I'm picking my kids up tomorrow, which means it's still just me and hubby for dinner tonight. I just informed him, "We're eating frozen dinners tonight. I'm too busy planning the menu to figure out what to cook".
When I have to decide at 4:00 what's for dinner, it usually turns out badly. It's why I used to hate to cook. When it's time to cook, I'm either not hungry and don't really want to think about food, or so starving that I can't think straight.
When I have the menu planned ahead, I just do what I'm supposed to, without much thinking involved, and there's a nutritious meal on my table at dinner.
So, tonight, I'm taking a few minutes to pick out my family's favorite meals, and a few healthy recipes that I've been wanting to try. My plan is to have 4 weeks of meals that I like in the summer. Then, I will just repeat them until it gets cooler.
I'm putting it in Excel, but you could do it on paper. This isn't about perfectionism. I know that in the past, I bought programs that would automatically print shopping lists, but I never got the recipes I wanted added, and my family didn't like the recipes in the program. Don't make this a bigger job than it has to be. Just do something.
If you really can't figure it out for yourself, www.Savingdinner.com has a great menu mailer. Leanne gives you a shopping list and recipes every week. She also has something I love to do. She has recipes for freezer meals. You do all the prep work on one day, and then freeze them in bags. When it's time to cook, it takes less than 20 minutes. They are so easy, anyone in my family can follow the instructions to cook them. - In fact, it's safer for kids to help with, because there are no knives involved. With a little help, a five year old could start one of the crock pot meals.
However you do it, just do something. A little advanced preparation today will make next week's dinner so much better.
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3 comments:
It finally worked!! I was at the site from an EMAIL link... THAT was the problem... hubby is so smart w/ this stuff! OK, my comment is: I didn't know Kashi had frozen entrees, I only noticed the crackers and cereals. Unless I misunderstood what you said... What kind of choices do they give you to buy, what's your family's favorite? I'd like to check them out - are they in every grocery store or just certain ones?
Yeah, they're frozen dinners. I've found them at Wal Mart and Publix.
I forget the "name" of what I had last night, but it's my favorite, it has chicken and spinach with a brown rice. I also like the Lemon Rosemary Chicken and the one that has Lime Shrimp. There's a lemon grass chicken too. I haven't tried one that I didn't like.
Kashi makes cookies too, whole grain goodness, and they're filling, one is enough. I found them at Target.
Oh, try the frozen waffles too!
The saving dinner book has a spring, summer,fall, winter's worth of menues(8 weeks worth for each season)also. It is 1 price and you have them for all year (shopping lists for that week included or you can go online and print them out for that week. They have the shopping lists in printable form). For people who like to have them all in one place thats a good place to start. However Leann's menu-mailer is GREAT too. Looking forward to trying the freezer plans. Great idea when you find a sale or as we are doing butchering a hog or beef
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