I had such an argument with myself yesterday it was pretty ridiculous.  It lasted for about an hour and it was over whether to cook or order a takeaway.

Image courtesy of lamnee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The argument built like this: a friend of ours was spending the weekend alone as his wife was working away so I’d invited him round for dinner on Saturday night.  On Saturday morning, we saw my sister-in-law and it turned out that her partner was also away for the night leaving her alone with their 18mth old son.  So Mr FFF though we should invite them round too.  I agreed as I’d planned to make chicken fajitas so it would be easy just to do some extra.

Saturday looked like this:

• 9am 5k parkrun
• home, shower, housework
• 12:30 visit to my nan’s to see a load of family
• 3:30 meet sister for coffee

So, by the time I met my sister, I was already thinking, ‘I can’t be bothered to go shopping for dinner’.  However, as we’d met in town, I decided I could probably get the stuff I needed from M&S.  Although it would be a bit more expensive, it would save me the time of having to drive to the supermarket.  So we went in and got all of the required ingredients.  Until we got to the last item on the list: tortillas.  They had none whatsoever.  This was a pretty big problem as they are pretty essential to fajitas!

So we put the stuff back and left the shop with me moaning about how I’d just wasted time and now still needed to go to the supermarket!

As I was walking back to the car I decided I really couldn’t be bothered to cook and sent Mr FFF a text to ask if we could just order takeaway.  He said yes.  ‘Great!’ I thought.  ‘I don’t need to cook.’

But there was something niggling away at me.  It wasn’t that people were coming round expecting home-cooked food, as our friend will eat absolutely anything (except ‘raw’ cheese), Mr FFF’s sister, by her own admission, can’t chop an onion and Mr FFF loves any form of takeaway.  So what was bothering me?  I realised that I actually didn’t want to eat rubbish.

Now, I know there are takeaway options you can have that aren’t that rubbish, but compared to home-made fajitas and potato wedges, every else made me think ‘Yuck!’.

So, in the car, driving home, I’m arguing with myself about whether I should cook or order takeaway.

I was literally half a mile away from home when I decided to carry on to the supermarket, stop being lazy and buy the ingredients needed to make dinner.  I reasoned that it wouldn’t take that long to shop for and the meal itself I’d chosen due to the fact that it’s quick and easy to prepare and there’s not much mess to clean up after.

I felt so pleased with myself for making the healthier choice that, rather than just dashing in to grab the stuff I needed for that night’s dinner, I took the time to stock-up on some fruit, cereal, milk and the ingredients to make two quick and easy dishes for lunch and dinner for the Sunday as well (salmon salad and the ever delicious balsamic beef which I can smell bubbling away in the slow cooker as I type).

Everyone loved the fajitas too.  Look out for my recipe later on this week.