Cooking, For Once

Dearest Rachel –

It’s not like I haven’t done this before – even preparing this specific dish, for that matter – but of a Monday evening, Daniel and I rarely stay home and fix ourselves dinner. As a general rule, we head out a little after four, and hit some place up between home and church, so that when we’re done eating, we can just show up there that much earlier and get ourselves set up before everything starts at Sparks. I know, back in the day, we used to eat on our way home from church afterwards, but that was because I could barely get home from work on time enough for us to make it there in the first place, let alone eat beforehand.

Nowadays, that’s not a problem; and indeed, this allows me to digest everything that much sooner, too, so that when I finally call it a night, I’m not doing so on an overly full stomach. That’s how sumo wrestlers get as big as they do, and might have explained my own situation at the time you had to depart. But these days, I’m a little more concerned about my weight and the things I have to do in order to at least stay where I’ve gotten.

Still, for all that, I haven’t done a lot in terms of avoiding restaurants, and the fact that they feed their patrons more than they ought to be eating at a single sitting. When we were young and just starting out as a family, we were cautious about that due to the simple fact that eating out was (and always will be) more expensive than fixing something at home. You’re paying for the convenience – and in certain cases, the expertise – on top of the cost of the food itself; you have to decide whether those things are worth it, and when money is tight, the fact is that we had to admit that it wasn’t all that much – especially since it could add up rather quickly, if we would eat out regularly several times a week.

Of course, nowadays money isn’t so much of a problem (although you might be aghast at seeing how even fast food places aren’t some cheap place to eat out anymore. And as a result, some of them aren’t doing very well anymore, either – and a few have even disappeared since you left, although I should point out that you weren’t the only one keeping them in business), and as there’s no lack of variety out here for us to try, we’ve visited a fair number of places between home and church over the course of the past three years of Awana being held at the Randhurst campus.

But every once in a while, I get this itch to do some cooking, for once; to put something together on my own for the two of us. It’s not like I can’t leave the ‘office’ at three in the afternoon and actually work on putting a meal together, rather than dealing with this or that fast-food or fast casual place. And so, upon visiting Meijer the other day to use up some eighty dollars worth of coupons, I bought us (among other things) a pound of ground beef to make roti with again, just because I hadn’t done so in a while.

The irony is that, since it’s just the two of us (Logan has tried this creation in the past, and after a few bites, set it aside; I suspect that if I were to cook for all three of us, he would lose weight that much faster than he does by preparing his own meals), it’s actually counterproductive when it comes to my watching my weight. As much as I might decry restaurant portion sizes, groceries aren’t often sold in quantities meant for one or two people. A half-pound of meat apiece, plus an equal (or greater) amount of potatoes, plus the curry sauce and the flat roti bread we wrap these all in – it turns out, that’s a substantial amount of food, no matter how much time you give it to digest. Now, this isn’t a problem for Daniel, since he’s rail-thin and forgot to eat breakfast (as he almost always does – I seriously don’t know how he does it), but when I woke up this morning, I was dangerously close to the two-twenty-five line.

And I know, you’d probably point out that it wasn’t too long ago that I was rejoicing over crossing my license weight, which is ten pounds more than the number I’m afraid of now. But you have to bear in mind that the direction I’m coming from makes all the difference in the world when it comes to my attitude toward it. I’d respond that – while it might take some effort, since I’m a bit out of practice on the machine in particular – I could probably beat the rowing time I was exulting over in that particular letter without feeling like I was about to collapse, too. My expectations have changed in these past three years, you understand.

But that’s a whole separate topic, for another time. For now, I need to prepare to head out and walk with Lars this week (and at least, I don’t have to admit to an increase in my latest reading, even as I can’t boast of any progress made), so I’ll have to get back to you tomorrow. Until then, honey, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck, as I’m always going to need it.