What's for Dinner Wednesday

“Why are we supposed to buy stuff for people on Valentine’s Day?” This is the question that my 7 year old asked yesterday. It broke my heart, but just for a second. This was the perfect opportunity to plant a seed of what love should be and to pull up the weed that tells us that you can buy another’s affection. Luckily, the Lord has granted many of us mothers the gift to respond to these important questions with instantaneous wisdom. I told him that Valentine’s Day was not about buying things for others, but showing others that you love them and how important they are to you. We can do other things to show people that we love them.


This got me pondering what I would do for my sweetie. Our finances simply don’t afford extravagant gifts and over the top expenses. Besides, those gestures would most likely cause him to worry about the state of our finances, not feel appreciated and loved. I decided that cooking his favorite meals would do the job.

He loves biscuits with tomato gravy, something that this city girl had never heard of until I married my country husband. Luckily I had looked over the new sale papers for this coming week. IGA has my vote for the best sales this week.

Sale                                    Biscuits
Flour, 5 lb bag $1.99        3 cups self-rising flour = 30 cents
Oil, quart $1.99                1/3 cup oil =17 cents
Milk, gallon $2.99            1 cup milk = 19 cents
                                       Tomatoes put up from the garden = time

His special breakfast only costs our family 66 cents, but I’ll need to get up extra early to get everything done before he leaves for work.

My husband also loves fried pork chops, but rarely gets them. It makes a big mess, I wind up cooking while everyone else is eating, they don’t keep very long in the refrigerator. I could go on, but I won’t. The point is that it’s something that I don’t care to do, but I would do it for him. That’s how we can show love. Selfless acts. This is what is taught in the gospel over and over.

Sale                                   Supper
Pork chops $.99/lb             2 pounds of chops = $1.98
                                          Flour for breading = about 10 cents
Potatoes, 8lb $1.59            4 lb for mashing = 80 cents
                                          frozen green beans = $1.25
                                         Garlic toast, half loaf of bread = 30 cents
                                          stick of margarine = 20 cents

This dinner will cost us just $3.53, but is worth so much more! Add cookies made by our boys and the monetary value goes up to $4.11, and it’s value becomes priceless!

I hope that this shows you that we don’t have to go out and “buy stuff for people” on Valentine’s Day. (And gives you some ideas for your menu this week.)