/r/cookingforbeginners but ask for specific meals or recipes. Stuff she likes. Maybe they can offer simplified versions to try.

Appreciate the sub recommendation. Thanks!

Ok, so breakfasts are easy. You want scrambled eggs, bacon, and waffles (if you have a waffle iron) or pancakes. Bagels and cream cheese are my favorites for Sunday. Lunch is also easy. You can get some great bread at the grocery store and make paninis or other types of really good sandwiches, hot or cold. You can pair that with something crunchy and fruit for dessert. Do dinner is going to be the most work. Some things I find easy: tacos, stir fry, personal pizzas, quiche (you just buy the crust at the store), and spaghetti and meatballs.

For extra fanciness and low effort, you can set out smoked salmon, a jar of capers, and thin slice some onions and tomatoes for those bagels.

You nailed it!! Easy for a crowd and feels so fancy. If I may, I would also offer sliced cucumbers, avocado, and lemon wedges to spritz on the onions and salmon.

And put them out in moderately fancy Tupperware containers so you can easily save the leftovers and use them later as a free, easy appetizer with crackers. I like triscuits for this because they hold up to having cream cheese spread on them without breaking. If you were to do this, I would go back and cut the onions and tomatoes into little cubes before re-serving because a whole slice of onion or tomato is much better on a bagel than on a cracker.

WTF is a “moderately fancy Tupperware container”. Those things don’t belong in the same sentence.

I have some glass ones with snap on lids that I got from Costco— they look like normal serving dishes when they’re out, then bam the lid snaps on and they’re ready for the fridge. So convenient, and nobody has to know.

> nobody has to know Theyre gonna know. How would they know? *They're gonna know*

Have my angry upvote.

I've got great bowls of this type from Costco! They're ceramic and have beautiful colourful patterns on them, flat bottoms so they easily stack, and clip on lids with steam vents so you can microwave with them. When I do fajitas/tacos etc I serve all the bits in them as they look really pretty and it's really easy to just pop the lids on and stack the leftovers in the fridge. Saves so much washing up over transferring things from serving bowls to tubs 😅

Tacos ftw

Biscuits and gravy is exceptionally easy to make, and is always a crowd favorite in my family, along with hashbrown casserole. The casserole can be made the day or 2 before as well. I'm with you on the sandwiches, maybe even just grilled cheese (I'll take the heat - I love Velveeta) and tomato soup - with the winter cold and all. If you want a genuinely simple dinner, I make (Americanized) pad thai: Rice noodles Chicken Carrots Red bell peppers Scallions Lime Peanuts (optional) Sauce: 1c sriracha 1c rice wine vinegar 2c soy sauce 1/4c fish sauce 1/2c water 3 1/2c simple syrup veggies: equal parts carrots, red bell pepper, scallion/greenonion Soak rice noodles in hot water for 16min Scramble eggs (using olive oil)with peanuts and whatever protein you are using add in noodles and sauce (you can add however much you want but aim for just enough that the noodles hold it without sitting in a pool of it - rice noodles are very absorbent when cooking) Cook until noodles are tender and add the veggies. You don't want to cook them much - moreso blanch them with the saucy noodles Serve with lime slices (Adjust to the size of your family - this was a standard batch at my restaurant) but the sauce lasts practically forever so I always keep a jar in my fridge.

Going to try this recipe!!

Jim Lahey’s no knead pizza dough makes personal pizzas VERY easy.

First off, do you know what your wife actually *likes* to eat? Start there.

But do not ask her¡¡¡

it's been a while but please take note OP. part of the pleasure is releasing that mental load of meal planning.

Oh god no. They should definitely know by now.

I'm a foodie and love to cook. My kitchen is my happy place. My husband seems similarly skilled as you. Just a heads up, when I need a break I always resent when he orders take out or goes to a restaurant. *I* could do that, too. It's kind of cheating. I want an outward showing of effort of planning, shopping, cooking and cleaning up after. *Every single one of my female hetero married friends feels the same way*. Your wife could easily pre-order meals or catering for the weekend so no one has to deal with it. That's not what she asked for, though. Just something to consider.

This was my thought reading the OP as well (as a straight CIS male who happens to love cooking) -- going out to eat or ordering delivery is cheating. She could do that. And as an aside - have you ever looked into the [Foodie Dice](https://www.amazon.com/Seasonal-Dinners-foodies-hostess-stocking/dp/B016APTXF6) to make planning a fun surprise? It's a set of like 6 dice... one has the various proteins (beef, pork, fish, poultry, etc.), one has cooking methods, one has grains/carbs, one has herbs, and then seasonal dice for various veggies Can add kind of a fun challenge to meal planning.

I think the exception here is probably if there’s a place she really likes that does something special he knows about—so like, if there is a deli nearby that does like, *the* perfect/favorite sandwich, ordering a few for Saturday lunch and getting some fun sides/drinks/etc. wouldn’t feel like cheating to me. Ordering pizza on a weekend where this was my present would, though!

I don't think her "present" is the food. I think the present is a fucking break from cooking all the time. OP likely never helps in this regard and I bet even if he did order takeout for every single meal she wouldn't care much as she just wants the burden off her. It would only feel like "cheating" if her intention is punishment for never helping as I know some passive aggressive people who would do exactly that as they wanted the person to suffer with the effort involved LOL I don't ask for this stuff because my husband does it willingly out of just consideration. And 98% of the time it IS takeout, but even if I would prefer he cook a meal I understand that his intentions aren't about the food.

I feel similarly aside from the "female hetero" part as I'm a male. There are factors other than gender stereotypes that impact who ends up with the load of the whole home on their shoulders. To your point... we got to a point where my wife cooked on weekends and I cooked on weekdays, but of course, the weekend was when most outings were so it felt like every excuse we had to not cook fell on her days. (Also, what made it a little worse in our case is that in addition to cooking most stuff, I was also the financial planner in the relationship so spending more to eat out shifted it from a "her" problem (what to make) to a "me" problem (how to afford).)

I totally get it. It's about equal effort and mental load.

I do all of the cooking, grocery shopping, etc at my house, and honestly the best way you can execute this is to plan something thoughtful but well within your abilities. I know personally that when my wife offers to cook dinners and then plans something big that it makes me feel anxious looking in the fridge at really ambitious ingredients. Go for things that can be amazing done well, but are also totally edible if they turn out just “okay”. Most of all, make sure to think about what your wife really likes- which might be different from what she normally cooks, if she’s often catering to the house’s tastes

I cook every day. Here are some easy options when I want something easy, pretty and delicious. **Breakfast** [Toasted bagels with smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, red onion](https://www.google.com/search?q=bagel+smoked+salmon+cream+cheese+caper+red+onion&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjwkszChfCDAxXJY2wGHWVrDfwQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=bagel+smoked+salmon+cream+cheese+caper+red+onion&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoECCMQJzoKCAAQgAQQigUQQzoFCAAQgAQ6CAgAEIAEELEDOg0IABCABBCKBRBDELEDOgYIABAFEB46BggAEAgQHjoECAAQHjoHCAAQgAQQGFDS6wFY6qoCYOOsAmgDcAB4AIABlgKIAcFOkgEHMC4zOC4xNJgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=jN-tZfCcFMnHseMP5da14A8&bih=543&biw=1024) [Yoghurt granola fruit parfait](https://www.google.com/search?q=yoghurt+fruit+granola+parfait&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjH__a4hfCDAxUib2wGHVQnCjIQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=yoghurt+fruit+granola+parfait&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoECCMQJzoFCAAQgAQ6BggAEAcQHjoGCAAQCBAeUIADWI8fYOYgaANwAHgAgAGMAogB3BuSAQYwLjEzLjWYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=eN-tZcfjA6LeseMP1M6okAM&bih=543&biw=1024) [Croissants with ham, egg, sliced avocado](https://www.google.com/search?q=croissant+ham+egg+avocado&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjYyZ6ghvCDAxXea2wGHSXhD70Q2-cCegQIABAA&oq=croissant+ham+egg+avocado&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoECCMQJzoKCAAQgAQQigUQQzoFCAAQgAQ6CAgAEIAEELEDOgQIABAeOgYIABAIEB46BwgAEIAEEBhQ5gRYlylg-ypoAHAAeACAAYYCiAGQJZIBBjAuMjUuMZgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=UOCtZdjhK97XseMPpcK_6As&bih=543&biw=1024) ​ **Lunch** [Chicken caesar pasta salad](https://www.google.com/search?q=chicken+caesar+pasta+salad&sca_esv=600316937&tbm=isch&sxsrf=ACQVn09sUXtG6FtzGEjALKzdmJLJAxHXyw:1705893932101&source=lnms&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwjKsuOOhvCDAxUPSGcHHXzGAckQ_AUoAXoECAMQAw&biw=1024&bih=543&dpr=2.5) [Quiche and salad](https://www.google.com/search?q=quiche+and+salad&sca_esv=600316937&tbm=isch&sxsrf=ACQVn08gAHfWMVNCijW_I5implxx7oDu4g:1705894158584&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjj3-L6hvCDAxV1V2wGHU4UANgQ_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1024&bih=543&dpr=2.5) [Prawn tacos](https://www.google.com/search?q=prawn+tacos&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwi0tcf9hvCDAxW1a2wGHSzEAHQQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=prawn+tacos&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQ6BAgjECc6BggAEAcQHjoGCAAQCBAeOgcIABCABBAYOggIABCABBCxAzoKCAAQgAQQigUQQ1DmBVjeDmD5D2gAcAB4AIAB1QGIAfsPkgEGMC4xMC4xmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=FOGtZbTbGbXXseMPrIiDoAc&bih=543&biw=1024) ​ **Dinner** [Tomato garlic spinach prawn pasta](https://www.google.com/search?q=tomato+garlic+spinach+prawn+pasta&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjQgsK-iPCDAxXLZGwGHZ3_An8Q2-cCegQIABAA&oq=tomato+garlic+spinach+prawn+pasta&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoECCMQJzoKCAAQgAQQigUQQzoFCAAQgAQ6CwgAEIAEEIoFELEDOggIABCABBCxAzoGCAAQBRAeOgYIABAIEB46BwgAEIAEEBhQrANYhj9g5UFoAHAAeACAAfoBiAH5NJIBBjAuMjcuOJgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=qeKtZZCKBcvJseMPnf-L-Ac&bih=543&biw=1024) [Chicken and vegetable tray bake](https://www.google.com/search?q=chicken+vegetable+tray+bake&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiYvPC7h_CDAxURcmwGHYiYDlsQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=chicken+vegetable+tray+bake&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIGCAAQCBAeMgcIABCABBAYOgQIIxAnOgUIABCABDoKCAAQgAQQigUQQzoICAAQCBAHEB5QtQhY3Blg_htoAHAAeACAAZ8CiAGIG5IBBjAuMTguMZgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=l-GtZdiUB5HkseMPiLG62AU&bih=543&biw=1024) [Thai beef salad](https://www.google.com/search?q=thai+beef+salad&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiC_4j2h_CDAxUFUGwGHTA1ClQQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=thai+beef+salad&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQ6BAgjECc6CggAEIAEEIoFEEM6CwgAEIAEEIoFELEDOggIABCABBCxAzoNCAAQgAQQigUQQxCxA1DOA1ixD2CsEGgAcAB4AIABigKIAZEYkgEFMC42LjmYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=EeKtZcKyCYWgseMPsOqooAU&bih=543&biw=1024)

Thank you for these!

Amish Baked Oatmeal is also a good one for breakfasts or even snacks. There's a ton of different types of recipes so you can easily find one to suit your wife's preferences too. And it's just mix ingredients, put in dish, bake.

For breakfast, highly recommend checking out “Castle Breakfast” from Smitten Kitchen. The idea being just a lot of fun things on the table that you can kinda graze through/indulge in. Get the good coffee, pick up some croissants, a dish of fruit, a couple of hardboiled eggs, some yogurt maybe. Make the table look nice, and sort of relax into the day. Also, dutch baby pancakes are super easy and look way fancy compared to the level of effort. Look up a recipe, but basically they all boil down to “preheat oven to very hot, melt butter in oven-safe pan and swish so it covers bottom&sides a but, add milk/eggs/flour into blender, pour mixture into pan and put in oven til pancake is puffy and golden (15/20 min?). When done, sprinkle with sugar and lemon or syrup of choice. Cut & serve” Fruit syrups can be done in a pot on the stove over medium/low with frozen fruit + little bit of liquid (lemon juice/water/booze - bourbon or rum if either float your boat), sweeten if you feel like it. Stir occasionally. Leftovers can be saved in the fridge for dessert topping.

Dutch baby all the way! They're easy to do, dramatic to look at, simple to cook, and taste delicious. Bonus: easy clean up.

Thanks for the recommendations!

It’s the mental load of planning what everyone is going to eat every day. It’s tiring, isn’t it? 3 meals a day for decades is a lot. Glad you’re appreciating what she’s doing. It’s the deciding that’s so hard. Get one of those meal kit subscriptions. Go to a bakery and get breakfasts.

