Comforting & Adventurous: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Mother’s Day Dinner
Here's exactly what you should make your mom—or mother figure—for dinner this year.
How many homemade dinners has your mom made for you in your lifetime? Hundreds? Thousands? Mother's Day is the perfect opportunity to repay the favor with a meal that says, "Thanks for making me so many nutritious meals even though all I really wanted was macaroni and cheese every day for the majority of my childhood."
Below, ask your mom—or mother figure—to answer a slew of easy-to-answer questions, and you'll find out what you should make her for dinner. From comforting to the more adventurous, there are no wrong answers (or recipes) here!
Allrecipes/ Tyrel Stendahl
Got Your Answer? Find Your Menu!
Where did you end up at the bottom of our choose-your-own-adventure Mother's Day flowchart? Match your answer to one of the menu options below.
Winner, Winner, Sheet Pan Chicken Dinner
Your mother has taught you to value convenience and efficiency, but she also taught you to never compromise when it comes to taste. No dinner better embodies that than a sheet pan chicken with potatoes and pesto. Add a salad because mom loves those, and bridge the gap between fancy and practical with Tom Hanks' Diet Cokagne—a curiously enjoyable mix of Diet Coke and champagne.
Dotdash Meredith Food Studios
Fungi for a Fun Gal
You're going to treat mom like the queen she is with a gourmet meal that's fully plant-based. Mushroom risotto is a labor of love, but the reward is well worth the effort. She'll also definitely appreciate the seasonal touch from the lemony oven roasted asparagus. And the Sparkling Hibiscus Cooler is a perfectly balanced tart, crisp non-alcoholic drink (but if you decide to booze it up, add a shot of rum).
Vilma Ng
Pizza and Tini Time
For the mother that knows exactly what she wants and settles for nothing less, you can bet that a pie from her favorite neighborhood pizza joint, a massive caesar salad, and a batch of ice-cold dirty martinis will earn you endless brownie points and favorite child status for at least a year.
High Steaks
All the best steakhouses in town have been booked for weeks, but that doesn't mean you can't treat mom to a hearty, satisfying steak. Be sure to let mom see you flame the cognac as you're preparing the sauce for the steak—She'll be totally wowed and only slightly panicked. Serve Steak Diane with spring peas and mushrooms and an Ina Garten-sized Cosmo, of course!
Twirl Into a Bowl of Pasta
Homemade, yes; but fussy? Never! Linguine with Clam Sauce is a simple luxury that, if you plan it right, can come together in about 30 minutes, freeing you up to spend some more quality time with mom, and isn't that what she really wants? Be sure to include garlic bread for capturing every last drop of sauce.
