this is my meal, i call this... girl dinner

i share my spectrum of girl dinners with you.

OK

No one asked, but I simply have to share my personal favorite “girl dinners” with you all. If you’re anything like me, you felt truly seen by the concept of girl dinner, and eating weird combinations of snacks for dinner instead of preparing a cohesive meal. This post is for the girlies whose girl dinner isn’t always a manicured grazing plate of cheese, fruit; Those who feel more aligned with the wild, more chaotic versions of girl dinner.

I will be ranking these “recipes,” based on their chaotic-ness, number one being the most chaotic. Enjoy :)

3 - Fruit and Potato Chips

This one isn’t really odd or crazy, but it is an arguably uncommon dinner. I like to have something sweet and salty at the same time, just so that I can have options as I eat. I love salty chips (my favorites are the red bag of wavy Lays), a bunch of the Trader Joe’s chips, and sour cream and onion flavored chips. As far as fruit, I usually have some sort of berry or a precut mango. When making girl dinner, I do not like to exert too much effort. I won’t cut up an apple, or anything else, and so the more naturally bitesized, the better. Raspberries and cherries have been highly incorporated lately.

2 - Popcorn and a Treat (Guest Starring My Snack Big 3)

This one is further down the chaos meter because of several factors. For one, this is my dinner way too often. Like many people, especially women, I am often plagued with dinner anxiety, where I am unable to make any decision on what I want to eat, and most things sound unappetizing. Too many of these instances I have given up and just popped a bag of popcorn. Popcorn has always just been a comfortable, fallback food option for me. I don’t know what that means, but it just has been. It isn’t really that heavy on the stomach, its salty, and it’s ready in two minutes. Recently I’ve seen a lot of girl dinners that are popcorn and a soda, or a glass of wine, or a mocktail, something that is more of a treat to drink. I do this because I feel like I deserve a reward for at least eating something!

If I’m feeling a little hungrier, or want to spice things up a little, I throw some other items into the popcorn bowl. My classic trio, the snacking Big 3, is made up of hot Cheetos, wavy Lays, and peanut M&M’s. The chocolate gets a little soft from the warmth of the popcorn, and the other chips provide some new textures and flavors, it’s delicious, and I have no shame.

This one holds a special place in my heart, she’s reliable, cheap, and not THAT bad.

1 - Cursed Meal, You Have Been Warned (Image at the end)

Oh boy.

I admit, my previous two are not amazingly unique, I have seen other people sharing pretty similar versions of their own. Here though, I concocted something so odd, my roommates at the time were flabbergasted, and I have never had it again. This does not mean I did not like it, I enjoyed every bite and went to bed full, but it is a bit unhinged so I have not been able to make it since.

This particular evening, I was ravenous and wanted a little bit of everything I had. My dinner on October 27, 2021, included trader joe’s pork gyoza, a bagel (probably cinnamon raisin) with strawberry cream cheese, and hot Cheetos all washed down with a pineapple flavored sparkling water.

It was not aesthetically pleasing, and none of it paired together at all. This chaos, this variety, and the commitment to the goal of feeding oneself despite all of that, is what makes this truly, a girl dinner.

Well!

I love girl dinner. I think it is the perfect term to describe the common trait amongst women to combine seemingly random foods into a satisfying and filling meal. Even the MOST chaotic versions include some form of sustenance (not including more sarcastic/ironic depictions of the trend, which while still funny, aren’t really girl dinner). Anyways, below is my most feral example, thanks for reading!

- soup