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I love to cook and yet, sometimes I just feel like it’s never ending. Every day, day after day in households everywhere, we hear that question, "What's for dinner?"
Dinnertime comes every day, so how is it that we get caught off guard so often? Having a strategy for handling this daily dilemna is critical because the alternatives - fastfood restaurants or frozen meals - aren't always the healthiest of choices. It doesn't have to be that way. Just like you plan for other activities at home and at work, you need a plan for dinner.
Plan Your Week
Start by choosing a time over the weekend to put together your menu plan. Start by taking into account your and your family’s schedule, making notes as to which nights you are out or the kids are busy with their activities. By doing this, you’ll get a better feel for which days you’ll have time to prepare a meal from scratch and which others you may be just reheating leftovers.
Find Inspiration
Don’t let your menu get boring. While I always keep a few recipes that are family favorites in my regular rotation, I also look for those times when I can experiment. For those nights, I look for some menu inspiration. By subscribing to a daily recipe from www.delish.com or www.allrecipes.com, I get new recipes and menu ideas delivered right to my outlook mailbox.
Create Your Menu
For each day of the week, lay out your plan of attack and pull recipes as needed. Whenever possible, I try to repeating ingredients, like buying baby spinach for a salad on Monday and for the pasta side dish on Tuesday. I try to incorporate leftovers as a short cut, for example, making a roast over the weekend and using the leftovers as a taco filling later in the week.
Make Your Grocery List
It’s easiest to make your grocery list at the same time you create your menu so that it’s fresh in your mind. Looking at each days menu and referring to your recipes, list the ingredients you need. Double check your pantry and fridge as you go to prevent over-buying.
Save the Menu and List
Why reinvent the wheel? Once you have a few of these weekly menu and grocery lists, save then and use them over and over again. You can always make substitutions and small changes without creating the work of developing brand new menus every single week.
While these steps may take a little extra time in the beginning, they will save a lot of time, energy and stress, not to mention getting you to try new recipes and keep you and your family well-fed. Bon appétit!