It wasn’t too long ago that I was scrambling to figure out what to cook for dinner with one kid napping and the other glued to my side, wanting to be held no matter what. There was no ability to go to the grocery store without having crabby kids and a terrible experience shopping, and no one to bring me missing ingredients before dinnertime. Talk about stressed out! I finally reached my breaking point and decided enough was enough and began my research on how to avoid repeating this chaotic dinnertime struggle so many of us face. Here are a few things that I have learned and implemented to eliminate the dinnertime disaster:
Create a list of favorite meals
– Make a list of at least one of each person’s favorite dishes. I found that once I went through each category I could think of (chicken, meatless, pork, beef, Italian, Mexican, American, restaurant favorites), I had a list of over 30 different meals that most of my family would love and devour.
Make a pantry list
– I have tried in the past to follow other people’s pantry lists and it didn’t work. Mainly because I didn’t eat like the author, so a lot of the ingredients would sit unused for that one day I decided to try the recipes that used the ingredients their recipe book called for. So instead, I made a list of breakfast and lunch favorites with ingredients, some healthy snacks and a few favorite easy dinner dishes to have on hand (with meat in freezer) and organized it into a list that I could go through once a week and restock as needed. It took a couple of hours to get set up, but once done was a life saver. I can’t remember the last time I went to prepare something and was missing one of my main ingredients. And when dinner falls apart, it nice to know I can thaw some chicken, cook some spaghetti, grab a jar of pasta sauce and heat up a can of corn without leaving the house.
Use a calendar
- I use one wall calendar to record all of my families events, so it makes sense to also include a planned meal for each day to. Now, this doesn’t mean that we always eat what is planned, but it means there is always something to prepare. I freeze most of my meat when I buy it, so the only fresh ingredients are the veggies, which are easily incorporated into other days if not used. Using a calendar helps me to make sure I don’t plan an elaborate meal on a day we aren’t home until 5, and reminds me to use the crockpot when we are gone all day. This is where the family favorites list comes in really handy too. If I have 30 meals my family loves, I can write one on each day and voila! I have a month of meals planned. And most likely I can repeat the majority month after month without anyone really complaining!
Have a system
– Depending on my schedule, I pick a day to plan meals (monthly or weekly), make a grocery list, and go to the store. Right now, I plan my meals on Monday, make a grocery list on Tuesday and shop on Wednesday, but as long as I follow the same order, any day of the week works. Since I already have my meals planned, and I have all my basics on a pantry list, it only takes about 15 – 20 minutes to scan the pantry list for things I am low on or out of and then add all the ingredients for the recipes I will be using for the dinners that week.
It is such a relief to not have to stress about dinner at 4 pm any more and to know my kids have great choices for breakfast, lunch and snacks. It saves so much time and energy and takes less than 30 minutes a week to do (without shopping). I can’t even imagine going back to last minute store dashes or digging through the freezer and fridge in a panic again!
Photo by @vampiretta 