A Man’s Guide for Preparing the Romantic Dinner

The first thing you have to know is that hamburgers, hot dogs and canned beans will not be on the menu. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with wieners ‘n beans – they’re just not headliners for a romantic dinner. And no, canned beer will not be included in the list of beverages.

Making a romantic dinner for your special lady isn’t as difficult as you may think, so relax, take a deep breath and get ready to surprise her with a special dining experience – a meal prepared by you!

Barbeques – Home Style Romance

Man’s best friend – the barbeque. You had to breath a big sigh of relief when you seen this one. If there’s one thing man knows how to do, besides taking things apart, it’s cooking up a rustic meal on the BBQ.

What’s on the menu isn’t as important as the dining atmosphere, so whatever you decide to place on that grill is your decision – as long as you remember that burgers and dogs are out. This is your time to shine, so select an appropriate piece of meat to go along with your garnish and side dish. Ready made salads and baked potatoes are usually available at your local deli or meat market. You can even get a skewer of prawns for a reasonable price. A man can’t go romantically wrong with a little surf ‘n turf.

Daylight BBQ’s may be great for friends and family, but not for a romantic dinner. Wait until the sun sets. Light some candles on the cloth covered patio table, and then turn on her favourite choice of soft music. Wine, juice, or soft drinks are served in glasses, not left in their containers.

Fight those natural urges to bring out the paper plates and plastic cutlery. Romantic dinners have to be served on the good dishes with utensils that don’t break when used. This does mean washing dishes afterwards, but doing them with your lady can be romantic in itself.

Frozen Dinners and Candlelight

You’ve all used a microwave, so this one shouldn’t be much of a challenge. Simply read the cooking instructions and go for it. Okay, so TV dinners don’t sound very romantic, but you’ve got to think beyond the box – literally. You don’t serve the meal in its tacky plastic tray … you make these frozen entrées look like you’ve spent the appropriate amount of kitchen time making them just for her.

Once heated, the dinners are put on proper plates and placed on a table adorned with candles and a few of her favourite flowers. If you don’t know what kind of flowers she really likes, any flowers will work – except for the plastic ones.

Frozen dinners may be a bit lean in content, so add a little finesse with some warm buns, or bread rolls. Serve up a bottle of chilled wine, or other flavoured beverage, and maybe a tossed green salad for starters. Give it some thought and even this modest meal can be turned into a romantic dinner.

Ready to Cook – the Easy Way to be Romantic

Kick it up a notch and replace those frozen TV dinners with a ready-to-cook meal. Actually, the meals don’t even have to be cooked, just heated up. They can be purchased from your local supermarket or deli at a modest price and come in a variety of dishes that will include any number of meats, potato and vegetables - everything you need for a full course meal.

Replace the container with your own plates and serve your sweetie some fine dining in a candlelit atmosphere.

Put this one over the top by adding dessert - some strawberries and whipped cream, for instance. If that’s not romantic, nothing is.

It Still Works if You Bring it Home

Now we get to those that can’t barbeque, have an aversion to frozen dinners, and couldn’t find any ready-to-heat meals at the supermarket. Or maybe you just want something with more of a European flair – like Italian. For those, it’s take-out!

Most Italian restaurants provide take out service, so you can go all out with a full course pasta dish for your romantic interlude. Once plated on your own china and served up in the light of soft candles, these can present an exceptionally romantic meal for you and your lady. Final hint on this entrée - select any dinner you like, but not pizza.

To finish off this romantic dinner, treat her to a luxury dessert that can be had from any decent supermarket. Nothing sets the mood like a rich chocolate dessert being spoon fed to each other in a candlelight setting. If you’re calorie conscious, try feeding each other from a small platter of fruit pieces.

And there you have it – that romantic dinner prepared by you, just for her!

Finding Mister Right

Mr. Right: he’s there, someplace - you just have to go out and find him. Decide what it is you’re honestly looking for and don’t settle on anything less. It’s not always an easy task and the road to real love can be full of disappointment, but follow some basic rules and the journey will have its happy ending.

What do you really want?

Determine what you need from a man and the relationship. Now is the time to be honest with yourself and be fussy. Establish what you must have, not what you’re hoping to get. Set your goals and don’t settle with second best.

Dress to attract the man you want:

Showing an abundance of cleavage and too much thigh sends out the wrong message. If you’ve set the profile of the man you want, then dress the way he’d want his woman to look. Even sportswear and casual wear can be worn to look good, just make sure your clothing fits and are clean. Don’t go overboard on the make-up and remember that perfumes are meant to attract, not repel.

Where you go determines what you’ll get:

Go to a bar, get a bar-fly. It’s rare that you’ll find an outdoors enthusiast sitting in the pub at 2 o’clock on a sunny Saturday afternoon, so look elsewhere. If you do feel like having a cocktail, be more selective about the places you visit. Keep asking yourself: “Where would my perfect man be?” – and go there.

How you act says who you are:

Spitting in public says a lot about a person, so does the language they use. Eating habits and over indulgence in liquor directly influences the way people look at you. If you’re a smoker, pay attention to stale breath and the lingering smell of smoke on your clothing. Unless you’re not at all particular in who you go home with, take a hard look at your habits – and ditch those bad ones.

Look for friendship, not a relationship:

It’s easier to find a friend than a lifelong companion, but one could easily end up being the other. Don’t let every waking moment revolve around finding someone to spend the rest of your life with because that will be far too stressful and filled with disappointment. Relax and enjoy meeting new friends – it’s a search for Mr Right, not a hunt for prey.

Communicate your needs as soon as possible:

Men are not mind-readers. If you’re afraid that being open about what you’re looking for in a man and a relationship will chase him away, then think of it this way: If he runs from what you’re saying he’s not the man you’re looking for. Start communicating early on in your dating relationship. You can share your feelings with a man as long as you do it correctly. Don’t divulge your intimate feelings too early and never express your feelings in a negative context.

A “friend with benefits” relationship will rarely get you Mr Right:

This is exactly what it implies - sex without commitment. It’s nothing more, so don’t fool yourself into thinking anything different. If you believe you can use a physical attraction to start a serious relationship, you’re wrong. Casual sex is casual sex and men can rarely make that leap to something more serious. This type of situation is never developed to become a lasting relationship.

Lust isn’t love:

Know the difference between that physical attraction and a lasting love. Love making draws out strong emotions and these feelings can sometime be interpreted as love. This is not always the case and once the layer of lust is stripped away you may be disappointed with what you find lying underneath. Think of it this way: Lust is short term, love is forever. You have to be able to communicate, so talking is a far more important attribute than sex in a long term committed relationship.

You can’t fix him because he was never broken:

What you see is what you get and you’re not going to change his behaviour, so don’t even try. If you accept the way he is now in hopes of moulding him later, forget it. Re-check your list and don’t accept anything less than what you started out to find. And go with your heart - if the attraction isn’t there to start, it probably won’t ever be.

Don’t tolerate a bad situation:

If it’s not working, get out. Never settle for anything less than what you want and need in a relationship. You can’t change it once you’ve accepted ‘the way things are’. To then start complaining turns you into the “B” word to a man – you become a nag and the antagonist in a relationship. Life is too short to live it in misery and ‘what if’ scenarios.

Desperation is the final word. Don’t fall prey to it. Finding Mr Right can happen in the next few minutes, or it could take years. Some women never do find their Prince Charming, but that doesn’t mean you stop looking for the magic that comes with Mister Right.