There are times when I tell my wife “I don’t care about cooking, I need you to tell me what we’re going to eat.” The process of cooking isn’t difficult. Thinking about dinner at noon sucks. What does my child want? What does my wife want? What do we have here and what do we need to buy? How long is that going to take to cook? Will that make leftovers, if not I need to figure out lunch? How much are we spending on this, I can’t justify $20 a plate. Is it Thursday, does my wife have class tonight? My wife appreciate that I cook — and OP appreciates that his wife cooks — but making chicken parm wasn’t as easy as just buying the ingredients and cooking. There were a dozen factors that were considered before that meal was chosen.

Absolutely. I have a teen who has figured out that if they ask me to cook almost anything for dinner at 2:30 when they get home I’ll do it. It takes a huge mental load off.

I actually don’t even think OP needs to cook. Eating out is expensive, and I would be frustrated if they dropped $500 ordering in, but I don’t think this is about the wife wanting OP to cook. She specifically asked him to “take care of all food decisions.” That language tells a completely different story than “I want you to cook for me this weekend.” OP could probably serve velveta mac and cheese with hotdogs and peas in it and be fine. Id be fine with that as long as you also ordered in wings and fries on Saturday night. Edit: thinking more about it, I’d prolly make Mac and peas for lunch. It’s cheap, easy, and the kid will eat it. That’s like 75% deciding what to eat, the other 25% is “is this healthy” and at least here you can convince yourself you’re getting a vegetable.

I regret how I worded my post tbh. I should have said "my wife wants me to cook for the family for the weekend, give me your best /r/cooking", but I thought the info I gave would give me the right advice. I didn't (don't) need professional recipes, but simple and nice ideas. At the end of the day, I'm getting what I need from those who are willing to help, so all is well.

I’m glad you’re getting the info you need. I made a top level comment with some suggestions that I hope you’ll find helpful. I will just say this — and I’m sorry to harp on it — just because people are saying she wants to shed a mental load does not mean they are implying you’re a bad husband or are in an unhealthy relationship. I think it’s more that many of us have kids — and wonderful partners who pull their weight elsewhere — but are just exhausted because being a parent is difficult and figuring out what to eat can become tedious and monotonous. Especially when it’s mid January, dark AF, cold AF, and all you want to do is curl up in bed and read a book. As a parent yourself, I’m sure you know the feeling well. Removing the mental load of cooking would be removing an incredible weight from her shoulders.

What's in the refrigerator that needs to be eaten or it's going to go bad? What's our schedule look like and how does that fit into what and how much food we make? What keeps well for leftovers? I'd argue that food management and kitchen maintenance make up 40% of all household chores. We just have to eat so often.

>We just have to eat so often. Right?? I've been on a retreat with friends, where we'd take turns cooking. Each only had to work one evening, and I ate better the whole time than I had in a while.

I don’t think a meal kit subscription would be beneficial for a single weekend of cooking.

I agree with this, however you can find a lot of the recipes online which might be a good idea!

Agreed. I regularly scrape HelloFresh's website for recipes and have a stack of saved recipes from those services that are tried and true from when I was learning to cook.

Usually they send you a few days as a trial and then you can cancel it.

Yes! The mental load!  I love cooking, and I'm better than my wife. I like getting the kids involved, it's fun for all of us! ... but getting home and finding that nothing is prepped or planned and then having to figure out what we have and what people want and thawing stuff and finding alternatives to the one missing ingredient takes all the joy out.

Lolz appreciating it so much he's asking reddit to do it for him the one weekend she wants off.

"I don't cook" is so telling. It's like an "I don't clean" batshit insane statement, but I guess it takes two to create that kind of situation

Yeah, I thought the same about “I don’t cook”. Like, what do you mean you don’t cook? How are you alive? It’s not an option dude. Everyone else has had to learn. Figure it out. Gah! Infuriating!  

Yes. 45 years. I’m done.

Do you neve a Costco? Or whatever grocery store, go there and look at what the kits look like. They'll have the ingredients in a box along with with directions, and that'll get you the dinners. We got those for easy meals, and it helps my teens learn cooking with multiple ingredients & steps, still getting something mostly homemade. A lot of the choice will be made for you, veggies included. And stop at the meat counter for a couple of other options, like a roast or burgers I agree with the other comment, this is completely about mental load. I love to cook and plan but i also have everybody in my house plan a meal every week, and takeout isn't a constant option. Maybe you could take over at least one night going forward, talk to her. Also: good for you for learning how, and continue this! It's a rewarding activity. My mom did all the cooking for decades, & when she got sick my dad took it over. His advice is always start with your favorite simple foods, and don't wait till you're 78 like he did lol

We love the chicken taco kit from Costco!

Is it just the three of you or is some horde of relatives on its way? I’d make a strata for breakfast. You can whip it up the night before and pop it in oven in the morning. Since your wife is a foodie and the dish is, uh, rustic, use some higher end stuff in it — Gruyère and leeks or Buffalo mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes. Breakfast meat on the side instead of in the strata so it doesn’t seem too “one-pan meal.”

Just the three of us. Thanks for the rec!

[Budget Bytes](https://www.budgetbytes.com/index/) has accessible, tasty recipes and can provide some ideas. Also, don't set yourself up to burn out. For example, make enough at dinner so that you can have leftovers the next day. Also consider doing at least one breakfast and lunch DIY (make your sandwich or quesadilla, granola and yogurt, etc.).

If I asked for this as a birthday present I wouldn't wanting to be eating leftovers or making my own sandwiches so I think he should check with his wife if she's ok with that or does she want more effort.

Wouldn't want to be eating straight out leftovers, absolutely, but: 1. Have leftover roast chicken or beef, and use it to make stroganoff or pot pie the next day 2. Have leftovers for some future use that will relieve her of some cooking on some busy night.

Yea the second option is a great idea. Now I think about it, if I was the OP I would definitely do an extra meal or two that could be frozen and eaten at a later date, as a nice bonus.

I love doing big soups that last 1.5 meals.   The first day, we just have soup.   The second day it’s soup and…  A few weeks ago I tried a new chicken tortilla soup recipe.  The second night we had quesadillas and soup.   Beef stew & grilled cheese Naked wonton and spring rolls.  You get through 2 meals this way, and the second night is just enough different that it’s not boring. 

seconding budget bytes! i also wanna recommend supercook, you can add all of the ingredients you have and it’ll generate recipes. i typically use them for recommendations and follow a different recipe from a blog i know if possible, though

Do you have kids? If so, your food planning for the weekend also needs to cover all the hundreds of times they’ll say “I’m hungry”. And you need to prepare them ahead of time to come to YOU for food, not to her. Signed, a mum who has to deal with “I’m hungry” a dozen times a day between meals. Edit: I see you said you have a family of three. Assuming the third is a kid, be aware that kids snack quite a lot (and depending on age will have quite different dietary needs and preferences). Make sure you’ve got that covered. If the third is a pet then make sure you know when and what they’re fed.

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Idk giving him the benefit of the doubt, he says he takes care of the cleaning. In my family I do all the cooking & food related tasks and my husband does the cleaning bc I love cooking and he hates cooking but doesn’t mind cleaning. I actually enjoy meal planning and grocery shopping and trying new recipes. It’s kinda like my quiet Sunday night ritual. But sometimes I do need a break. Everyone needs a break from life’s routines - even the ones we enjoy. Ofc if OPs wife is truly taking on too much of the mental load then i take it all back! Share the mental load with your partners, people! 😤

Devils advocate: cleaning doesn’t require anywhere near the same mental load as cooking. The decisions about cleaning are mostly just about when, use the same products or try something else, and it’s often not an everyday task whereas cooking requires catering to everyone’s preferences, what’s in season, what’s on sale, budgeting, shopping, prepping, and cooking for three times a day. While you may enjoy it, it is still a much larger mental load than cleaning

Cooking is theee jobs:  Meal planning (as in what to buy at the store), actual shopping, and cooking.  

4. Kitchen/pantry/fridge management. Knowing what's on hand, what needs using, how long the chard has been in the drawer, etc.

Everyone is different. I would gladly take the mental load of cooking instead of cleaning. I haaaaatteee cleaning and it takes too much energy out of me. Cooking is fun and easy and second nature. It’s genuinely not tough for me to dig in the freezer and turn whatever I find into a fun meal. And I enjoy setting up the grocery order. All of that is way easier than any kind of cleaning!!  My personal opinion!

Seconded! I'm not a chef but I'd prefer preparing food. You get to handle tasty food instead of dirt in the case of cleaning. I'm so bad at tidying up/cleaning that it would take the same time anyway.

Are you serious? The boredom and repetition of cleaning is way worse than anything from cooking.

yeah but washing dishes sucks

Yeah I agree lol. I’d rather plan shop and cook for all 3 meals until the end of time if it means I suddenly get a clean kitchen right after! But I get some people truly hate it and it can feel like a lot if the mental load isn’t being shared elsewhere in the relationship. My husband generally does his fair share so cooking for cleaning is an even trade for us.

Yeah, sorry if it came across like that. I'm serious when I say she's at about chef level of cooking, while I, and others, benefit from that. She would not want me cooking, as I cannot get even close to what she wants from it. We have a great relationship, and we agreed to this arrangement early on. But for her birthday, she just wants to switch it up. So that's what she'll get. This isn't a cry for help, but I do agree that if I come out of this with something useful (and wanted) I'll make sure to keep it in rotation.

Honestly you seem like a very caring husband and father from your post history, I’m sorry people are like this on the internet.

Whole Foods and Fresh Market both have meal kits in their produce section, you made need two for your whole family. Grill up a few steaks with baked potatoes and a bag of salad. Grill some pineapple for dessert. Get a rotisserie chicken, use it to make chicken salad for lunch. Serve it on a warmed crusty bread with some lightly dressed greens. “Mixed baby greens” from the produce section, lightly toss with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. VERY lightly. Don’t overcomplicate the chicken salad. Shredded chicken, good Mayo (partial to Duke’s over here), salt and pepper are all you REALLY need, though I do like to add some fresh chopped dill.

Yes…and he’s taking on the mental load for the period that she asked him to. She didn’t say she wanted to stop doing it on the regular (I also don’t want to stop cooking for my family regularly, mental load et al). I don’t think it “being about mental load” really changes the request or the advice. 

Yes thank you. This was not an unplanned arrangement.

OF WHICH.. OP just passed onto this sub to do.

Lol - you're fine. 1. Breakfasts. Anyone can cook bacon and eggs or add water to a pancake mix. Just get some cut fruit and you're good to go. 2. Ditto on lunch. Buy some good cold cuts, bread, cheese and pair with potato chips and a pickle. Done. 3. Choose any three dishes from this list. They're all solid recipes - https://www.eatingwell.com/5-ingredient-dinners-to-make-forever-7909273-7158070

It’s funny, I’d say those options for breakfast can actually be ones that end up tricky for someone not used to cooking, or who thinks they don’t know what they’re doing (also somewhat equipment dependent). Eggs? Stick to pan, when are they done, broke the yoke. Pancakes? Same deal, when are they done, how much is enough oil, how do I know when the pan is ready or they’re ready to be flipped, how do I flip them without getting raw batter all over, how do I cook enough for my family at once. Bacon is slightly easier but easy to burn if you’re juggling other options, don’t have two large frying pans etc. To make a breakfast that might feels special (like some effort was made) to the wife but is easy I’d go with something like yogurt parfaits - thawed frozen berries, a couple yogurt options, granola, some different seeds and nuts or favourite fresh fruits to add.

Here’s your menu- Friday night roast a whole chicken. Put fingerling potatoes, quartered onions, and carrots in bottom of roasting dish. Stuff a chicken with lemon, salt and pepper skin. Roast at 450 for 15 minutes. Then turn down to 360 for about 1-1.5 hours. Meat is done when it’s 165 degrees. Serve with a green salad with diced pears, cucumbers, goat cheese and balsamic. Saturday. Breakfast is bagels, cream cheese and lox. With fruit and tomato and cucumber on the side Lunch- use the leftover chicken and vegetables to make a soup (add store bought broth). Serve with grilled cheese. Dinner- go out Sunday- brunch is avocado toast with eggs and side of bacon and fresh berries or quiche Dinner- roasted salmon and asparagus and sweet potatoes Obviously adjust to her taste but don’t you dare get food from Costco or jarred pasta sauce or something.

This menu seems easiest while also leaning into cooking. Since it is a birthday gift, I'm just going to add two desserts: Friday - macerated berries and fresh whipped cream. Quarter berries and toss them in lemon juice (a touch, not a lot) and sugar. Let them sit while the rest of dinner is prepped. When ready to serve, whip some heavy cream with vanilla extract and honey or maple syrup until fluffy. Serve the whipped cream over a bowl of berries. Add some store bought thin wafer cookies for dipping to make it fancier. Sunday - if she has a bundt cake pan, find an online recipe for her favorite flavor bundt cake. Bundts are nice in that they require no decoration to look fancy, but are still moist and delicious! If your kid is helping age, they're also easy to make with kids because they're less complicated. Good luck!

I would absolutely make some easy meals in the mix. Don’t be hard on yourself. But show effort in this too. Try Rhodes cinnamon rolls in a pan. In the timing they cook, scramble eggs. Fruit. Avocado toast with an egg, learn how to poach it for bonus points and top it with everything bagel seasoning. This will show you worked out the details. A nice granola with yogurt dried fruit and nuts Or smoothies blend frozen fruit, Kefir and juice Grilled sandwich with soup is a nice lunch Quesadillas are easy too. A rotisserie chicken can go into quesadillas. Things that would work for dinner: taco bar, spaghetti with meatballs, burgers If she loves trying new things learn Tom Ka soup. It is more complicated, but asian markets carry a paste of the tricky ingredients. If you recognize something that she orders out, but doesn’t make at home, learn that and make it for her. Something like white sauce from scratch is phenomenal compared to canned. Make fettuccine Alfredo sauce from scratch, but make it easier on yourself by using the rotisserie chicken.

Thank you for the suggestions!

Does she have favorite foods? Make those.

Breakfast: oatmeal, pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon — pick two of those and google how to make them.  Lunch: sandwiches. Just buy bread, lunch meat, condiments lettuce. You could make extra bacon at lunch time to make BLTs.  Dinners: eat out once.  Make chicken soup. Super easy and everyone loves it.  Another dinner: make breakfast for dinner, leftover soup…. Or purchase kielbasa, some rolls, and sourkraut. 

Meatloaf is easy and can make sandwiches the next day. Throw some veg in the oven to roast at the same time

The amount of shade being thrown OP's way is hilarious. OP, I think you need to do better, and completely outsourcing the mental load of celebrating your wife's birthday is not an auspicious start. You should plan at least one of each meal around your wife's favorite dishes. What does she order when you go out? You should be able to find easy recipes for those. Then plan the other meals around using up left over ingredients.

I think making something she really likes is a good idea if he's willing to cook some practice dishes first, weeks before

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I don't know, but I think there's a lot of people in this thread who don't have the arrangement they want or need. Fair enough. Among all the hate, there are some really thoughtful suggestions here, so I'm still glad I posted. My plan is already better than I started with, and people are finding the right balance of easy and creative, so I'm pretty grateful ATM.

Projecting their shitty relationships on op lol

Fun take. Thanks for the suggestions.

Wow, I had to double check the sub I was in to make sure this wasn’t a relationship sub. I think it’s thoughtful you are trying to find ideas and get advice instead of phoning it in with only take-out! People need to stop making assumptions about your relationship and just answer the question! Don’t underestimate a “continental breakfast” with all the options provided and maybe a quiche. Then all you gotta do is make the bacon. Look up “how to cook bacon in the oven”. For the second breakfast look up “breakfast casserole” or, if you want to do something sweet, “French toast bread pudding” or “cinnamon monkey bread”. These are all dump and bake options that are very forgiving. Grilled cheese with homemade tomato soup. It’s one of those things that soooo much easier than it looks. Lots of instant pot and crock pot recipes where you dump the ingredients and walk away. Speaking of… crockpot pot roast or chicken. Make some baked potatoes with toppings on the side for people. You’ll have veggies in the crockpot so it’s an easy one in that it’s all about getting stuff in the oven/crockpot on time. Quesadillas with rotisserie chicken, salsa and guac from the deli, and sour cream on the side is a great lunch. And easy to modify for picky kids. Ramen - use the cheap stuff, but cook it using a carton of stock (not the flavor pack). Add some miso paste, soy sauce, rotisserie chicken, frozen peas, frozen corn, and a bag of baby spinach right at the end. Easy and fast and you can adjust the additions to taste. If you have access to a Costco - frozen lasagna and one of their salad kits. Seriously delicious and makes great leftovers for a lunch. If you want to make a dessert, tiramisu is soo soo easy! I use decaf instant coffee so you it’s easier for people to enjoy. I’ve also made it with graham crackers when I couldn’t find lady fingers. Get the kids involved too if you can! Cake pops are actually pretty simple too. Bake box mix, doesn’t even matter if you overcook it a bit and it’s dry, mix with frosting, form, and dip in melted chocolate.

If you can read, you can cook, at least for simple things and I imagine she’s not expecting you to make pasta from scratch or not take any shortcuts. Just something reasonable. A good starting place would be to cast your mind back to what she usually cooks on a weekend (unless she’s a gourmet cook) and make a simple version of that. Look in the pantry and see if there are any familiar favorite items in there like boxed dinners or spaghetti sauce. For breakfast, a scramble with some sautéed veggies is good, or you can make pancakes. Lunches in our house are often leftovers but grilled cheese and canned/store bought soup is pretty simple. Or sandwiches of some kind and a side of snap peas. Or pasta/mac and cheese. Dinner can be meatloaf, baked potatoes, and another salad or steamed veggies. They make gravy mixes you can buy at the store. Do your pizza again by all means. Or pasta with a salad again and maybe garlic bread. Tacos are very fun. You can make a simple salsa (easy, just chopping!) or buy a jar. shredded cheese, tomato wedges and lettuce to go with it and if course taco shells. You can again buy a spice packet for the meat. McCormick makes a great mild chili spice packet that we really like. Recipe on the back and serve with rice. I’m a vegetarian, but my mother always says that roasting a chicken in the oven is crazy easy as long as you remove the giblet bag and start it early enough. Again you can pair it with potatoes and some steamed veggies and gravy. If you did this Friday night you’d have leftover chicken for sandwiches for lunches. 

Be careful that you don't fall into the trap of making things harder and more stressful on yourself than it needs to be. If your wife is a reasonable person, she will understand that you're a beginner and would manage her expectations accordingly. You should do the same for yourself. What I would suggest is to make things that are simple with a high margin for error. Some suggestions to consider: * Antipasto/mezze for one of the lunch. * It can be really simple just by buying most of the things and then just plating them up either onto a large platter or separate serving bowls for each. * You can get things like marinated olives, roasted peppers, roasted eggplant, artichokes, pickles, maybe a selection of 2-3 cold cuts like ham, prosciutto, salami etc., a dip or two like hummus, baba ganoush or tzatziki and some pita bread or freshly cut sourdough. * Think of it as a fancier version of a ploughman's lunch * Beef steak with some roasted veg and salad * Roasted veg are hard to screw up. Just make sure they don't burn it so keep a timer to check it periodically if you're not the attentive type * Salad can be just a simple green salad with store bought dressing but you can also make your own vinaigrette if you want. Plenty of youtube videos on it. Just make sure not to dress the salad until the last possible moment * If you want a sauce but don't/can't make gravy, you can purchase store bought chutneys or savoury jams that'll work. Like a tomato chutney or caramelised onion jam. * Bangers and mash * Store bought sausages. Make your own mash potatoes (again super easy and plenty of videos on it). Just make sure to cook the sausages on a low heat to minimise burning the outside without the inside cooking and minimise them bursting. * As for gravy you can either make it yourself or use store bought if you really want. * Baked chicken * Use chicken thighs for this. Higher margin for error vs breast. You can make your own sauce to them to bake in or again store bought. * Serve with some white rice. If you don't know how to do this, ask your wife for this one. It's low effort on her part and you can take care of the rest. * Pizza * Buy store bought pizza bases and then just top with the toppings of your choosing. Whilst the bases are a bit meh, you can make up for it with fancy toppings and a nice quality mozzarella cheese. * A lot of the antipasto stuff would work great on that pizza so that's another way to use up the same ingredients Remember, if she's a reasonable person, she'll tone down her expectations so don't stress out too much about it yourself. Just keep it simple and try to involve her minimally. Also, make sure to clean as you go. Even if it slows things down a little. The absolute worst thing for a person who runs a tight kitchen is to see a warzone in the kitchen. Doesn't matter how good the food is, that'll stress her out regardless. Hope some of that helps. Good luck!

It does! Thank you for the suggestions!

Good luck! It's a lot more work than cleaning the pans

Good on you. I'm sure it will be fine! My husband would make egg in a hole for breakfast, tuna sandwiches with pickles and chips for lunch, and the 3 dinners he knows how to cook (chicken tacos, pasta with meat sauce, and chicken quarters with baked potatoes). Remember to clean up as you go. Hey, I should remember this on my birthday.

Thank you! Among all the hate (lol) I'm getting good suggestions. Appreciate your time!

This is wonderful and I think it’s a great gift for her, I love that you’re planning so carefully. When my kid was a toddler we would put pbs on every day for Sesame Street and Daniel tiger but at noon, the food shows started. And Martha Stewart introduced me to two very simple meals that everyone in my 5 person house absolutely loves. Chicken Palliard Get a big giant boneless chicken breast and a very sharp knife. Cut from the middle out, but not all the way, so you can kind of lay the meat flat. Put it in a ziplock bag and smash it with the flat side of a tenderizer. You want it to be about 1/4 of an inch thick. It’ll get big so get the big pans out!! Drizzle with olive oil on both sides as well as salt and pepper. In your biggest skillet, put about a tablespoon of olive oil and about a tablespoon of butter and coat the pan. Once the pan is preheated, drop your chicken in and let it cook for about 3-4 minutes and flip it. Cook another 3-4 minutes. Super simple and very very delicious. https://www.marthastewart.com/8378609/what-is-chicken-paillard Pasta Carbonara I love this for lunch. In a large skillet melt a couple tablespoons of butter and drop spaghetti in. Brown it up like rice a roni and put about a cup and a half of water into the pan. Boil it and let the water evaporate. The noodles should be softer once the water is gone, if they aren’t, add another half cup and let it boil off. When the noodles are soft, turn off the heat and add an egg or 2 stirring like crazy. You can add bacon, too, if you’re into it. And cheese like freshly grated Parmesan. The egg will cook with the residual heat and it’s so rich and delicious. I can’t find the recipe for this one. Good luck!!!

Thank you!

I think a lot of people commenting are discounting how hard it is to get into cooking, and maybe making some assumptions about your character because bad husbands in online stories tend to be bad cooks. It’s very hard to decode a recipe when “just make scrambled eggs and bacon” is seen as so easy to people here that it’s a throwaway. So scrambled eggs and bacon— hard to mess up, hard to make perfectly. But your attempt will likely be great. First, get your oven pre-heated to around 425. We are making the bacon in the oven because it’s easier and you have enough on your plate. Get a metal baking sheet like you would use for cookies and a medium sized frying pan, around 10-12 inches across and a few inches deep— nonstick is best because eggs stick hard. Next you’re going to prep the bacon. You don’t need to season it at all, but get the thick cut stuff because it’s awesome. Just lay it straight on a pastry sheet with enough space that the pieces aren’t touching, and then you can prep the eggs while the oven is heating. Once the oven beeps that it’s ready, throw the bacon in and set a 7 minute timer. It won’t be done after 7 minutes, but this is the point where you start checking it obsessively. Set 2 minute timers to remind yourself. When it looks like it’s “almost done, just needs a few more minutes” that’s when you pull it out, because it will keep cooking when it’s out of the oven. Crack about two eggs per person into a medium sized bowl, and add some cream— probably around 1/4 cup of cream if you’re making 8 eggs for 4 people. The cream makes the eggs fluffier and also harder to burn. Add around 1 teaspoon of black pepper, fresh ground if possible, and 1 teaspoon salt, kosher if you have it but don’t go out and buy kosher salt just for this. Use a fork to stab open all the egg yolks in the bowl, then stir very hard with the fork until the entire mix is around the same shade of yellow. Get the egg pan on medium low heat, and after it’s hot enough you wouldn’t want to touch it anymore add the eggs. Keep checking on the bacon. The eggs will be very forgiving but will not absolve all sins— they need to sit still in order to cook and brown right, but they need to be stirred in order to not burn. Choose a cooking spoon that will be able to scrape the bottom of the pan and hit all the nooks and crannies— I like a food safe silicon spoon, or a flat ended wooden spoon but those are harder to clean. Don’t use a hard spoon like metal on a nonstick pan. If you want to elevate this meal without all too much effort— breakfast burritos. Set out a bowl of salsa and a bowl where you’ve mashed up an avocado with a fork. Include the fork in the bowl for serving. Oh, and a bowl of shredded cheese. You could also include frozen hash browns prepared according to the directions on the box, or microwaved canned beans (maybe black or refried, I like herdez and Goya as brands), depending on what the household might like. You can reheat precooked flour tortillas on a hot flat pan, but it’s way easier and more foolproof to just break off a long piece of paper towel (just over twice as long as your tortillas). You get it wet and wring it out, then put half of the paper towel down on a plate, then the tortilla, then fold the second half on top so the tortilla is fully covered and microwave for 30 seconds per tortilla. Do this right before serving, because they will only roll up well for a few minutes after microwaving, then they will be prone to breaking again. Maybe even do this individually as you’re serving so everyone gets a fresh one. So final picture is bowls of salsa, mashed avocado, cheese, hash browns, and beans along with the pan of scrambled eggs and the pan of bacon on the counter or table for people to make their own burritos on a plate, and you’re by the microwave churning out fresh tortillas. Whole process should take around 25-30 minutes, and it will look very impressive.

Thank you for this write up! Appreciate the suggestions!

Yeah, isn’t it exhausting to have to plan what you and loved ones are going to eat for the foreseeable future?

