Loveday Writing

Home Cooked Meals

I once jokingly told my brother, Nathan that the reason why it’s easy for me to save money on youth allowance is because I don’t socialise and I eat the same things over and over again.

It’s true, when I’m at uni and away from my family, I tend to eat meals on rotation, especially dinner. With dinner I would usually have spag bol, fish and vegies/chips, chicken parmigiana/schnitzel and vegies/chips and usually on Fridays something naughty like Pizza. I wouldn’t eat these meals necessarily in this order, but it would generally be like this over and over, with the occasional take away.

When I come home for the holidays I go back to having my meals cooked for me, for the most part. Sometimes my family and I have lazy nights and eat whatever we want, usually on the weekends and my parents have dinner later than I do. Having dinner beyond 8pm isn’t my cup of tea, and I usually end up deciding what’s for dinner, which I don’t like because it isn’t easy deciding for three people. Home cooked meals aren’t quite the same as when I was a child as my meals had to be chosen and cooked for me, that and my parents’ as well as my own dietary requirements and choices have changed over time. Last year I came home and was surprised to see that my parents have substituted the majority of their beef choices with pork.

When I was growing up my mum would be the one cooking meals, for the last ten years my dad has taken over. My favourite home cooked meals are generally my mother’s shepherd’s pie, tuna bake and my father’s spag bol. Although I have been happily cooking my own meals for the last four years, it’s not the same  as my parents’ cooking. During the Easter break in my first year of uni, I saw my family for the first time since I moved away and they stayed in a motel which had a stove. My father cooked me his spag bol and it was the best meal I had since moving away as at the time I lived in flexi-catered accommodation and ate meals that were cooked in bulk. Nothing will make you appreciate home cooking more than having to live somewhere where you get limited meal choices.

I miss the childhood anticipation of wondering what I would be having for dinner every night. When I was a child I always thought it would be better to be an adult and eat whatever I wanted. It is good being able to choose what I want to eat, however I hope one day that if I have kids, that they will experience the same joy and childhood anticipation with wondering what their mum will cook for dinner like I did.