Sunday, November 16, 2008

Since I have started back to work, I have been horrible about making any "quick and easy dinners made at home" and settling on quick and easy dinners picked up from a restaurant!  I need to get out of this habit, and one way I can think of to do this is to menu plan for the week.  I have a difficult time coming home and brainstorming ideas for dinner.  
  Here is what I have planned for this week: meatloaf on Monday, spaghetti on Wednesday. Tuesday, Anthony is with his father, so I only need to plan for Matt, Seth and I.   Thursday Seth will be with his dad, so I only need to plan for Anthony and the two of us....not exactly sure what I am making for those nights yet, but at least I have Monday planned!!
  What about everyone else? How do you plan dinners for the week? Do you menu plan, or fly by the seat of your pants?  Do you have certain nights that you serve similar items each week (ex Monday is Mexican, Tuesday is Italian, etc...)?
  

2 comments:

Sue Rebmann said...

Hi Jen,

I did this in the past and it worked great. I had everyone write down on separate pieces of paper five of their favorite dinners. They could be anything from a full turkey dinner to sandwiches and chips. I then compared to be sure their were no duplicate meals. Then took all the meals and wrote down the ingredients needed to make them. I turned that into a shopping list. Then, at the beginning of each week, we would pull dinner ideas from the bag and right the menu on a calendar. If it was an involved meal, it went on a night that no one had anything going. If it was a simple meal, it went on a night that everyone was going in different directions. I then took the shopping list and checked off the ingredients needed for the week and shopped. This was easy because I didn't have to think about what to have, I knew I had all the ingredients in the house to make the menu items, and everyone always knew what we were having just by looking at the calendar. No more "what's for dinner"!

Jen said...

That is SUCH a good idea, Sue!