What's for Dinner?

During the early years of our marriage, I often (lovingly) referred to Bodybuilder Hubby as “The Human Garbage Disposal.”

Because this boy can eat.

When Bodybuilder Hubby is training for a contest, his diet is very regimented.  But for many years, the off-season meant being able to eat whatever he wanted. Dinner out with friends might involve finishing his own plate and then seven more tacos or whatever else was too much for his friends to finish.  He would complain when, on a busy day, he was only able to eat five meals.  (He still complains about this on most days, actually…)  He’d stand on the scale in the morning and be all excited when he’d gained a couple of pounds.  I’d try really hard not to smack him.

He would make these huge pans of what he called “lasagna” but which tasted like flavorless ground beef with noodles.   Then he’d finish it all in a matter of days.

I’ve watched himself gorge himself at a restaurant hours after a contest was over, then wake up the next morning so swollen from the salt and grease that his fingers looked like messed up sausages.

Contest prep time was completely different.  I helped Bodybuilder Hubby prepare his meals back in those early days, back when it was a novelty.  (He’s on his own now.)  He would cook ten pounds of chicken breast meat at a time and a big pot of white rice.  (He had to teach me how to use a rice cooker, something I’d never even seen before.)  Then he would stand at the kitchen counter with a box of sandwich baggies and a food scale and divide the food up into portions for each meal: dozens of bags of diced chicken, rice and frozen green beans.  He bought a small freezer that we kept in the garage, solely for storing his prepped meals.

Bodybuilder Hubby’s approach to food has changed over the years.  He doesn’t let himself go as much during the off season, though he still puts on a fair amount of weight.   He eats “clean” most of the time: little salt and fat, very few processed foods. 

One thing that seems to surprise people is that Bodybuilder Hubby prefers real butter to processed “healthier” spreads.  Butter has one ingredient: butter.  Many of those spreads have long lists of ingredients, including artificial colors and flavors.  And, let’s be honest.  Those spreads taste like crap.  According to me, real butter on a fresh slice of homemade multigrain bread is the epitome of yumminess.  Mmmmm….

For years I didn’t have to worry about cooking dinner every night.  Bodybuilder Hubby did his thing, and I did mine.  (Lean Cuisine frozen meals, anyone?)  Now that we have kids, I’m trying to figure out how to do things like plan meals in advance and, basically, how to cook.  But we still rarely eat all together as a family, something I’m hoping we’ll figure out how to do better as our kids get older.

We did actually sit down to a family dinner last week: breaded baked chicken and zucchini.  Everybody ate it, and it tasted really good.  Doesn’t get much better than that.