The best dinner is chip dinner
Every few weeks, I hit a wall. For whatever reason, my mental and emotional resources become depleted, and the thought of figuring out what I want for dinner feels tantamount to scaling Everest. On these nights, only one meal will do: chip dinner.
Chip dinner is exactly what it sounds like: chips for dinner. Ideally, there’s a dip too. Store bought, of course, because no one has the energy to whip up a pimento cheese dip on chip dinner night. Maybe there’s a little beverage treat involved too. But that’s it.
Chip dinner is not frequently discussed in polite company. It’s not shared in aesthetic TikTok posts like its distant cousin, the girl dinner. There is an air of despair around chip dinner – shoveling cheddar and sour cream Ruffles into your tired face as an adult and calling it a meal is hardly aspirational lifestyle content.
But don’t be mistaken: chip dinner is not a gloomy occasion. It is a minibreak, the dinner equivalent of a 20minute nap. It is a chance to briefly step off the treadmill of daily life, switch your brain into neutral, and recharge with a salty, crunchy snack that tastes good, doesn’t require any dishes or silverware, and involves little to no effort to prepare.
“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage,” is a Brené Brown quote I’ve seen posted a lot on Instagram. So I’ve made it my mission to break the silence around chip dinner. I have been truthfully and courageously asking the people in my life about whether they also have chip dinners.
“Oh, I know about chip dinners,” one said before I could even finish my question. Another said she preferred popcorn dinner, which we agreed was separate but related. One friend said she doesn’t have chip dinners as much since she signed up for a meal delivery service, but she looks back on them fondly.
“It was easy and felt like a treat,” she said. “Like I was a child and I was getting away with eating ice cream for dinner.”
Let me address some possible questions and concerns about chip dinner.
Are nachos the same as chip dinner?
Chip dinner is NOT nacho night. Chip dinner does not require turning on the oven or any other activity anything remotely related to “cooking”. The greatest effort you will have to expend will be going to the store to purchase your preferred chips and dip if you don’t have them already, and then choosing what moderately engaging streaming show to watch while your eyes glaze over and you shovel crispy handfuls into your gaping maw.
Can you do chip dinner with a friend?
Chip dinner is about replenishment. If being around people while you plow through a bag of Tostitos Hint of Lime makes you feel re-energized, that’s
You can, I guess. But what is this, a black tie gala? One of the joys of chip dinner is how low effort it is, so it seems pointless to add unnecessary steps, like pouring chips into a bowl and then cleaning that bowl.
Chip dinner doesn’t sound very nutritious.
Duh! That’s not what it’s about. Chip dinner is not about loading up on essential vitamins and minerals, it’s about loading up on essential cutting loose and relaxing time. Nor is it something one does all the time. Chip dinner is a special occasion, and the occasion is that you are celebrating the freedom that comes from not having to make a decision about a meal or prepare any food. Also, chips are tasty!
Aren’t meditation, exercise and connecting with friends healthier ways to recharge?
Yes. And bully for all of us when we do those things. Hopefully we do them regularly, and they make us feel good. But every once in a while, a person just needs to tuck into a bag of original Cape Cod chips, settle into the couch, and see what the gentle folks of the Great British Bake Off are up to now.