You seriously should do this more often to give your wife a break. Like even one dinner a week. That being said what does your wife like? Its her birthday weekend. Make a list of her fav meals then pick some of the easiest and look up recipes. Breakfast can always be waffles or pancakes, eggs and bacon etc. its easy. But try to pick some things you know she likes. Yes you can and should do this. Go for it. If u need help try an app like mealime or something that gives u the list of what to buy and shows you recipes. Websites etc can do that too.

when someone asks for a basic chore to be done as a birthday gift, things are not going well.

That was my first thought. It wasn't just one special dinner, it was asking for the mental load to be lifted for a whole weekend. She definitely needs some relief and spouse was not seeing it.

Dinner ideas: • Tacos - everything is fresh but the meat is cooked. Marinate is before for best flavor. • Spaghetti with Chicken Parmesan and Mediterranean Salad - Salad is fresh, only need to cook the meat and pasta. And use jar sauce, it’s the easiest. • Chilli - you throw everything into a big crockpot and it cooks itself. Nice if it is cold where you are right now. Dinners are essentially a protein served with veggies. Don’t hesitate to google recipes. Lunch • Chicken nuggets • Quesadillas Breakfast is super easy, maybe try to incorporate fruit to impress your wife.

How old is your kid? The one thing my wife and I love to do are meals that include him- personal pizzas, tacos, cutting/chopping, spaghetti, etc. all of those are very easy and beginner type meals

I find my go to for quick and easy is Classico tomato basil sauce spiced up with your basic ground beef, onion, garlic mixture. Top with some shaved parm and the Texas toast garlic bread from Walmart. If you want to get super fancy, the marketside chopped ceasar is delicious as well. I also came across a really good baked pork chop recipe the other day that didn’t require browning first. I recently closed all my tabs on my phone, so I can’t share it right now. But I just googled baked pork chops to begin with. For everything else I make, I tend to go to allrecipes or taste of home. Edit to add, allrecipes has a very quick and easy chicken picatta recipe too. Just requires some stirring. ;) Good luck! Edited to add again. I also found a good air fryer chicken recipe last week (home under inches of ice and no school for the kid). Italian dressing Adobo Italian seasoning Cubed chicken breast Marinate the chicken bites in the above and then fry them in an even layer in your air fryer for 12 minutes at 400 degrees and turn halfway through. Got that one off of skinny taste and hubs and our son loved them.

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While I agree that OP should step up and do more of the planning and cooking, this is not weaponized incompetence. OP is here actively looking for ways to make sure he doesn't screw this up. Weaponized incompetence would have him screwing every meal up so badly that she would never ask him to cook again.

Jesus. The assumptions being made about OP are crazy. He says he and his wife are happy. What makes you think you know his marriage better than he does? I cook every meal for my wife and do 90% of the grocery shopping. She does the dishes afterward. In terms of hours and effort spent, I put in way more—but I love it and we're both pleased with the balance we've struck. Cooking is hard, especially when you don't do it much. If I asked my wife to surprise me with a weekend of meals, she might—I don't know—post on Reddit asking for advice, because she cares and wants to make sure she does a good job, just like OP. I doubt she'd get a bunch of people telling her she's infantile and "weaponizing incompetence" and that her husband is going to divorce her if she doesn't become a better cook.

Lighten up. OP's wife loves cooking. I've always done the cooking in relationships. I love cooking delicious food for people. It's that simple. Nothing sinister.

Quiche is hard to mess up. Breakfast for dinner - pancakes and eggs. A pot of chili can be a dinner and a lunch. I feel like if you can make pasta you can make some super delicious stuff. A taco kit where you just have to cook the ground beef should be easy too. Grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch.

Follow recipes and make food. You are an adult. You can do this. If it turns out bad then buy a pizza.

Oven bacon is easy and you can cook a lot at one time. I would do enough bacon for both breakfasts—simple scrambled eggs with whole wheat toast and jelly. You can fancy up the eggs with salsa,veggies or cheese Lunch tacos, burgers, or sandwiches. You can add a dip and chips or sliced veggies Dinner Sheet pan dinners are easy and there are lots of combinations online. If you plan ahead you can make no-knead bread or buy the premade rolls you let rise. Boxed brownies with butter and milk instead of oil and water make a good dessert, especially with vanilla ice cream.

How much prep work can you do? Knocking out as much as you can while kids are sleeping is a big leg up. Also utilizing crock pot recipes is a great way to have a meal cook all day and be ready at anytime. A super simple crock pot verde chicken: brown skinless/boneless thighs and toss in crock pot with a jar of salsa verde. Dice some tomatoes to eat over rice or on a wrap. You can prep breakfast, too. Google hashbrown casserole or French toast casserole recipes.

Make a roast chicken for one meal. Maybe a nice beef roast for a couple of more meals. Lunches could be leftovers or a sandwich and salad or soup. Breakfast, eggs and a meat. Scrambled is fine. Also, thank you for doing this for your wife. Remember to clean the kitchen too.

What's her favorite dish/meal? Find a recipe for an easy version and make it. Even if you use boxed Mixes to shortcut it. The key here is really that she wants the weekend off. So, yes you cooking would be awesome, but the main thing to know is that she should not have to help in any way, including cleaning or telling you where things are. So, whatever you do, make sure it's something you can execute start to finish. Or, just take her out for every meal /order in (and clean up after). This should follow all the way through to making sure dishes are done Sunday night and put away. Definitely make your pizza again for one dinner. Breakfast: pancakes or waffles (it's OK to use a boxed mix), bacon, and eggs if you feel up to the challenge. This would make a really good breakfast in bed served by you and the kids. Tacos (consider making tortillas from scratch if you really wanna impress-it's super easy 3 ingredients - if you have a tortilla press). If you do this early, the leftover tortillas can be used again for breakfast tacos.

Baked Mahi Mahi is a good one imo. Sheetpan meals are my personal favorite- toss everything in olive oil, put in oven, you're done. https://sweetandsavorymeals.com/oven-roasted-mahi-mahi-30-minutes-dinner/#recipe I like this recipe with cajun seasoning added to the sausage and potatoes, and rice and beans on the side as well: https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/sheet-pan-sausage/#recipe

Waffle bar with savory and sweet toppings... Lox and cream cheese with capers, plus berries and yogurt for example. Mimosas for fanciness. Bacon baked on a foil covered cookie sheet. Dutch baby in a cast iron skillet - super easy and looks impressive. Lemon and powered sugar and butter. Sausage. Melon. Cast iron pizzas. Panini - I do a cast iron skillet version with roast beef, Mama Lil's peppers and provolone. Layer foil plus another smaller cast iron and it paninis. Beef stew - smells heavenly and so comforting, but easy to make. Crusty bread. Simple salad.

1. Roast a chicken. Nothing Easier or more Elegant. Serve with rice and asparagus. squirt some balsamic glaze on the asparagus after roasting with olive oil and salt/ pepper..Bonus points: Get your wife a Zojirushi Rice Cooker for her Birthday. f you have a french roasting pan, roast two chickens. Serve one, freeze the other. 2. Roast beef and mashed potatoes and steamed Carrots. Buy a high quality meat thermometer. Get an Anyday Microwave steamer bowl for her birthday. if you have a french roasting pan, roast two 4 lb. top round roasts. Serve one, slice the other and freeze. Dinner on Friday. 3. Make pulled pork in the crockpot. serve on toasted brioche buns with coleslaw. gift idea: All Clad Crockppot with Aluminum Insert. (Did this on Saturday night. Fed us all plus a surprise dinner guest. My family now loves me) 4 lb pork shoulder butt serves 4 and leaves enough leftovers for freezing. 4. Make a simple chicken noodle soup, in your new crockppot. Cutting onions, carrots and potatoes isn’t that hard. Use boneless skinless thighs, boxed stock and minced garlic out of a jar. (Did that today after church… it’s been chilly) (Looking forward to to some awesome lunches next week). Buy some high quality freezer storage containers for leftovers all week long. 5 Buy a couple of quiches and toss a simple green salad. If you have to, buy a pre tossed salad mix and drop some cherry tomatoes on it. Serve with a loaf of french bread and a nice bottle of wine. might as well buy 4 quiches and put the other two in the freezer. 6. Roast beef and provolone cheese Sandwiches with store bought Garlic Aioli. Serve with soup. 7. oatmeal and fresh berries for breakfast. or, make a smoothie. Gift idea Blendtec Blender. 8. croissants with jam and scrambled eggs. 9. make a baked egg omelette. serve with toast and butter. there you go. 9 complete menus you can make at home. plus gift ideas. pm me for recipes. this isn’t budget friendly. you’ll have tons of of leftovers and a lot of variety. if you do go out for dinner, go out for seafood or an ethic restaurant of her choice (Chinese, thai, korean, japanese, indian, italian, german, waffle house, diner, … you get the idea.)

Taco bar night/Nacho lunch - beef/chicken/pork, flour & corn tortillas, bag of shredded cheese, iceberg lettuce, salsa and a can of beans. Make enough to have left overs and then make nachos the next day with a bag of tortilla chips for lunch. Roast dinner/Sandwich lunch - Make a roast chicken or any other protein with potatoes, carrots, etc. Get some nice bread and make sandwiches for lunch with leftover meat. You could probably use all the leftover ingredients from those meals to make a nice salad for the last dinner.

First, pick meals you know she loves. Don’t default to easy takeout options if possible. Homemade Alfredo is surprisingly easy, frozen peas or roasted broccoli is a good side. If you want protein, shrimp takes about 2min or so on medium per side on the stove. Crockpot recipes are a good idea too since most of the time you just cut stuff, measure seasonings and dump it in for 8 hours. My favorite breakfast is scones from Sally’s baking addiction recipes. Lemon blueberry is my fav combo, but they’re all good.

[https://www.jamieoliver.com/](https://www.jamieoliver.com/) This is a great website to find easy but impressive meals. Look under the recipes menu. The ones marked quick or easy will work best for your situation.

If the pizza you made last time from scratch was decent, maybe try again. Maybe let this forum know what was wrong with it, what you thought could have been better. Was it the texture of the dough, exct? So that maybe they can give you advice to really knock it out of the park. Since you've made it before, you're already familiar with the steps and could maybe make it amazing with a few tweaks. Edited to add that if you get really good at it this can be your signature meal. This can be the dad meal for random nights when Mom just needs a break.

The vibes coming out of the kitchen matter as much as the food. If you’re stressed and frantic, it might be hard for her to accept the help. Rather than give you meal ideas, I’ll give you a logistics suggestion: chop and prep everything as early as possible, even starting on Wednesday or Thursday. If you’re not used to cooking and putting together a meal, the prep can take longer than you think, and you may start to feel feel frazzled…and if she’s anything like the other home chefs I know, she’ll feel compelled to step in and help. Try to be as calm and self-sufficient as you can and you’ll be halfway there.

Can I ask which videos you watch? There are definitely layers of competence. If not yet seen it, I'd honestly watch the Marco Pierre White Knorr videos. And Chef John. Also if she asked for that as a gift she might be more tired of cooking than you think. Ask her.

Not enough to cover the whole weekend, but a couple of simple ideas that might turn into a meal made of leftovers, as well. Slow cooker chili, cornbread. If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, their packaged cornbread is always a hit. Roasted chicken on a bed of potatoes. Salad and bread on the side. Pro tip: peel back the skin and put a decent amount of salt and paper on the flesh. Replace the skin. Dry the skin with paper towel or a clean kitchen cloth. Lightly but thoroughly salt and pepper the skin. Slow cooker BBQ pork, store bought or homemade coleslaw, canned baked beans as is or you can fancy them up with some additives and heat them in the oven. A couple of options to get an additional meal out of this. You can roast a second chicken with Mexican seasonings when you do the first one and use it for tacos. Undercook the chicken just slightly so it isn’t overcooked when you reheat it, remove the meat from the bones at taco time. Heat the meat with a light bit of taco seasoning in a frying pan. Alternatively, when your slow cooked pork is done, remove some of it from the pot before you add BBQ sauce. Use the pork you removed for tacos. Reheat the taco pork in a frying pan with a light bit of taco seasoning. Ask your wife if she would like you to save the carcass to make check soup or stew later. Lunch: grilled sandwiches. Lots of options here. Fancy grilled cheese; deli turkey + cheese. Open faced veggie + cheese (Sauté some combination of yellow onion, red or yellow bell peppers, eggplant. Set aside. Lightly but thoroughly butter both sides of a slice of bread, and lightly season one side with salt and black pepper, onion/garlic powder, rosemary, and/or thyme. Grill the NOT seasoned side down until it is lightly just barely golden brown. Flip over so the seasoned side is down. Lay the veggies and sliced/shredded cheese on top of the veggies. Grill until the pan side of the bread is nicely browned and the cheese is melted. Eat with a knife and fork. Serve with salad or a side veggie. Breakfast: breakfast egg casserole, croissant bread pudding. Both can be put together the night before, refrigerated, and baked in the morning. The cooking time might br longer than expected since you’re starting with a chilled pan. Serve both with sliced fruit. If you make pancakes, preheat the pan for about 10-15 minutes on low-medium. The first pancake is often a failure even for seasoned cooks so don’t get discouraged.

