Aaj Khane Me Kya Banao? [What should I cook for dinner today?]

Aaj Khane Me Kya Banao? [What should I cook for dinner today?]

The eternal question in one's married life! It's one question we as a couple used to spend unusual amount of time every day mulling (and sometimes arguing) over.  It used to go something like this (not exactly but you will get the drift).

Tring...Tring...

Dear Wife: So, aaj khane me kya banao?

Me: Aalo ke Parathe? [Stuff Potato Paratha?]
DW: Parso to Aalu ki sabji banayi thi! [We ate Potato curry just a day before!]

Me: How about Muli [Radish] ke Parathe then?
DW: Muli Nahin hai! [We do not have Radish]

Me: Roti aur Bhindi ki sabji [Okra Curry]?
DW: Kya boring si dish bolte ho..tumhe to bus jab dekho bhindi chahiye. [What a boring dish, you can eat Okra anytime.]

Me: Uff ho! To phir tum hi kuch soch ke bana lo. Mujhe meeting me jana hai!
       [Oh! Cook whatever you think...I need to go to meeting]
DW: Ok, soch thi hoon, kuch nahin soojha to baad me phone
 karungi!
        [Ok..will think about it, otherwise I'll give you call again.]

After couple of hours....tring tring!!

And soon, more often than not, the discussion ended with me saying in frustration, "Jo bana na hai banalo yaar please! [Cook whatever you want dear please!]". Frustration on both sides.

It reached a point where I could sense if we didn't do something about it, it would start effecting our married life, especially after my better half joined the workforce full time. Now, after a long day back from work, we didn't have luxury of time or any energy arguing over what to cook! So we sat down, talked about it and came up with a solution. A solution which initially she was sceptical about, but eventually warmed up to the whole idea.

So what's the solution you ask? It's very simple and I wondered why we never thought about it before. They don't say Necessity is mother of invention for nothing.

Solution:

To start with, we listed all the dishes we can cook at dinner in an excel document. Once we compiled the list we divided it into 5 day weekly menu. We made sure we grouped the dishes in the menu so we can have good variety in a given week. To our surprise, we came up with a list long enough that we didn't have to repeat the same dish for at least 2.5 months.

Another nice side effect of implementing this solution was that we knew exactly what veggies to buy when we went for our fortnightly shopping on the weekends. No more shopping uninformed.

Pretty soon we stopped arguing over what to cook due to the preset menu. Also excitement returned at the dinner table because we knew we are not going to repeat a dish for next 2.5 months. No more wasting time arguing or standing in front of the fridge mulling and no more inadvertent repeating of the just few of our most fav dishes every week.

We cooked (alright, she cooked ;-)) first dish off the menu on Sunday, 30th March 2008. And it's been exactly 6 years and funnily enough as I write this, it's Sunday, 30th March 2014.

And after 6 years, I can say the solution we have is a success! :-)

Happy days!