First, I am thankful that figuring out dinner is one of my biggest issues in life right now. It could surely be worse, but I am so grateful that it is not. That said. I hate dinner time. That 5 o'clock hour when I realize we should have something defrosted and ready to cook or at least a plan as to what we will be eating when the youngest of the bunch comes in, bouncing a ball, asking "what's for dinner?" I dread it many days because sometimes, tossing something into the Crock Pot at noon doesn't sound appealing. Pulling out one of those great looking recipes I printed out long ago may happen, but it has so many things in the ingredients list that I don't have - ugh, scratch that. Heck I typically don't even have anything frozen, like a quick meal, that I could take out and slap some broccoli or salad next to! I'm just UNPREPARED!
Okay, wait, no I don't hate dinner time unless I am unprepared. It would seem the remedy to that would be to meal plan, right? Well, have you ever done that? It's kind of involved, which means it's kind of annoying to do, but that it really does pay off.
1. How much money do you have for said meal plan?
2. What is in the sale papers for the week that might help me decide what we will eat?
3. Okay, what do we all like enough that it will get a pass for dinner...for a week?
4. What do we already have in the pantry/fridge that I won't have to buy?
5. Now let's go grocery shopping. (Bonus: This must be done weekly or monthly)
At this point, we are ready to cook dinner, ideally, for a solid week - probably with a leftover day in there somewhere. I find this process tedious. But when I don't do this, I find that we are spending quite a bit of money eating out and although it's not McDonald's we're getting, it's still not a home cooked meal. When I follow these five steps, however long it takes me, we eat at home and the kids can take leftovers to school for lunch! Win-win in my book! I don't think my family realizes what it takes to get that dinner on the table or into their lunch boxes on a daily basis, but I feel so much better knowing that what we are eating is not full of preservatives and sodium the way restaurant food typically is.
Don't be confused, there are days when both Babe and I say, "let's just pick something up" and we do. But when a meal plan is in place and the groceries are in the house just waiting to become dinner, it doesn't happen as often. And when both of your kids find the kid's menu at any restaurant unsatisfying - especially the kid who is still young enough to eat off that menu - ya really need to eat at home!
No comments:
Post a Comment