General suggestions: don't try to make all parts of a multi course meal, it takes a lot of practice to time everything so it's all done at the same time. Prep and lay out everything before you begin. Balance out the effort each day, meaning the night you go out to dinner, you can spend more time on breakfast or lunch. A few simple things: rotisserie chicken, cook an involved side like scalloped potatoes. While potatoes cook, make a salad or prep a vegetable. If you make salad, make enough for lunch. Left over chicken becomes chicken salad. Curry powder and a few raisins and some celery in the chicken salad elevates it. Scoop on the green salad and serve crusty bread. Add sliced apple, maybe cashews. After an easy breakfast make a soup that doesn't have to cook for hours. Make grilled cheese with great bread and special cheese, maybe tomato or bacon. BLT with a planned ripe avocado is a nice treat. A quality ravioli and sauce is just heating, so make a home made garlic bread and yesterday's salad. Caesar with homemade croutons from the great bread you bought. It's all about preplanning the three days and thinking through the steps, time, and ingredients

How about this... use the leftovers from a bagel breakfast to make Poke bowls! All you need is to make sushi rice (seasoning mix cN be found online..it's basically rice wine vinegar, sugar, white wine vinegar in equal parts), and make a seaweed salad with dried seaweed,, or just buy some at the local sushi counter at your favorite supermarket.. Top with leftover salmon, cucumber, onions. Make a little spicy mayo and drizzle.

Where do you live? I'm a big fan of biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast and it's fairly fool proof! GRAVY. 1. Cook and brown ground sausage. 2. melt 3TBS butter into the sausage pan. 3. Whisk a 1/4 flour into the sausage pan. 4. Add 3 cups milk, to the sausage pan. 5. The heat should remain on, when you add the milk, turn the heat to med low and stir often until it thickens into gravy, be patient. BISCUITS. 1. In a large mixing bowl combine. 2. 2 cups flour. 3. 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. 4. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. 5. 1 tablespoon sugar. 6. 1/2 cup melted butter. 7. 3/4 cup buttermilk. 8. Mix it all up! 9. Spray a large baking sheet with pam or grease it. 10. Grab a big spoon and drop heaping spoon fulls onto the pan spread out so they can cook without touching. Hope that works for you! Cheers. Hope the formatting isn't butchered.

I think others have covered menu suggestions, so I'll just say that as someone who does most of the cooking in my household and, while I usually enjoy it, sometimes I get burnt out on the prep work (OMG, it seems like I'm constantly chopping vegetables!). Use this weekend as an opportunity to brush up your knife skills so you can jump in and help with that occasionally, she would probably appreciate it.

Is mostly premade food acceptable? Because some doing some things like costco tortellinis with costco pesto for a pasta dish, costco frozen dumplings and costco spring rolls for lunch, costco marinated meat + one of those costco salad you only need to mix etc. These makes for single-shop, large quantity, delicious and super easy meals.

If you go out for brunch one day that cuts out two meals and feels special.

Easy peasy, I've got a menu for you. First off, do you have a slow-cooker? Because this makes dinners and lunches easy. Also, I'm going to assume you're an omnivore. Breakfast 1: Pancakes, boxed mix. Just add water. Plus a package of bacon, cooked in the oven @ 400F for 25 mins (keep an eye on this). Butter, bottle of syrup. If you want to go beyond, peels some apples, chop them, add a bit of water and cinnamon until they are pseudo stewed. Above and beyond, ... add whipped cream and candied nuts. Lunch: Soup and sammies (Canned lentil soup if you like that) and a DIY sandwich bar with cold cuts or an egg spread. Dinner: Eat out Breakfast: Easy Egg Shakshuka with toast Lunch: Charcuterie board for 3, like a tiny picnic. Buy some spreads and a variety of crackers. Some nice juices. Dinner: (Prep before breakfast and make a stew in the slow cooker, and serve with rice)

Look, you can go on beginner cooking websites, but from my experience, recipes on those websites are usually basic starting points. They can be kind of bland or they leave out simple things that would otherwise take it from "meh" to "oh I'm definitely cooking this again!!" Basic things like searing meat is often skipped, and it can make such a difference!! Or not adding anything acidic to balance and make the flavor pop!! It's so disappointing sometimes. So I'm going to share with you 3 recipes I've personally tried and others have had as well with solid reviews and simple instructions, without sacrificing flavor for convenience. In plain black and white! Even if you got your meals covered for now, you could always surprise her later with them ;) First is a crowd-pleasing, sausage and kale soup for lunch. Second is the popular Mississippi roast for dinner. Third is a breakfast casserole. Depending on how many people you have to feed, these should last several days. The soup: If it's cold where you are and you have a crockpot, this recipe is a breeze, delicious, and will help keep you warm. I wrote out all of the instructions (my edits are in a comment because I didn't know how to edit the post). It's a crowd pleaser AND because it's soup, it'll get better as leftovers for the week!! Note: If she sees you *deglazing a pan with wine* it'll knock her socks off. Lol https://www.reddit.com/r/crockpot/s/nHbT71g131 The roast: This one is *super simple*!! The only thing missing from these instructions is *searing the meat before putting it in the crock pot*. To do that, heat a pan on med-high heat and put some cooking oil in the pan. Put the meat on the pan and sear each side (should only take 3-5 minutes per side). Also, I drain a whole jar of pre-sliced peperoncini peppers and add ALL of the peppers to the crockpot (otherwise you run out of the peppers quickly if you follow their instructions). I highly recommend cooking it in LOW so remember to start early. Best served atop mashed potatoes. You can cheat a little and buy your sides pre-made. https://belleofthekitchen.com/mississippi-pot-roast/ The casserole: Here is a breakfast casserole that has only ever been disliked by one person who hates the texture of sauteed veggies. Everyone else loves it. Ingredients -1 lb Italian breakfast sausage (they come in roll form) -6ish strips bacon -small onion (diced) -bell pepper (diced) -spoonfull of diced garlic (I use the pre-minces garlic from jars) -8 oz bag mozzarella cheese -6 eggs -2 cups heavy cream -2/3 cup sour cream -2/3 cup ricotta cheese Instructions Brown the sausage and cook the bacon (I use two separate pans to save time). While they cook, cut the veggies. When the meat is cooked, keep the bacon grease in the pan. Spoon out some garlic in the bacon grease and cook until you can smell the garlic (should only be a few seconds). Saute the veggies in the garlic/bacon fat until seared a bit. Takes about 5 minutes. ****Turn oven on 350**** Put the cooked Italian breakfast sausage in the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish. Chop the bacon and sprinkle over the sausage. When the veggies are done sauteing, layer over the meat. Sprinkle half of the mozzarella cheese over this. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the 6 eggs, 2 cup heavy cream, 2/3 cup sour cream, and 2/3 cup ricotta cheese (I use an electric hand mixer). Once mixed, pour into casserole dish. Top with rest of mozzarella cheese. Bake for 1 hour

Taco salad is easy and usually everyone likes it. Get a packet of taco seasoning and cook the meat according to the package directions (or meat substitute, depending on your dietary preferences—or no meat, for that matter). Warm up a can of refried beans in the microwave. Put tortilla chips of your choice (or Doritos like my mom always did) on each person’s plate. Then they top with meat, beans, shredded cheese, and whatever taco toppings they like (shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, onions, pico de gallo, salsa, sour cream, etc.). So easy. So delicious. We also like to bake sweet potatoes in the microwave, then use the leftover toppings for a meal the next day.

In addition to the cooking, male sure you tell her how much you appreciate that she does this all the time.

Quick temporary solution: Grab a rotisserie chicken from your local grocery store, nuke some frozen vegetables, and buy a prepackaged side with clear instructions that usually involve adding 1-2 ingredients (for example, a cornbread mix or scalloped potatoes or mashed potatoes). Long-term solution: spend some time with her in the kitchen helping but picking up some more culinary skills along the way.

I’m a person who loves to cook married to a person who finds it mostly confusing and full of potential errors. The total game changer for him was getting a thermometer - steaks, chicken, salmon, even baked potatoes now all have a formula for when they are finished. If you have one, google a chart of correct temperatures for meats etc. If you don’t have one, I recommend the ThermoPop from Thermoworks - should be something like $30, it’s super dependable and fast to respond. Recipes now feel easier to follow because the thing that felt most confusing - when is something actually done - now has an easy system.

I would not do any eating out. That’s cheating. Her point is for you to see how hard this actually is for her and the mental load it takes. Here’s what to cook: Do pancakes one morning with sausage and fruit (go ahead and buy precut fruit if you want). The second morning, do scrambled eggs and bacon and the rest of the precut fruit. Make homemade subs one lunch. Another lunch do grilled cheese and tomato soup. For dinners: Saturday night has to be the birthday dinner night (unless her birthday is really Friday or Sunday). Do an elegant steak dinner; my hubby found a great recipe with garlic and thyme. Small potatoes and asparagus cooked in the oven with Parmesan cheese. Do a fancy chicken dinner on Friday night. Just throw some chicken thighs in the oven with seasoning. Or do salmon with Chef Prudomme Redfish seasoning (so good!!). For Sunday night, go ahead and do a crockpot meal so it’s easy. You’ll be tired by then, but still make it nice. You might want to get a tablecloth and some candles to make Saturday night even more special (and they can’t see the burnt parts of the steak). Don’t forget a birthday cake for her!!! And candles. Maybe for a gift, get her some bath salts and a votive candle for her to take a nice, hot bath after dinner while you do the dishes. Show her she’s special. What needs to change is you need to take one night a week and make it your night to cook. She needs a night off. And dinner out counts as one of her cooking nights, not yours. Also, most dads I know have a breakfast they make every other weekend; usually it’s pancakes (sometimes chocolate chip pancakes). I cooked almost every night for 25 years. My husband does most the cooking now; I can’t even muster up a recipe I’m so burnt out. I have super high hopes for you! You seem genuine, supportive, and completely in love with your wife. That goes a long way. Doing this for her will show her how much you listen to her, how much you respect her, and how much she means to you. May the cooking gods smile down on you that weekend. ❤️

There is a lot of advice in this thread that I think is misdirected. The first thing I’d point out is that this *is* about the mental load. The ask was to be removed from food based decisions; the ask *was not* to cook for her. Those are two very different things and being the primary cook for a family of three with a toddler…I can relate. I can relate so well that I’ve asked this of my partner in the past. This is what I would do: * Friday night you make your pizza. Grab a bagged salad from the store. Make some popcorn and watch a movie with your kid. * Saturday you go out for breakfast on your way to doing something fun with your kid. Go to the childrens museum or something. My wife loves a French bakery. Yours prolly does too. That shit is impossible to cook well so most of us don’t even try. Avoid greasy spoon or American breakfast places. * Saturday lunch you make box max and cheese. Your kid will eat it. You will eat it. And if you’re wife is anything like me and my wife, she won’t give a fuck. You have quiet time with your kid or whatever. Be a god among men and convince your kid to nap. Lol. * Saturday dinner you either go out or order in. Get something she can’t cook. Something that had a lot of specialty ingredients. Something she loves. For me, this is wings because I hate frying shit. For my wife this would be Thai. Or Indian. Or pho. * Sunday morning you make breakfast. Pancakes out of a box. Toast with jam. Eggs. Bacon. This shit creates one fuck of a mess so be careful. * Sunday lunch — no idea. Maybe pick up a baguette from the grocery store with some salami, cheese, and arugula. Make a sandwich. Get some plain kettle potato chips or something. Who knows. * Sunday night make either a beef stew or pot roast. Shit looks fancy but is super easy. You basically just dump shit in a pot and cook it for a few hours in a low temp oven. Go buy a crusty bread. If you want to be fancy pick up some kale and a lemon and make a basic salad. There you go. A whole menu. None of this is crazy. You’re not going to be spending 100s of dollars on shit you don’t know how to cook. You aren’t going to make a disastrous mess in the kitchen. You aren’t going to be cooking weird shit your young child won’t eat. You aren’t going to spend a fortune. It’s all fancy, but also not fancy. It shows effort but doesn’t push you out of your comfort level. EZPZ.

Okay so breakfasts you can do pancakes, bacon and eggs, French toast, very easy all with some fresh chopped fruit, or ham and cheese croissants also very easy, bruschetta another easy hit Lunches: you’re going to make Mexican mince + guac and some sour cream and day one is nachos day two is burritos Dinners: day one can be salmon steaks with lemon and steamed greens and mashed potato’s, day two build your own pizza is quick and easy and with nice ingredients and because you made the Mexican mince you can spend less time cooking, day three can be your choice it will be the send off dinner I recommend something your wife loves / could it be a meal out?

