It was past 10 PM.
I was tired.
But we still needed to eat.
There was a time when a dinner of instant noodles, rice and frozen siomai would have horrified me.
Old me was Bree Van de Kamp. Regular readers know this.
Dinner was supposed to be dinner. I cooked. I planned. I made several dishes. I wanted a proper meal on the table regardless of how tired I was or how late it had become.
But sometime last year, I started letting go of Bree.
Not because I stopped caring.
I started building systems instead.
And one of those systems is simply making sure there are things in the house that can become dinner without requiring much from me.
That night, I remembered I had a pack of frozen siomai.
Perfect.
I put them in the steamer, cooked some noodles, made sure there was rice, and that was dinner.
Nothing elaborate.
Nothing particularly impressive.
But there was plenty of food on the table, everyone could eat, and I didn’t have to exhaust myself further just to prove that I could make something more complicated.
I’ve realized that this is what so many of my systems are really for.
They’re not about becoming more efficient so I can squeeze even more work out of myself.
They’re there to take care of me when I have less to give.
Frozen food in the freezer.
Ingredients I can turn into something quickly.
Meals I already know require very little thinking.
A few shortcuts I no longer feel guilty about taking.
Old me might have looked at this dinner and thought I could have done better.
Now I look at it and think:
We ate. I was tired. My system worked.
And that is enough.
And about the siomai? I didn’t like it. 😆
It’s so hard to find good frozen siomai. If you know a good brand, I’d appreciate a comment. Thanks!
——
I’ll set the table again soon.
Lady E
Founder, Lady E Eats
Where food becomes story, and every table holds a moment
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