Now is a good time to re-evaluate.
As we move away from working life and into a phase that’s a little slower, I hope the change will give us time to approach food choices more thoughtfully.
Truth be told, I feel like we do a pretty good job as things stand, mostly because I’m lucky enough that my husband is able to plan and prepare virtually all of our meals. He does a great job.
But our lives are changing and our bodies aren’t getting any younger, so here are some goals I hope we can accomplish.
Less Meat
I would like it if we could regularly incorporate more vegetarian meals.
Smaller Meals
Currently we tend to cook larger meals, partly because our recipes are for a family of 4. I’d like to make these smaller and/or get in the habit of freezing some for later.
More Grazing
Similar to the goal for smaller meals, it would be nice to normalize just having something like hummus and veggies for dinner if I’m not that hungry.
More Indulgent Moments
This might seem to be in opposition to the items above, but nothing in my goals is about depriving ourselves. I want us to buy amazing cheese and decadent pints of ice cream. I hope we discover local gems as we travel and that small amounts of these indulgent foods will be satisfying.
Balance the Workload
I’m not necessarily looking forward to all the cooking tasks, but it only makes sense that when I stop working, we revisit how to balance the home chores, including cooking.
Campfire Cooking
I enjoy cooking over a fire, but we’ve seen many RVers who say that day in, day out it becomes too much of a pain. I hope that we can adopt a setup that makes campfire cooking less of a pain and that I can prepare meals this way regularly.
Experimentation and Fun
Years ago when I did most of the family cooking, I used to like experimenting with making bread when I had the time. I have a recipe for scones that we both love, but I never seem to find the time to make. I have always wanted to try making pasta from scratch. I hope that with the slower pace of retired life, I can bring some of these types of elements back into our kitchen.
Despite that I’d like to make some changes I am very grateful that for years and years my husband has taken ownership of this role for us. He has done a great job. For the most part I’m not interested in changing what we eat as much as making some shifts in how we do it.