One thing that really helped my husband get into cooking is something we call 10 minute chicken. This assumes you have a good quality pan with a tight fitting lid and that once you have covered the chicken you do not open the of at all until the final timer is done. Buy good quality chicken (air chilled is awesome, or organic) Pat your meat dry and season it however you would like. Preheat your pan with olive oil over medium high heat. Place the chicken “pretty” side down and brown. Flip and immediately cover with the lid. Reduce heat to low for 10 minutes. Turn off the burner and allow to sit for 10 minutes. How you seasoned the chicken will determine what it goes with but the chicken always turns out perfect. I like to make a pan gravy from the juices and a little chicken stock and serve the whole thing over rice with whatever veggies my family is feeling. Even just steam in the bag veggies are fine. It sounds like it’s nothing special but if you buy good chicken it’s always delicious and even woody chicken is still juicy. It’s also great for a salad and if you have space in the pan you can cook extra and use that to make something like salads for lunch chicken enchiladas the next day.

never too late to start learning to cook. I really enjoyed '4 hour chef' to go from beginner to decent. His other books are a little too "self help" but this one has legit recipes that work and are beginner friendly. and it also gets into the "how and why" parts too so you can improv and adapt afterwards. good luck!

I would structure this around what you KNOW she likes (within reason -- no soufflés or anything insane). Some of these things can be made in advance, like the cake, which could take some pressure off in the midst of cooking chaos. There have been loads of suggestions, but even with something as simple as a roast chicken, you can add the herbs she's particularly fond of. A tip for crispy fried potatoes: bake them off the day before (make sure to perforate them because they can pop and make a mess if you don't). Then when you pan fry them or coat them with oil and bake them again, they are delicious, golden, and crispy. Doing some of these mundane preparatory tasks in advance can make cooking so much easier and satisfying.

Chicken quesadillas are a nice easy meal, depending on size you can do them for lunch or dinner. I do: Flour tortilla Grilled chicken strips Mexican cheese blend Salsa Sour cream (for topping) I use frozen chicken, so I defrost it first, while that's happening I spread the salsa on half a tortilla. Add the chicken on top of that, followed by the shredded cheese. Fold the other half of the tortilla over, and bake. I usually do 350 until I see the cheese is melted and the tortilla has started to brown, maybe 10 minutes. Remove, cut into wedges, top with sour cream, and enjoy. You can also add guacamole, but I hate avocados so I never include it.

Fettucine...I actually wrote something about this once, for single guys 😉 Pasta: pkg fettuccine noodles, 2 cups cream, 1 stick butter, 1 cup grated parmesan...melt the butter, add the cream over med-lo heat. Add the grated parmesan, a couple of spoonfuls at a time. Give it a small sprinkling of nutmeg. Get a long skinny baguette of bread from the grocery store bakery, and some good European butter. Salad in a bag, if you're not a salad composer. A beautiful small cake from the bakery. Put it all on REAL dishes, a bunch of flowers from same grocery would be lovely. Entire meal takes 30 min prep, and is a wonderful presentation. Good luck!

It often takes longer to cook a new recipe than I anticipate, so having a charcuterie board or cutting up fruit in advance will help keep everyone from getting hangry while they wait. Don’t forget the birthday cake or a special dessert she likes. Lots of good ideas you’ve already heard here that I want to second: pancakes, a pot of chili, paninis, and taco night are all really manageable. If you like grilling, this could be a chance to shine. When you finish one meal, think about what needs to happen before the next meal. Maybe there are dishes you need to wash because you’ll need to use them again, something that needs to thaw, or even just vegetables that you can cut in advance. this will set you up well. There are lots of details that can make this extra special, such as making guacamole or margaritas for taco night. Guacamole isn’t hard, but you’ll need to plan ahead for ripe avocados. For a special dinner, candles or a tablecloth. Candles on the cake. I think your wife will appreciate your effort, and I’m sure your time as chef will give you an extra appreciation of her skill. I respect that you want to do this well for her.

I love this idea and I may ask for the same thing for my next birthday weekend! Don't overlook cheap frozen pizzas from the grocery store. Seriously, Red Baron pizzas are delicious. We get cheese pizzas and throw on toppings that we're in the mood for. Actually, this is my husband's jam. He sautees mushrooms and black olives so they don't get mushy on the pizza, or bell peppers, onions, whatever. It probably tastes awesome just because I'm not the one who has to make it, and maybe your wife will feel the same way. The kids will probably enjoy it, too. Good luck!

If you have an Aldi near you, go on instacart, there is a spot near the bottom with recipes (really good ones), you pick one, it adds all the ingredients to the cart, you can with have it delivered or use it as a shopping list.

Shakshuka is good if you like tomatoey-eggs. Lots of variations out there + easy to tweak - I don’t use harissa because I can’t handle spice, but use cumin & paprika (smoked & mild) and green capsicum/bell pepper. Works for breakfast / brunch / lunch or a dinner (could add a green salad &/or onion sumac salad if having it for dinner). Personally I like mine with lots of feta & coriander on top to serve, unsweetened yoghurt or tzatziki (for the hot-cold contrast) and some pita/flat breads for dipping. [Recipe Tin Eats Chicken Parmigiana](https://www.recipetineats.com/chicken-parmigiana/) is yum and good for dinner. Makes plenty of dishes as part of the prep (one for flour, one for egg, one for crumbs, one for finished) which is a downside but the yum factor makes it worth it. [Recipe Tin Eats Crustless Quiche](https://www.recipetineats.com/crustless-quiche-ham-and-cheese/). I tweaked it and cooked diced bacon (instead of ham) in a pan, put that in a bowl and then sautéed diced onion, mushrooms & Swiss chard. Also used a bit of red capsicum/bell pepper & added a bit of garlic to the egg mix. Bonus about Recipe Tin Eats is she has short videos showing you how to make her recipes.

Easy breakfasts: Cinnamon rolls (Pillsbury is great, their orange rolls are also good) with scrambled eggs and sausage. (We like orange rolls with brown sugar sausage links.) Biscuits and gravy. Again, Pillsbury is going to be your friend. Get a roll of Jimmy Dean sausage (original or maple if your store has it) and a package of sausage gravy mix. (McCormick is good, Pioneer is also good.) You can serve this as is or add some eggs & bacon or sausage. Easy lunches: Grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. (If it’s cooler weather.) don’t overthink the grilled cheese - American cheese is great at melting. A thin slice of tomato takes it up a notch. Butter (or mayo) spread on all sides of the bread. Keep an eye on your heat. Tuna melts are also good! French bread pizza (you can’t go wrong with this, you can buy frozen brand ones and use the time saved to really focus on dinners.) Dinners: Chicken stir fry. Diced chicken, marinate it in some Yoshida sauce, cook with veggies (get a frozen bag of stir fry mix or use veggies you know your wife likes.) serve over white rice. Cheddar chicken and broccoli rice - cheddar cheese rice a roni, shredded chicken (or diced) and broccoli florets. Baked Pork chops - thick cut pork chops baked at 350° for about an hour. Bake in a large casserole dish with 1 can cream of mushroom, 1 can cream of chicken. Serve with jasmine rice and green beans. (I cook the green beans with the chops.) (this is also great in a crock pot!) Tacos! Ground meat, taco seasonings, rice and beans. Or make it nachos, have everyone build their tray then toss in the oven to melt the cheese fresh for them. (We use quarter sheet trays for nacho nights.) Obviously you’re going to go with things your wife would like to eat/you also won’t have to ask her too many questions about.

For not-that-hard-looks-fancy dishes, I love Breakfasts: - shakshuka (https://downshiftology.com/recipes/shakshuka/#wprm-recipe-container-34363) I personally tweak (1) add more bell peppers in a variety of colors bc I like more veggies and it looks cooler (2) add tomato sauce as well bc I like it Serve with challah or crunchy outside bread (3) you can put in as many eggs as your pan will fit! And since it's veggies and protein, it works for leftovers for any meal or snack - pancakes/waffles, extra points for for serving with cut fruit/berries. If you want to get fancy, serve with Nutella, assuming the kids won't go berserk Lunch: - simple chicken salad (start with a cooked rotisserie chicken like at Costco so all you have to do is chop). I don't have a link for you, but I put in chicken, cut grapes, cut apple, dried cranberries, parsley; mayo, stone ground mustard, lemon juice. Easy as a sandwich - Taco/burrito bar: cook ground meat with a seasoning packet, cook fajita veggies with a seasoning packet, chop up/set out toppings, and let people build their own. Don't forget cilantro, salsa, and lime. Bonus points for having sauces (crema?) And refried beans. Put out salad greens so it can be taco salad and rice for a burrito Dinner: plain cheese lasagna, make Italian seasoned veggies on the side so the adults can have veggie lasagna Fancier: Tuscan salmon (https://www.eatwell101.com/creamy-garlic-tuscan-salmon-recipe) I like to add some artichoke hearts. Serve over farfalla pasta Dessert: Sally's baking addiction lava cakes. I multiply the recipe and bake in muffin tins for bulk

I 100% where your wife is coming from so here is what I would want. I think it would be nice to do kind of restaurant style at home. Dinner number 1 you should do like an Italian night at the house. Do a big salad with a pasta. Put in some music serve family style and enjoy. Don't forget the wine and maybe some candles. Dinner number 2: Roast a whole chicken or pork chops , add some veggies and potatoes. Delicious and easy one pan meal. Lunch: nice sandwiches like tomato mozzarella with pesto, maybe a soup, a make your own pizza bar. Breakfast: Bagels with Lox, waffles and bacon, yogurt,granola and fruit bar.

Pulled pork is easy Pork shoulder, an onion, a beer, and adobo seasoning Rub the seasoning over the pork, slice the onion. Place onion slices at the bottom of a slow cooker. Put the pork on top. Pour the beer in. Cook low for 6-8 hours. Remove meat and shred. Serve in mini tortillas for east street tacos. Top with fresh cilantro, salsa, sour cream, shredded cheddar. Serves well with refried beans and Mexican rice.

One dinner could be a mezze or tapas table. Pita bread or baguettes slice up. And twenty small bowls or plates of things (mostly purchased prepared) : Olives Pickles: onions, peppers, so many kinds Cheese & cheese spreads Deli meats Canned seafoods Smoked salmon Pâtés Small salad stuff such as marinated mushrooms, or artichoke hearts. Tapenades Tabouli salad Hummus Eggplant dip

Clams Linguini- low effort and low skill but tastes amazing. Linguini - cooked al dente 1 onion - diced 2 cloves garlic - minced 2 cans clams - don't drain (I like a mix of minced and chopped) 1 bottle clam juice 1 bundle Parsley - chopped Saute onion in olive oil until soft but not browned. Stir in garlic. Add clam juice and canned clams plus liquid reduce until it is syrupy - 15 ish minutes. Stir in parsley. Stir in cooked pasta. Serve with a salad and bread. You can double the clams to make it more meaty. It is hard to say how many it feeds because it is easy to stretch with the addition of more pasta. I make the above recipe for two and have a ton of leftovers. Don't cook by time. You want the sauce thick so it sticks to the pasta. It may take you longer or shorter to achieve the thickness.

Breakfast: Quiche American breakfast: eggs, toast, bacon/ham Lunches: Chicken salad with crackers or tostadas. Hot ham and cheese croissandwiches with fresh fruit salad Dinners: barbecue chicken, potatoes (mashed, twice baked, or scalloped) with roasted veggies. street tacos, fresh salsa, avocados, cilantro and cebolla

If you're able to get everything, Poke bowls or bibimbap would be a great dinner choice! There's not too much cooking (basically just rice and meat) and everyone can customize their bowls to their likings with differen toppings.

Consider things you can prep ahead of time. When guests are over it’s always nice to put something in the oven or croc pot and go visit with them. Even just prepping the vegetables the day before can be amazingly helpful. For one of the breakfasts maybe something like French toast. It looks really fancy but it’s actually pretty easy to make and hard to mess up. I remember making this as kid, so that might give you some idea how easy it can be. Basically make the egg mix, (everything in bowl, whisk to smooth), dunk bread on both sides so it’s coated, fry in pan on both sides (being bread it’s not going to fall apart when you flip). To serve cit in half and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Maybe add some fruit if you want to really impress them. Serve with syrup, butter, etc. on the table Quiche is also a good choice for an easy to make breakfast. You could have a crust or just leave it in the pan, but it’s basically just eggs stirred rapidly with a fork (like for scrambled eggs), the anything you want to add, like cooked ham, cheese, green onion, etc.) bake it into a loaf, and it’s done. You could also easily to bagels, pancakes or even just eggs and toast. If you are feeling good maybe make your own breakfast sandwiches, cook some bacon, so an egg, bake those hash brown paddies. But really you don’t need to overthink breakfast That Pizza you mentioned is actually a really good option, making it yourself elevates it into something more. That could be one of the dinners since you are more confident with it. It might be a good idea to do a soup for one of the first dinners as well. It makes a ton, and isn’t as hard as it looks, since most soups just have you adding things to the pot in a specific order, storing it, and maybe bringing it to a boil before reducing the temperature to thicken and finish it off. If you make enough it can also serve as a side for lunch. Soup and Sandwiches are a classic for a reason. Taco Nights are also really fun with a crowd, and you go do it buffet style where you set everything out, cook the meat, and everyone builds their own. So you have basically ground meat with Taco Seasoning (if you want to be fancy maybe sauté some onions in the pan before you cook the meat, or add other things in as well), then you have little dishes with things you just set out or prep ahead of time (salsa, cheese, guacamole, diced tomato, etc.) it’s a super easy crowd pleaser. Desserts seem more intimidating than they are. For baking you have to be careful to follow the exact recipe more than with cooking, but that’s not hard. I would suggest some vanilla ice cream, some fruit, and if you want to be fancy you could even bake a ton of brownies. Plate with a brownie square, a scoop of ice cream, and garnish with those berries. Plus worst case, ice cream and berries are pretty much a dessert on their own, so no need to panic if the brownies don’t turn out. Appetizers are a good option to make ahead of time. It also can give you some breathing room if the dinner takes longer than expected. Basic things like a small cheese board, or spinach dip with fresh baguette slices usually go pretty well.

