1) Just DECIDE. The hardest part about getting dinner on the table is simply making the decision about what to cook. I've written before about doing your "Sunday Planning." During the school year this becomes even more important. Read my previous Sunday Planning post for complete guidelines. Part of this simple process is doing a quick menu plan for the week. If you just decide that you're going out once and having leftovers once (the night before your trash collection is a great night to clean out your refrigerator), then you have only 5 dinners left to plan. Decide and do it… you'll be amazed at the peace of mind you have each day just knowing that dinner is already figured out.
2) Bite off a month at a time. A rotation menu is a great way to capture the decisions you've made and make sure family favorites are sprinkled in regularly. You can get a free template for a rotation menu (Word document) on our free tips page (look on left side of page for our free stuff). Basically, you figure out four weeks of meals that your family likes, then cook them on a set schedule and repeat. Done! Grocery shopping is easier and all is well.
3) Cook in one big batch. Let someone else do most of the deciding on the menu, show up, and assemble all of your meals for the month at one time. There are many meal assembly stores out there now, such as Dream Dinners and Super Suppers and others. Find one in your area and give it a try! These stores buy food in volume so they are able to actually save you money on costs, and certainly are a savings over going out to eat instead. You'll have a stocked freezer of ready-to-go dinners and have spent only a couple of hours putting them all together.
4) Learn from a pro. My friend Audrey Thomas has put together a very high-quality DVD and workbook product called "What's For Dinner?" in which she teaches her grocery shopping and meal planning system. Following Audrey's system will absolutely pay for itself many times over. I decided to carry this in my own store because I know how good it is! Read more about it here.
5) Let someone else figure it all out for you. Another friend, Aviva Goldfarb, has a wonderful service called The Six O'Clock Scramble. Each week you get a new weekly menu plan, complete with a grocery list of everything you need. You can even customize the plans and generate new grocery lists from your changes. I really love what she has created– it's a huge help, particularly when you are torn between your same old tired favorites and the bewildering allure of infinite possibilities. Her site is full of family-friendly, easy, fast recipes to give you lots of fresh ideas.
The key to the whole thing, as with most challenges, is just making decisions and taking action. It requires time and attention, no doubt about it. And by the way, you don't have to be a Food Network star… just make simple meals that do the job and don't worry about making it a culinary masterpiece every time. Try one or two of these ideas and see what works for you, and stick to it! What works for your family? Share your meal planning thoughts in the comments…
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What a great post – I’ve found that I have so much less stress on days where I have dinner planned! I use the free website DinnerBeat (http://www.DinnerBeat.com), which makes planning really easy! Any of these methods can be automated through the DinnerBeat system. A Recipe Box of your favorites is right in front of you, so you can easily decide what to plan. You can plan a month, or even two, ahead! You can follow anyone you want, and see exactly what’s on their menu. And if you’re completely out of ideas, you can use the “auto-plan” button, which will go through your favorite recipe box and, based on your ratings, randomly select meals for the next week. It even creates a shopping list for me, so I can just print it off and go shopping. What a time saver!
My solution… I cook one day a week, deliver to 3 friends, and they do the same. We’ve been doing this for almost a decade.
Here’s how it works. On my assigned day, Mondays, I cook and deliver a family meal to each home. It usually includes a main dish and two sides. On Tues-Thurs they each take their turn. The variety is amazing and it’s far more economical. While we try limit it to four dinner portions per family, there’s often leftovers.
Anything is fair game. For balance, we rotate the main protein assignment so that each week we end up with one chicken dish, one beef, a vegetarian, and a chef’s choice.
It has changed our lives. My kids get exposed to a much larger variety of foods than what I would normally provide. AND I’ve expanded my recipe box!
Great solution, Michelle! I love it when neighbors come together! We had a babysitting co-op when my kids were young and that was a tremendous help to each other too. – Lorie
I found that I print out a blank calendar (landscape) and make a menu for the entire month. Saturday’s are pizza nights because that’s when I do grocery shopping. It seems to help out a lot!! OH, and I do put at the bottom of the calendar “MENU SUBJECT TO CHANGE!!” Just in case something comes up and can’t make that meal on that night. At least I don’t have to think about what to get out that morning to thaw for that night’s dinner.