January 6, 2011 - SHE Said, HE Said

SHE said "My jeans are getting tight. I need to start eating lighter".

HE said "I'm not going on a diet. My father ate bacon and eggs every morning of his life, and lived to be 87 years old!"

So.....what do you do, short of cooking two completely different meals? Well, in our house we compromise.

For breakfast, HE wants bacon, fried eggs, white toast with big chunks of solid margarine, and two cups of coffee with that horrid powdered creamer (ingredients: corn syrup solids, partially hydroginated soybean and/or palm oil, sodium cassienate, dipotassium phosphate, mono- and diglycerides, silicon dioxide, soy lecithin and artificial flavor).

For breakfast, SHE wants oatmeal with walnuts, raisins and skim milk, unsweetened ruby red grapefruit juice, and 1/2 mug of coffee with skim milk (ingredients: milk).

The compromise: SHE makes the coffee. HE cooks his own breakfast, SHE cooks hers. SHE gets to do the dishes and clean up his mess.

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For lunch: SHE wants water packed tuna mixed with light mayonnaise, on dark 12 grain bread, with lots of crisp, fresh garden lettuce, with a small glass of grapefruit juice to drink.

For lunch, HE wants a big bowl of hearty beef barley soup with a whole lot of saltine crackers and nothing to drink.

The compromise: No biggy. SHE microwaves the bowl of soup, and tosses the box of crackers on the table. Then SHE fixes her sandwich and drink, enjoys it immensely. And SHE does the dishes and cleans up the mess.

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For an afternoon snack, SHE has 1/2 of a banana and a big mug of hot green tea.

For an afternoon snack, HE has a bourbon and coke. At least it's a diet coke.

The compromise: None needed.

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For dinner, HE has an iceberg lettuce salad, with radishes, green onions, and full-fat ranch dressing. His two pork chops have been floured and fried, then covered in country gravy. His broccoli cauliflower mix is tossed with margarine, then salted and peppered. His butternut squash has a big pat of margarine and a big spoonful of brown sugar. He drinks water.

For dinner, SHE has a freshly picked baby spinach salad, with walnuts and dried cranberries and one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing. Her one (thin sliced, trimmed of fat and bone) pork chop has bean seasoned and cooked on a Pam sprayed grill. Her broccoli cauliflower mix has nothing on it but a light shake of sea salt and a good amount of freshly cracked pepper. Her butternut squash is moist and sweet, and has just a teaspoon of brown sugar sprinkled atop. She drinks water.

The compromise: The separate salads are no trouble. The pork chops do require using two different pans. Her vegetables are removed to her plate before the margarine goes on the remainder for him. He brings his dishes to the sink, she washes them and cleans the kitchen.

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For the evening snack, HE has sugar-free jello with Cool Whip (ingredients almost identical to those in the creamer, I'm not typing them again) and three of those delicious gingersnaps SHE made the other day.

For the evening snack, SHE has naked sugar-free jello, the other 1/2 banana and two of the delicious gingersnaps. SHE will not give up her cookies, but will strive to keep their consumption under control.

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HIS salad on the left, HER salad on the right. The radishes, green onions and spinach were picked fresh from the garden. HIS salad fills a salad bowl. HER salad more than half fills a serving bowl (I'd guess 3-4 cups of spinach leaves).


HIS dinner. Sorry, these are the only dinner plates I have in this Arizona kitchen, and food doesn't photograph very well on them. Notice how much cauliflower and how little broccoli he chooses to eat. He does like white foods!


HER dinner. Served on a paper plate, as there are no other small sized plates in this kitchen....and the food photographs better on white. Notice the rule of thumb; 1/4 of the plate for protein, 1/4 for starch/starchy vegetable and 1/2 the plate filled with vegetables and/or fruit.

*Note to Sue: I have been known to wash off my paper plates and use them again ;-)

The butternut squash is from my 2010 garden. I have just two more, then they'll be all gone. I plan on growing twice as many this year, as they store well and even improve in flavor as they age. It's one vegetable SHE and HE like equally well.