Being His En Gedi with Food

In my first post on Being His En Gedi, I talked about how it all starts with a good attitude! Now, we will move on to food. What man doesn't thoroughly enjoy good things to eat? My husband has always said that if I threw a bag of Doritos on the table and called it dinner, he would be happy. He's not picky and doesn't complain. However, he does enjoy vegetables and whole-grain breads and having a good diet. He also really enjoys when I make a special effort to make something he is especially fond of! Here are some ways that I have tried to be En Gedi to my husband in the area of food:

*I don't make things he doesn't like. This has always been very simple for me since he's not picky and usually eats anything and is okay with trying new things. I honestly can't think of anything offhand that he truly doesn't like (except maybe saurkraut and I don't like it either) and so I don't have to worry too much about this. My mother-in-law has been a great example in this area in that she doesn't bring onions, garlic, popcorn, or spicey things into the house as my father-in-law can't bear the smell. Even though she would really like to cook with those things, she doesn't for his sake.

*In general, try to make things he especially likes. I don't enjoy hotdogs but always make sure to get some of his favorite kind throughout the summer to throw on the grill. For the most part we like the same foods and so we eat a lot of our favorites often.

*Special Spoiling. Every now and then I do "Spoil Hubby" week where I plan 7 days worth of his favorite meals and desserts. He loves it! Why don't I make every night a Spoil Hubby night? Well, because we're on a budget, I can't always buy the ingredients for his all-time favorites, and because of the pace of life, I can't whip up a pumpkin pie every day (and that wouldn't be great for our waistlines either!) Spoil Hubby week is a lot like eating out at a restaurant for a week straight, so it's more fun if it's rare and something he can anticipate!

*Snacks on hand. Snacks seem to evaporate into thin air around here because my kids are big snackers and my husband has a metabolism that burns about twice as much as the average male (or so it seems!) When King Jo is home, he's snacking every hour or two, and yet he hasn't gained a pound in 10 years! If I want his home to be a place of refreshment and delight for him, I know to keep these things on hand: honey roasted peanuts, saltine crackers, pears, apples, granola bars, Doritos, homemade peanut butter cookies, muffins or homemade bread, olives, jalapenos or pickles, tortilla chips and Pace salsa, and especially ICE-CREAM!!!

*Meals: My hubby gets up first and usually helps the kids get breakfast so that is a blessing. He's totally not a cooked-breakfast type of guy so a bowl of cereal is what he prefers (and hey, I don't mind sleeping in a bit!) Four out of five days a week he comes home for lunch and so I try to always have leftovers ready or something cooked up for lunch when he gets home. I love having him come home for lunch and the kids do too so I want to feed him well so he continues to do so and doesn't have to become a grab-lunch-at-McD's kind of guy (which is both expensive and unhealthy!) My goal is to always have dinner ready or almost ready when he gets home. There are rare occasions where we have been running errands or had something special going on where this doesn't happen, but normally I do because I always think about how hungry I would be if I was lifting house logs all day in the scorching sun. I usually ask him what time he will be home for supper before he leaves home on his lunch break, since it varies a little bit from day to day.

*Packed lunches: I used to have to pack lunches for King Jo every day when we were first married. For the first year of our newlywedded bliss I would put little love notes in his lunch each day. The guys at the lube place where he worked got such a kick out of his daily notes. Currently, my hubby only needs one packed lunch a week as he spends one lunch hour each week playing guitar with his buddy/accountability partner at our church. If he goes logging for work, which they do about once a week during the fall, I try to pack a very hearty lunch with lots of energy-boosting nutrients and some Gatorade or Propel as they are often working 12 or more hours on those days. I find that due to my hubby's early mornings and my zombie-like state in the morning I prefer to pack lunches the night before. I still try to do notes now and then to let him know how much we all appreciate his back-breaking labors.

I love to cook and have a lot of fun baking up desserts or bread or experimenting with new recipes. Of course, the reality is that it is a lot harder to cook with three little ones in our current stage of life. It takes planning ahead by mapping out meals and making a shopping list and trying to get all of the grocery shopping done once a week. During my morning sickness stages, my hubby has had to endure a lot of fast-food, sandwiches, and frozen dinners. If all of the kids are having a rough day or we've had lots of errands to run, meals around here are very simple. But, I am thankful for the way God has provided us with food/meals through the sweat of my husband's brow and want to bless him with good food!

Share your ideas on how you use food to make an En Gedi for your husband......