I never dreamed I’d dedicate so much of my life to food.

I spend a good number of hours a day preparing, serving, and cleaning up after meals and snacks. I spend still more hours acquiring food - making a grocery list, doing the shopping, putting away the groceries. If I am at all organized, I spend some time before making the grocery list to plan the meals for the week. If not, I spend too much time every day figuring out what we’re going to eat.

This weekend Dex was helping me make dinner. I told him to look in the freezer for some kind of meat and get it started defrosting. Then we switched roles, he herded kids while I took over making the dinner he’d planned out. As I was moving swiftly from stove to fridge to table and back, he said, “This is the way it should be. The man is the master chef telling the lowly cooks what to make and they do all the preparation.”

“Great!” I said. “I would love for you to tell me what to cook every day.”

I think he was momentarily puzzled by the absence of sarcasm in my tone. But I meant it. How many times have I asked him what he wants for dinner and he’s grunted and said “I don’t care. Whatever you want to make.” He thinks he’s being helpful by giving me free choice. And that’s noble when it comes to every other aspect of life except meal planning. If I had any inspiration I wouldn’t ask. Often the hardest part of cooking a meal is deciding what to make.

My sister has been urging me for years to make a meal plan. I’ve made meager attempts with some success but what I need to do is make a huge master list to choose from. Then I can pick meals for the week based on what’s on sale at the grocery store or what our schedule is for the week, etc.

The other thing I need is fresh ideas. I am going to scour the internet for healthy, nutritious, easy-to-prepare meals that kids (hopefully including my kids) like to eat. If you have any favorites, send them along.

And wish me luck. I’m going to try lentils tonight. Easy to make? Check. Extremely nutritious? Check. Edible by children? We’ll see.