One of the most frustrating aspects of my life at home is grocery shopping. The three members of my family, lucky souls, have zero food restrictions, whereas there are currently 39 food items/ingredients I need to avoid to feel well. I am chief in charge of buying food for our home so no one has to try to keep up on what I can and cannot consume. I try to anticipate what grocery items my family needs but, because there are so many items they can eat that I can’t and because they don’t always remember to tell me what they have run out of, I make no less than four trips to a grocery store each week.
This morning, Thing 2 awoke, wandered into the kitchen, and starting rifling through the fridge in search of food. There were plenty of breakfast items, from cereal to eggs to pancake fixings to hash browns and even pumpkin bread I made from scratch a couple days ago, but he came up empty for ideas.
Thing 2: I don’t know what to eat.
Me: Well, there’s….
Hubby: (immediately seeing an opportunity, cuts me off) We could go get breakfast burritos.
Thing 2: I’d be down for that.
Me: (finally continuing) There’s all sorts of food here to eat.
Thing 2: Breakfast burritos sound good.
Hubby: Let me finish making this coffee and we can go.
Thing 2 runs off to put on clothes for the outing to Tamale Kitchen for breakfast. I sit there wondering if I have become invisible or was somehow muted accidentally.
Me: We have plenty of food here. We don’t always have to go out to eat when someone is hungry.
Hubby: But….breakfast burritos.
Me: You have a problem.
Hubby: I don’t think it’s a problem. I think it’s a solution, actually.
I shook my head as Thing 2 returned to the kitchen fully clothed. He and hubby disappeared out the door to the garage.
Hubby picked up take out last night. The night before that we grabbed burgers after our son’s cross-country meet. Meanwhile, the food in our fridge is slowly staging a revolt and becoming revolting because we are ignoring it. I try to save us money by purchasing food we can prepare, but after twenty-eight years with my husband I should know better. The siren’s song of food trucks and take out menus and In ‘n Out and Chipotle is deafening. I am no match for it.
In light of this, I’ve decided the solution to my problem is to buy groceries for myself and let everyone else fend for themselves and go out to eat. Fewer dishes for me to wash, less food thrown out, no complaining about what I prepare, no danger of me feeling sick because I ingested foods from a food truck or restaurant with ingredients I should have avoided, and every meal time will be peaceful because I will be alone while my family is out. Ultimately, we might even save on food costs because I won’t be tossing food in the trash because it went bad while we were eating out, and I won’t be frustrated because all my efforts around meal planning and food purchasing are for naught.
Damn. I really wish I had thought of this sooner.
Live Now and Zen 