Striking the balance

For those of us who worked outside the home, lockdown has completely changed the dynamics of eating. My husband and I normally ate the evening meal together, but lunch was a different story, as we were separated by nearly 50 miles during weekdays. While we share some tastes, there are many dishes that I like which he doesn’t care to eat and vice-versa. The dinner meal was always something that we both appreciated, but at lunch time we could indulge in those foods that the other didn’t like.

Being together 24/7 has brought up differences that we hadn’t faced for many years. I’m not a big breakfast eater and prefer something light such as yogurt and fruit or sweet like pancakes and syrup, but hubby likes a full spread that includes eggs, meat and potatoes. He likes salad a lot more than I do and usually ate one for lunch while I often enjoyed a carbohydrate-heavy meal (macaroni and cheese FTW!). Now that we are together for these meals, it seems silly or wasteful to have two different items, so we have been trying to find common ground.

What seems to work best is to alternate meals between preferences rather than trying to find a dish that we can both agree upon for every meal. Today I made biscuits with ham, egg and cheese for breakfast, but tomorrow we will have lemon poppyseed pancakes with blueberry sauce. Tonight’s dinner was Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes, but it will be vegetable soup tomorrow. This back-and-forth approach is keeping us both fairly satisfied. (Now if only we could agree on the cleanup.) Has your mealtime strategy changed? What is working for you and your family?