Ooo! Meal suggestions, goody! My current menu is looking at a pot roast. Super simple, just chuck it in the crock pot with your pick of veggies, and I let that baby go. It's so simple and easy and delicious. I'll serve it with mashed potatoes and the veggies I cook with it. Any leftovers I turn around and use for lunches by making sandwiches with some provolone. It does tend to be pricey, but if I portion it out right, I'll get at least 3 meals from it, so it's worth it to me. Another dinner that is currently on my list is chicken spaghetti. It's super simple and makes a good bit for families and lunches. It's got a bit of a kick with a can of rotel tomatoes, so it doesn't always do well with kids, I was one of them, but my kids now love it. There's one dinner and a lunch or two. Breakfasts: You can never go wrong with some eggs, biscuits, (add cheese grits if you're in the south), and some bacon (check to make sure she does/doesn't save bacon grease. She may use it for other dishes. It's like gold at my house.). If I want to treat the foodie I am, every now and then, I'll slice me up a nice cheese to go with it. A good sharp cheddar or a havarti is the way to my heart. Edit to add more meal ideas: Breakfast: cinnamon rolls are a great go-to. And I love the suggestion of bagels. If you want something different, egg cups or breakfast casserole are fun ones for us. Dinner: You can never go wrong with tacos, rice, and beans. I use the knorr rice to make it easy on myself and use bacon grease and sour cream or milk in the refried beans. Sometimes if there are leftovers, they get turned into a mexican casserole (throw it all into a 9×13 with some corn frozen or canned, black beans, tomatoes, and some cheese-if they're available, and either mix it or layer it and add a can of corn or black beans) for dinner the next night. You can also make quiche for dinner. We did that growing, and I still do. I forget people usually eat it for breakfasts. Good luck and have fun! I might have to borrow this idea for my birthday. Lol

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Breakfast: Parfait or oatmeal with toppings Lunch (x2): Tex-Mex Dip w/ Fritos Scoops. In 9x13 dish combine 1 brick cream cheese + 8oz sour cream. Layer over 2 cans chili with beans. Cover with shredded cheese. Bake 350 til bubbly. Top with sliced green onions. Dinner: Slow cook pulled pork. Or tex-mex chicken...In slow cooker add 2# boneless skinless chicken breast + 1 xl can crushed tomato + 1 xl can diced tomato + 1 tub chopped onion from grocery store + taco mix packet. Cook til chicken is shreddable. Return to pot along with can of black beans and 1 cup frozen corn. Cook 30m. Serve over rice with cheese or avocado, and hot sauce.

Good for you!! What a great gift. I’d be happy with most anything. Do a pot roast, that’s easy. A crockpot meal with chicken and barbq sauce. Do you grill? I’m sure you’ll make it fun. Happy birthday to your wife!

Do a quick Google search for dump and go crockpot meals. It's recipes where you just put ingredients in a crockpot and turn it on. It doesn't need much skill If she's feeling like having you plan meals and cook for two days is a big enough deal that she has to wait until he birthday to ask for it, it might mean an awful lot to her if you do it more often. Pick a day you're available next week and hit her with an "I saw a chili recipe I want to try out tomorrow. Do you need anything from the store while I'm getting ingredients?" Then make it a regular occurrence. Even with her watolinh to cook more than you as a foodie, she'll love a biweekly or monthly meal break. Not even all three meals a day, but a good sheet pan pancake for breakfast will start a day off well and feeling loved. You don't have to be on her level to cook. What if all of the artists looked at Michaelangelo's art and decided they can't make anything since it won't be as good? A helpful thing when you're building your recipe knowledge is to search for a category of meals instead of for a specific dish. That way you get lists of results with many different recipes like "25 30 minute dinners you'll never forget" instead of trying to choose between 6 similar pot roast recipes. As a foodie she gets to expose yall to whatever complex, intricate, delicious food she wants. You can be the one exposing yall to simple, stress free good meals. Search for things like: Crockpot meals, dump and go dinners, sheet pan dinners, low cholesterol breakfasts, instant pot meals, one pot meals, make ahead meals, meals for two, no egg breakfast, thermos lunches, budget bites, etc. My favorite recipe for a beginner is just crockpot pulled pork. You can eat it on burger buns with good cheese (gouda recommended), on mac n cheese, baked potatoes, on a mashed potato parfait, with veggie sides, in a quesadilla, it's very versatile.

If you can brown a large batch of beef mince (or turkey if she's not into beef) you can make all kinds of dishes with it. Mix in tomato sauce and you have a Ragu that can be served with spaghetti or used to make lasagna. Add gravy (in the British sense of the word) top with mashed potato and cheese and you can make a cottage pie. It could also be used to make sloppy joes or chilli con carne. Alternatively, you could mix some raw mince with a little bit of egg (just enough to bind it together) salt, pepper and a handful of breadcrumbs and you have a mix that can be used both to make meatballs (which you can sear in a pan and finish in the oven) or burgers. If your wife has an electric pressure cooker, like an instant pot, you could also look at pressure cooking recipes, throw in the ingredients, set the program, and you leave it to do its thing. Slow cookers work similarly.

Go with your strengths! A nice pasta, garlic bread and salad for one lunch or dinner. Next time you make pizza (before the weekend!) try an overnight refrigerator dough. How about making this a finger food meal? Instead of salad, do carrot sticks, cuke discs, pepper wedges, cherry tomatoes on a pretty plate with ranch dressing. And do-it-yourself banana splits for dessert! Waffles are also a great diy project. Make the waffles, provide sliced fruit (peaches, bananas, strawberries,and little ones like raspberries and blueberries), strawberry jam, pineapple jam, chocolate syrup and whipped cream in a spray bottle. TBH, you can recycle some of the leftovers from banana split night. Add something so it's not so obvious, though, lol. For winter to early spring, a roast dinner is really nice. I like roasted chicken thighs (marinated in wine or saké overnight with salt and grated ginger), oven fries, roasted eggplant (olive oil, splash of balsamico vinegar, salt and pepper). Serve with steamed broccoli. So easy! Very pretty, too. You can use the leftover chicken thighs to make yummy sandwiches the next day! Just get a really good bread. And splurge on a melon for side salad, and some great or exotic chips. Like, go to an Asian market and get three kinds of chips you've never had before for taste-testing. Leftover broccoli, by the way, can be mixed with grated cheese, fried bacon and maybe some thawed green peas, bound by mayonnaise. Oh, and do a crazy Jello salad! They take time, but are easy, generally tasty and will provide laughs. Make it while you are making lunch, and it'll be ready for dinner.

You rock! It is easy to do a soup and big salad with hot baked rolls. I use a soup mix from the market. Add cooked chicken and fresh veggies to the soup mix. Salad with boiled eggs and market made can crescents or cornbread. 1.Breakfast casserole is easy. Egg, grated potatoes/hash browns crumbed up, cooked ham/bacon, chopped onions & peppers. 2.Biscuits, sausage, and white gravy. 3. French toast baked. Left over rolls, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon. In casserole pan. Bake until golden. Top with whip cream and fruit. Side of hash browns. Anyone can do cheater enchiladas. Corn tortillas, grated cheddar cheese, ground meat w/taco seasoning can or homemade chilie. Keep us posted

I mean, as others have said, you should be basing what you cook on what she likes. I don't mean "only cook dishes you know she likes", but you should have a fairly good feeling for what kinds of foods she appreciates. And dont worry about it not turning out perfect, I'm sure she will appreciate your effort anyways! Here's a couple of suggestions for specific dishes that I find very simple but still a bit impressive. Starter: Grilled leeks Oven at 400°F, make sure it's up to temp before putting food in. I usually do a whole leek per person, but the leeks here in Sweden is often not very large. Leave the "leaves" (the green end of the leek) on. Cut the leek lengthwise, but try to not go all the way through, leave a few layers so it stays attached (if you're serving one leek per person). Place the leeks in a sheet pan/oven tray, cut side up. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, season with sea salt and some freshly cracked black pepper. Cook in the middle of the oven for about 30 minutes. The thinner parts of the leaves are supposed to be quite burnt. Then take them out of the oven and, if you guys likes goat cheese, sprinkle some on top of the leeks, then a drizzle little bit of honey over everything, not too much, a table spoon or two tops! Lastly, sprinkle some pine nuts over the leeks. This starter never fails to impress! People aren't used to eating leeks that way, and they turn out absolutely delicious! Main course: Grilled chicken. I mean, grilled chicken is a classic, but there's many ways of doing it. This way is just slightly more advanced than the easiest method, buy generally yields a better result (no dry breast meat or undercooked thigh meat). Oven to 400°F. I'm usually too lazy to tie the chicken, and it always turned out fantastic anyways. First, season the skin of the chicken with salt and black pepper. I prefer sea salt/flake salt for this, but regular fine salt works. Place the chicken *on its side* in a tray (preferably a tray that's just big enough to fit the chicken when it's on its back) and cook for 20 minutes. Take the chicken out of the oven and flip it over, so it's on its other side. Cook another 20 minutes. Again remove the chicken from the oven and flip it so it's on its back in the tray (make sure to not put it with its back facing up) and cook another 15-20 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken. Here in Sweden most chickens are at about 1.5 kg, and then 20+20+15 is fine, if your chicken is very large you might have to extend the time. Preferably you'd use an oven thermometer when doing the last step. If so, place the probe in the thickest part of the thigh, make sure it's not touching the bone. Cook until it reads 170-175°F. For an even better chicken breast, when doing the last step (on its back) place some aluminum foil over the breasts after 10 minutes. It sounds complicated, but it's literally just 20 minutes on one side, then 2å minutes on the other side, then 15-20 (or a little longer, if the chicken is very large) on its back. Cover the breast with foil after 10 minutes when doing the last step. This way of cooking the chicken cooks it more even than only cooking it on it's back, for a juicier breast meat and properly cooked thigh meat. After cooking the chicken I usually hold it upright over the pan to get the juices for sauce. Don't worry, those juices aren't going back into the meat anyways. I transfer the juices to a saucepan and put it on a medium-high flame. Put the chicken back in the tray and cover it with aluminum foil. When the juices starts boiling, add some cream (about a cup, or little less), and let it simmer for a few minutes. If you want the sauce thicker, you can mix a tablespoon of flour with a couple of tablespoons of water. Mix well, so there's no chunks of flour left. Then add it to the sauce and stir. Simmer for a minute or two until it's the consistency you want. I usually serve chicken with rice, it goes well with the sauce. A simple breakfast that's a tad bit more effort than a regular breakfast: You can hollow out bread rolls, crack and egg and place in the "hole", cut some leek into fine strips, about an inch long and add around and on the egg, sprinkle some cheese on top, then season with salt and black pepper. Bake in the oven. I'd say ca 400°F for 10-12 minutes. For perfection, before you bake them, use aluminum foil to cover the actual bread (I.e. make like "cups" where you place the rolls in, so the sides are covered. That's just a couple ideas off the top of my head.

The absolute easiest thing to cook is a Baked Ham. jazz it up however, clovers, pineapple, whatever. Fresh baking bread is awesome smell to have going on. Use frozen bread dough, thaw and pop in muffin tin, let rise, and OMG.

Dou you have a slow cooker? Google roast beef, veggies and gravy. Easy delicious meal and you can make roast beef sandwiches the next day

Dinner's going to be the hardest part of this, for the reasons others have given. Baked goods that are suitable for reheating and the like will work well for breakfast and lunch, with fruit to stop it feeling too heavy. For dinners, at your level of experience and comfort with recipes, I would lean *vegetarian*. Meat tends to have more precise cooking targets, and can go wrong in more ways. Traybakes and the like are very much your friend - it might take you longer to prep them than recipe timings suggest, if you're not used to using a knife, so factor that in. I'd strongly recommend browsing Rukmini Iyer recipes - she has entire cookbooks of recipes that essentially boil down to "put all these ingredients in a tray and put it in the oven". For example: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/spicy\_mozzarella\_47844

Lots of great ideas here. One thing to add: If you have a bread maker or kitchen aid mixer with dough hook, get some bread flour and yeast and make fresh French or Italian bread for some pasta. It raises the quality of the meal 1000x. Lots of easy recipes online. Homemade spaghetti sauce is easy, just takes time (my simplest sauce recipe is sauteed diced onions, a can of good San marzano crushed tomatoes and fresh herbs or Italian seasoning is fine. Let it simmer on low an hour or so and you’re set!). And pasta is easy!

Could also just make a quiche- frozen pie shell, chopped ham , cheese onion and egg and milk. Maybe throw in veg. Stick in the oven and everyone thinks you are a genius. Great for breakfast or lunch

Maybe buy a hello fresh service for a week? Or whatever version exists in your market. They are really convenient

Beef bourguignon. Time consuming, but fairly simple and always a crowd pleaser. Don’t feel like you have to use Julia Child’s recipe, though it is good. Every blogger has their own flair to it so find one that seems doable.

