Okay, so you decide you are going to sit down and invest the time into planning your dinners for the next couple weeks. Good decision! But now you are faced with the challenge of choosing what meals you are going to serve. Sometimes this task alone can seem so daunting. But here are a few ideas that will help make it super easy.
1) have your family help
Let's say you are planning 7 meals for this week's dinners. Have each person in your home choose one meal for the week. If you have the average of three children, plus you and your husband, that is 5 meals already picked. That only leaves a couple for you to choose to fill in the gaps.
2) what would you order?
If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, imagine you are eating out at a restaurant. What would you order? You can easily re-create those restaurant favorites in your own home. You can even explore the website of your favorite restaurant to get menu ideas.
3) have a list of standbys
Keep a list of basic meals that you can make quickly and easily and don't mind eating somewhat frequently. Things like meatloaf, spaghetti, tacos, and fried chicken...things that use ordinary ingredients and can be easy meals to help fill in between the more exciting meals you prepare.
4) use the resources you already have
You probably have a huge stack of cookbooks in your kitchen. Clippings of recipes you've saved from magazines, websites you've bookmarked, old little scraps of paper with a recipe you copied down real quick. Pull them out and make all those recipes you've been wanting to try. Ask your friends for their tried and true recipes. There are SO many sources for recipes out there, just explore all those different options and start cooking!
Menu plan 4/5-4/11
Monday:
breakfast~cereal
lunch~leftovers
dinner~tacos
Tuesday:
breakfast~cinnamon roll oatmeal
lunch~veggie soup
dinner~salmon, rice, corn, fry bread
Wednesday:
breakfast~ham quiche
lunch~egg salad sandwiches, ranch crackers, fruit salad
dinner~chicken enchiladas
Thursday:
breakfast~banana bread
lunch~pasta
dinner~blts, potato wedges
Friday:
breakfast~smoothies
lunch~baked potatoes
dinner~bbq chicken pizza
Saturday:
breakfast~eggs n toast
lunch~Asian salad
dinner~red beans n rice
Sunday:
breakfast~cereal
lunch~go out
dinner~chicken cordon bleu, red potatoes, green beans, bread
© 2010-2011 Day to Day Cook - All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment