That’s so funny! And really clever.

Hmmmm... those would be labeled 'food' at my house. It's become a joke. The highest compliment is for someone to say my cooking 'tastes like food."

I'm usually able to be a little more specific. This evening I asked if we might be having anything "spaghettaceous" because it smelled like pasta and garlic when I came in.

Ha Ha, that's funny! I should do that here; I often get the same answers from my hubby. Men must really like, "whatever", "anything" "I don't know" and "I don't care" for dinner!

I think that is hilarious. Do you recognize what's in each, so you know what to expect?

Excellent!! In my house, if I have something that I don't want touched I label it "lima beans".

skibby, that wouldn't work here. Hubby LOVES lima beans! But, if I labeled it 'beets' or 'pumpkin pie' it would be safe.

Sigh, DH repeatedly said "my mother shopped every day, we never had meat from the freezer." So one day I'm talking freezers with his mom, she says "I wouldn't have survived 7 children without my freezer, and I STILL had to shop every day because they ate so much bread, and cereal, and potatoes, and . . . " Then, years later, DH fesses up about the 6'-long chest freezer they had in the basement.

Amylou, your mother was a very smart woman. Cheers!

I think your labels are pure genius!

Here, our containers are numbered. The date it's cooked, the contents, and then the number are written in my book. When we want to use left overs, we look in the book, for what has been in the longest... and then, what we actually want to eat... and that gets nuked, and eaten.

But then no men live here.

LOL

Moni

Very funny! My poor Dh gets leftovers. :0)

I just tell my DH what we are having for dinner.

If he objects he is on his own.

" Men must really like, "whatever", "anything" "I don't know" and "I don't care" for dinner! "

You wouldn't hear that from me. I care and it matters but a way to have what you want is to step forward and do it yourself. We alternate preparing dinner but try to prepare what the other likes and also check in first. Before I retired, my wife was home and weekday dinner was what she made but her choices reflected common likes.

If I got answers like that, I'd prepare that person a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After a few times, I think the answer would change. Or, I'd check in early enough to accommodate or at least discuss a reasonable request.

In our house, if my husband is hungry, he usually cooks something for himself or heats up leftovers.

When it is family meal time, we trade off. Each of our kids has one night a week that they have to cook dinner.

The younger two still need assistance, the older 2 are fairly self sufficient, that leaves 3 nights a week that are his/my responsibility.

If the kids have some event, sport, practice, get-together, etc on one of those nights, one of us shuttles the kids, the other cooks dinner.

I love that my husband is self sufficient in cooking, cleaning and caring for our children.

I am sadly, frequently reminded that he is apparently the exception, at least in this area.

It's like the 1950s sometimes.

Geese, Elmer, lighten up. We're just kidding around and having some fun here. Haven't you ever had a day when you couldn't decide what you felt like eating? I know I have.

For what it's worth, my hubby is an excellent cook and prepares our meals more often than I do, but there are still days he can't decide what he wants to eat.

Edit to add that I read the OP to hubby and he thought it was funny too.

SO does not cook. I get irritated whenever someone else cooks in my kitchen. He very very very rarely has a specific request. Recently he wanted chili. 3 days in a row.....

He does do that thing where he says he doesn't care what I cook,then runs behind me and asks what I'm going to cook,then tells me he would rather not have that....:/

TG, don't talk about there being regional differences, one regular gets upset at that notion. I do think there is some of that, also generational differences, with you and your husband being more typical of what I see with 30-somethings(including my own kids and their friends) and less typical (but not unknown) with those older than you.

Dawn, it didn't seem funny to me. It seemed like a bunch of people describing relationships with archaic and out of date gender roles, like that between Archie and Edith Bunker.

I read it to my DH. He laughed, then muttered 'smarta**" under his breath. :)

I would have very little patience with a husband who voiced no opinion about dinner options. Too many times and he would no longer get a vote. Fortunately, I don't have that problem. My husband has discovered his inner chef since his recent retirement; I give him free reign and show lots of appreciation.

Even before his retirement, he showed a keen interest in our evening meals.

Pudgeder, my mother should have thought about your clever labeling system, very funny. She just spent most of their 60 years together being irritated, lol.

The beauty of a husband who shows no interest in the dinner menu is that you can always have exactly what you are in the mood for, prepared just the way you like it. Works for me.

All in the Family WAS a comedy ;~)

Yes of course, it was a comedy. Why it was a comedy was that it used satire and exaggeration to ridicule what at the time was an all too common stereotypical unequal domestic relationship between two spouses, and also among their family members. And how the ignorance of a patriarch could overwhelm and dominate the lives of other even adult members of the family. Also a scenario all too common up through those years and even today for some.

Many years ago I read in Readers Digest a similar solution for the whats for dinner question. My DH's answer to my asking for suggestions for a meal was almost always "what ever you want to make" or "I don't care" or "surprise me". So I started labeling some things for the freezer with his exact words. Then I would send him to the freezer to select something. He wasn't amused.

I often ask when planning menus for the week as I make out my shopping list. Same replies, "what ever", IDK, "should we grill". On the plus he has never grumbled about what I serve--except for the rare occasion when his lunch is very similar to his dinner. I tend to continue to cook for the five we used to be. This usually results in the meal that night, one for the freezer for later and one portion for his lunches. He prefers not to eat chicken twice a day!!!

Labels for my frozen meals/stuff -- "God only knows" -- yeah, I really should do better with labels/dates...

This reminds me of the time I asked my husband what he wanted for Christmas. He said, "Nothing." So come Christmas morning as we are opening gifts, he opened one of his only to find an empty jar labeled Nothing. He thought that was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

Love that, gigi! You gave him what he wanted for Christmas and create a special memory at the same time.

In our house one of them would have to be labeled "I don't know, what do you want?"

When you think about it, it is odd that one person just lets another decide what they will eat.

Through the years, while raising my two DD's I did ask them what they would like. But, after years of cooking, you figure out what the favorites are.

I sometimes get into a slump and tell DH to come up with two dinner ideas. Our lives can still be hectic. DH has his real estate properties and sometimes things come up and he is late for dinner.

This is when we do something light. Nowadays, I usually plan only three meals and am prepared to wing the rest.

That said, he doesn't complain about my choices.

What's odd to me is that while everyone needs to eat, only one person is responsible for preparing said meal/s.

Texas, DH did and still does more than his share. No way would I put meal planning onto his already hectic schedule. What he does in one day, some don't do in a week.

But that said, I think it is great when the men get involved. I have a few friends who have husbands who love to cook. That's great for them.