What’s for Dinner?

Do you hate that feeling of knowing it’s time for dinner and you don’t know what to fix? Do you have the ingredients you need to make dinner? Which family members will be home to eat? All these things can tug at your mind while trying to figure out what's for dinner. Here is a solution to take control of your busy life. You'll never again worry about serving up supper.

With a little commitment and about an hour and a half a week, you can pull together a calendar and a weekly menu. Other family members can then help contribute to make things go smoothly every evening with meal preparation. Here’s how to do it:

• Once a week check with family members to find out what activities they have going on. Load the activities into a calendar and post somewhere that everyone can see. It can be as simple as a Microsoft excel or word calendar or you can use http://www.cozi.com/ and upload all family calendars from outlook. It is helpful to include any activities that will impact family schedules.


• Based on the timing of events, plan what days the family can eat meals at home and what time of day it makes sense to eat. If activities end at 7:00 perhaps that is a good night for a crock pot meal that everyone can eat at 7:30.


• Next put a weekly menu together based on how much time is available to cook or eat out. Determine the grocery list based on the menu items. You may find that it make sense to eat out 1-2 nights a week, and the other nights you can cook at home. Without a plan, you may eat out more often because you are not prepared.


• For ongoing ease, create a list of foods the family likes to select from. You can go to recipe sites for ideas like http://www.bettycrocker.com/, http://www.campbellsoup.com/, http://www.kraftfoods.com/. You can make a list of main dishes, veggies, etc. from the websites and then choose from the food lists to create your weekly menus.

If you try this method, you'll never again worry about what to fix for dinner!