and who usually ended up with the food thrown at her), I latch onto anything that goes down well!

Catering to DH’s demanding tastebuds would require cooking extra meals.  This eats into homework, afterschool activities, the every-other-day dash to Spinneys to replenish the milk and fruit supplies, and the 5 minutes I have for a cuppa.

I don’t really see a change in the menu for a while yet…….