My wonderful wife, so Godly, so loving, so beautiful, the love of my life, vivacious – vulnerable – scandalous (read a book – this means she is amazing), mother of my precious children, the domesticator of our home. Shawna strives to be excellent in so many ways, one of them being dinner preparation.

“What do you want for dinner” is a question I’m often asked, and that is probably the hardest question for me to answer decisively. I’m simply not that picky when it comes to choosing dinner. (I do have a problem with mayo, sour cream, and some cheeses, but other than that I’m not picky). Shawna wants to mix it up using fancy recipes with words I don’t understand at restaurants, much less at home. When I’m at a restaurant my menu choice depends on whether or not I’m in the mood for Chicken, Beef, or Seafood and whether or not I like whichever what-u-call-it sauce they’re putting on it (cause many sauces are too mayo based). So when Shawna asks me if I want the Chicken & Broccoli something something dish she makes I’m like that chick on Jerry McGuire except I’m saying “Shut up! (tears in my eyes) You had me at chicken.” (If you’re too young to remember that movie then you can probably stop reading this because you’re probably not old enough to be married either.)

To help Shawna simplify dinner planning I gave her a list of meals she has made for me and told her she can rotate that list around and never cook the same thing twice in the same month. (For those of you who think the list was 31 items long you need to take your family out to eat once in a while and you also need to take your wife out on a date more often.) Hopefully the list will keep things simple enough to avoid any more “What’s for dinner” conflicts.

So I’m writing about this for a couple of reasons. There are probably a lot of ladies out there who want to be good to their man with cooking but the idea of not doing good enough is holding you back. Or maybe there are just some guys who feel the same way I do and want to make their lady feel good about what she is doing no matter how simple it is. Men – keep it simple and be thankful your wife is cooking – help wash dishes and put the kids to bed. Ladies – don’t get too stressed about variety in the kitchen. Trust me if you take that creativity to another room in the house, if you know what I mean, he will care less what you cooked and he’ll be glad to help with dishes.