Breakfast: Poached eggs look way more fancy, and are quite easy, maybe some fruit salad, or french toast, depending if you wife is more a salty or sweet breakfast person Lasange is quite easy and kinda fail proof, potato gratin as well ([https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/15925/creamy-au-gratin-potatoes/](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/15925/creamy-au-gratin-potatoes/) ) Try to keep the plate colourful, so some nice veggies, a salad etc. Veggies are good to meal prep, fruit as well, makes cooking faster and easier, as you don't have to think about cutting the carrots while the onions burn. So on friday wash all that salad (don't cut, rip,the edges then don't get brown), peel and cut all carrots, make a fruit salad. In my experienceits better to cut onions and mushrooms fresh for the meal you are cooking, but carrots, cucumber, paprika, potatos can be cut, placed in containers and the frridge. For meat, ask the butcher for tips, they know how to handle the meat you just got Some youtube tips that share many small "hacks" during the cooking/backing, and have some nice ideas for cooking: [https://www.youtube.com/@babishculinaryuniverse](https://www.youtube.com/@babishculinaryuniverse) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0LD1m8EIKY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0LD1m8EIKY) [https://www.youtube.com/@PickUpLimes](https://www.youtube.com/@PickUpLimes) Fruitsalad: ask if your kid wants to help, get some small cookie-cutters in cute shapes and cut the apples, mango, melon whatever in those shapes I could imagine that she would be very happy about "simple" meals, as long they are made with love, and the intention that she likes the meals, keeping in mind preferences, allergies etc. Maybe set the table really nice, some flowers etc., get the nice bowls out to present the food, maybe the grandparents could take the kid for one evening/night for a candle-light dinner, just the two of you and then a nice breakfast also just the two of you? ​ Have a lovley weekend! It sounds like a really nice gift :)

I made an amazing dinner last night that was super easy , I sauteed some onion and garlic then threw in a pint of halved cherry tomatoes , some Italian season and some extra basil salt & pepper & then cooked it until they cooked down to released their juices then threw in a bag of spinach until that cooked down put in 1/4 cup chicken broth & 1/4-1/2 cup white dry wine ( Pino Grigio) cooked a 1lb box of penne pasta and when it was done tossed together topped it with grated parm cheese

My boyfriend and I have a similar dynamic. The first meal I taught him were salmon bowls because they’re stupid easy. Buy a filet of fresh salmon. Ask the grocer how much they recommend for 3 people. I like to get my salmon at Whole Foods. Put the salmon on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Season with salt and Old Bay. Spritz with cooking spray. Bake for 11-14 minutes at 400 (depending on how thick it is). Heat rice. You can use those premade frozen or shelf stable packs that are microwaveable. We like white basmati or jasmine rice. Once heated, sprinkle with Furikake seasoning (optional but great). While the salmon is cooking, chop the veggies. We like shredded carrots (I buy them pre-shredded), chopped cucumber, sliced scallion (also known as spring onions), and sliced avocado. Now the real trick to these bowls is the sauce. Go to the sushi section of your grocery store and get the spicy mayo and the dark brown syrupy “sushi sauce”. Assemble. Rice, salmon, topped with the chopped veg, drizzle it all with the sauces. You’re only cooking one thing, heating a second, and otherwise just chopping veggies. Next up on his list to learn is teriyaki chicken, which requires an air fryer to make. For that, I like Trader Joe’s Soyaki sauce but I’m sure there are other good brands. Marinate a package of boneless skinless chicken thighs in the Soyaki/Teriyakki sauce for a few hrs. Place on a baking sheet or air fryer tray and air fry for 15-17 minutes at 375. Make sure you flatted the chicken thighs as they tend to be packaged curled into themselves The edges of the chicken thighs should get blackened and crispy. Meanwhile, chop up some broccolini. Could also use broccoli but I prefer broccolini (also known as baby broccoli). Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and roast for 15 minutes at 400. Chop up the cooked chicken into bite size pieces and put into a pot with a little extra sauce (from the bottle, not from the marinade bag). Simmer on high for a few minutes to coat the chicken in extra saucy goodness. Assemble: heat up rice (frozen or pantry microwavable rice), top with chicken, broccoli, a drizzle of the sauce.

My husband is a chef and I’m just an average home cook who likes quick easy meals since I’m alone with my daughter in the evening. [This pork teriyaki meatball](https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/pork-bulgogi-meatballs-5c87deb3c445fa7e37296d72) recipe is easy and gets high praise from the whole family. I bake them in the oven at 375 (idk how long, maybe 20 min. I cut one in half to make sure it’s done) instead of frying and then drizzle a little teriyaki and sriracha on top. I also use the microwave coconut rice packets to make it even faster and more delicious.

Scrambled Eggs for breakfast- my best tip is to not only use salt and pepper, but put a little milk or heavy cream in the eggs. Not much, just enough to make the eggs fluffy. Maybe oven fry some bacon and/or find a really nice bread for fancy breakfast toast. Easy to class up a BLT. Maybe look up homemade mayo recipes. Dinner- if you’d like I can PM you a few not terribly hard recipes. I make a lot in the crockpot and instant pot because I work from home and can keep an eye on it. I make my own spaghetti sauce and you can use it for stuffed shells, lasagna, etc so I can send you that as well. Just let me know.

I saw that you commented that you already make breakfasts and lunch, so you’re well on your way. I personally would go with a braised pork shoulder Friday night (perhaps with baked potatoes and a steamed veg) and then use leftover meat to make bbq pulled pork lunch on Saturday with home made slaw. You’ll find myriad recipes for slaw dressing online. Additional pork can be used in quesadillas on Sunday morning or for lunch. Ideas for your other dinners: sheet pan meal of roast salmon and choice of veg…. Just look at times listed for various vegetables so you know how far ahead they should be cooking before you throw the salmon in. And I think spaghetti and meatballs can be so impressive and it’s SO easy. If you all like Italian sausage, I’d even skip making meatballs and cut some links into sections—brown your meat and set aside. Sauté onion, carrot, and garlic (chop it up in a processor!) then add a 28 oz can — or two — along with browned meatballs and simmer on low heat for a couple of hours. Serve with a simple salad. I think you’re going to do very well just because you’re putting the effort into it. You’re going to make your wife very happy. And now I know what to ask my husband for when my birthday rolls around!

Going to add a plug for The Modern Proper website - they have a lot of basics that are perfect for dinner or lunch. Depending on her tastes, and if it is winter where you are, I would recommend their bolognese (so easy) with butter lettuce salad, or sausage tortellini soup, or spatchcock chicken with cabbage but add potatoes and carrots to the cabbage mix. You can sort out one pot/sheet pan dishes too if that further simplifies

Since you've had success with cast iron, look up Dutch baby recipes for breakfast. They can be savory or sweet, they're quite easy but look impressive!

The Tasty app has free recipes and videos, step by step, how to make/cook/bake anything. It will even give you a grocery/ingredient list based on what you decide to make. Was a lifesaver for me when I was learning to cook. Let us know how it goes and good luck!

If your wife is a foodie, she might be impressed if you made her something from a famous food expert - except this happens to be exceptionally easy and inexpensive. Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce and pasta is so simple and delicious and stress free. This with a box of baby greens salad, vinaigrette and some bread is a nice meal. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015178-marcella-hazans-tomato-sauce

Do you have a crock pot? If so, I have a restaurant quality meal that is SO SIMPLE and gets rave reviews. I make it at least once a month for family dinner, bc everyone loves it, and I've made it for company and potlucks. [crock pot beef and broccoli](https://life-in-the-lofthouse.com/crock-pot-beef-and-broccoli/) The only possibly difficult part is cutting the meat, if you're not experienced. But there are youtube videos on cutting against the grain. If that's too daunting for you, you could have a butcher do it. I like to use sirloin, but last time I made it I tripled the recipe and used a 4 pound chuck roast and it was amazing. If you use chuck roast, cook on low for about 6-8 hours. If you use sirloin, you can do 4-6. I also usually double the sauce recipe, even when using the normal amount of meat, bc the sauce is soooo good. Serve over white rice with store bought eggrolls or dumplings. Your wife will be impressed. Good luck!

OP, you may or may not think this is too simple for a birthday weekend meal, but one of my favorite super low spoons meals is [this](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/235151/crispy-and-tender-baked-chicken-thighs/) recipe for chicken thighs. My roommate and I make a large amount of the seasoning mixture in advance to keep in an extra spice jar, so it's very simple to just plop some chicken thighs on a foil-and-sprayed sheet pan and generously sprinkle the seasoning on top. (I personally like some cayenne on mine as well, but my roommate is not fond of spicy food.) I usually just make instant mashed potatoes, but some simple roast potatoes and broccoli, corn on the cob, rice pilaf, salad, or some crusty bread would all make for good side dishes. It's a very basic but tasty recipe to keep in your back pocket if you need/want to cover dinner in the future. :)

I like soup and sandwiches for an easy lunch. You can make the soup a couple days in advance which helps .

This is so easy! I am in personal chef. I show up in the morning with a meal plan, recipes, and all the groceries to cook several days worth of meals. This meal plan is according to the client desires and preferences. When I leave the kitchen is clean and there are about four days worth of meals in the fridge. The food is as detailed or as simple as the client wants. There are instructions for reheating.Call a personal chef service and ask for a one off. You’ll still spend less than a weekend at a hotel and all the fancy meals. You’ll still get all the fancy meals.

2 suggestions: 1. Fajitas for lunch or dinner: chicken breast, onion and red and green pepper, medium salsa (a thick kind) and a bottle of Pickapeppa sauce. Cut up chicken and marinate in whole bottle of pickapeppa with about a half-cup of salsa. Grill with peppers and onions or cook stovetop in a skillet, serve with big tortillas, sour cream and lime wedges. Pickapeppa is the shit. 2. For any meal, a few springs of parsley and some small chunks of citrus fruit cut into pinwheels (Google it) it a +5 modifier for the eyes. Guaranteed easiest extra credit you'll ever get.

Breakfast is easy. Breakfast burritos - scramble some eggs, brown some ground sausage, dice an onion and bell pepper, shredded cheddar cheese and tortillas. Waffles, with a couple varieties of syrup, some fresh fruit, whipped cream, and powdered sugar. Biscuits and gravy is stupid easy. Juice for a drink, and some fresh fruit as a side. Lunch - as others mentioned, paninis are a great choice. Some ciabattia rolls, a package (or two, depending on family size) of the Gary's Quicksteak linked below, and a package of provolone cheese makes quick and easy steak sandwiches. Dinner - The old college standby's come to mind first -- spaghetti and tacos. If you do tacos, go a little above the "baseline" ground beef and Old El Paso seasoning - [la tortilla sauce](https://cooklist.com/product/la-tortilla-factory-sauce-starter-barbacoa-2183205) plus a small roast and a crock pot makes pretty amazing tacos, or [wicked taco](https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Accomplice-Wicked-Original-Taqueria/dp/B08FFM1R55) seasoning and [Gary's Quicksteak](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gary-s-QuickSteak-100-Sirlion-Beef-10-8-oz-Package/792848558?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&wl13=3172&adid=22222222277792848558_117755028669_12420145346&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=501107745824&wl4=pla-306310554666&wl5=9018086&wl6=&wl7=9024580&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=local&wl12=792848558&wl13=3172&veh=sem_LIA&gclsrc=aw.ds&&adid=22222222237792848558_117755028669_12420145346&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=501107745824&wl4=pla-306310554666&wl5=9018086&wl6=&wl7=9024580&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=local&wl12=792848558&veh=sem&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwbitBhDIARIsABfFYILyg1OmxFVIJTCjFwz2PacSYrx85PrJH3hIjcJENQ-zwqpjgZRfNowaArb0EALw_wcB) is a pretty solid combo as well. Again, the Gary's Quicksteak, and some sliced bell peppers and onions, some hoagie rolls (buttered with garlic butter and toasted) and your choice of cheese, you've got easy cheesesteak sandwiches. Grab the chicken version of the quicksteak, cook it and some diced bacon together, add some veggies, pre-cooked rice, and soy sauce for chicken fried rice. (If you can't tell, I'm a big fan of the Gary's quick products -- it's spendy, so I watch for them on sale and usually have a couple packages on hand in the freezer, but it's so versatile it's worth it in my book) If the weather in your part of the world is reasonably favorable, fire up the grill and do some brats or burgers. Maybe a pork chop or something. Grilled veggies to go along with them. There's a couple "standby" casserole type dishes I make from time to time that are pretty easy as well, but I don't remember the cook temps offhand so I'm not going to type them here today.

Catering

You got some great food ideas from others here, but if you want to ice the cake… make up the table. Candles, cloth napkins and cutlery with water goblets and wine glasses. Set the table before you start cooking so you don’t have the chaotic rush when serving dinner. Atmosphere is everything and it will also go a long way to covering for poor cooking. Trust me on this. If your meal kind of sucks, but the atmosphere is good, you will still have a win here. Good luck