How to Get Started Meal Planning

Keeping Dinner Interesting With These Tips

When it comes to the nightly meal of the day – dinner meals easily become a victim of repetitive entrees and side dishes. Some individuals and families find themselves stuck in a rut, preparing some of the same meals on a weekly basis – fish on Friday, Meatloaf Monday, bland corn, white rice, and lifeless mashed potatoes. To keep dinner fun, fresh, and in many cases, exciting – there are plenty of ways to stop the boredom that comes with fixing and eating the same dishes. A few ideas include:

1) Try New Recipes

Whether you scan the cookbooks lining the library shelves or browse the infinite number of online resources, there are plenty of recipes awaiting the eager cook. New recipes add excitement and new flavors that not only add spice to the dining room table, but also awaken the taste buds. You never know if you don’t like something if you never try it. Why not experiment with veal or make your first gumbo?

2) Try New Ingredients  

Sometimes you can transform an old favorite by simply substituting the ingredients you normally use. There are thousands of different spices, meats, vegetables, fruits, sauces, and other cooking ingredients that you are unaware of. This is also a great chance to explore some of the different worldwide methods of cooking, as you consider the use of cilantro, rose petals, Adobo, hummus, and oyster sauce.

3) Theme Night of the Week

To spice up the dinnertime you have grown accustomed to, theme nights create a great break from the norm. You may select a day of the week that is especially set aside for a particular theme of your choice, such as “Dinner and a Movie.” When preparing a mealtime your family will never forget, you may choose to explore another culture. A few theme night feasts may include: Italian (pizza, cannoli, lasagna); Asian (spring rolls, chicken stir fry, fortune cookies); Middle Eastern (pita sandwiches, falafel); or French (croissant sandwiches, quiche, crepes).

4) Breakfast Food At Night

When you’re tired of the meat and potatoes dinner, there is nothing wrong with setting a hot, stack of pancakes on the table for the last meal of the day. Omelets, waffles, French toast, scrambled eggs and bacon, all make great selections for a dinner that breaks from the norm.

5) Fun Presentation Ideas

Perhaps the things you cook for dinner taste great and are crowd pleasers, but you want to step up the level of enjoyment. Enhanced presentation of food not only heightens the interest of the meal, but also gets the conversation going around the dinner table. One of the most attention-grabbing ideas for meals includes fruit and vegetable carving, where radishes, apples, oranges, and melons become works of art. Sometimes, dinner plates may showcase a bright explosion of foods, arranged according to the colors of the rainbow.

6) Decoration, Decoration, Decoration

To encourage a more enjoyable dinner meal, decorating the dining room table is a great way to boost the level of delight, including colorful napkins, inviting candles, fun silverware choices, decorative tablecloths, new cups and glasses, or beautiful spreads of flowers and plants.

7) Change The Scenery

Sometimes the food served during dinner isn’t the boring part of mealtime, but the monotonous seating and setting at the dining room table sometimes becomes the problem. To change up the scenery, make arrangements to have a picnic dinner, gather on the patio to watch the sun set over a delicious home cooked meal, or plan a laidback feast to enjoy in the family room. Why not hold an outdoor Hawaiian luau, where the backyard is transformed into an island paradise with roasted pineapple, grilled food, and leis?

Overall, if you think coming up with your own creative meal ideas is hard, there are plenty of cooking resources and meal planners to consider. For example, to help cooks keep dinner interesting, culinary exploration reports offered at Menu Planning Central help add life, creativity, and imagination.

3 Tips for Easy Meal Planning

Where has the family dinner hour gone? There once was a time when we would all come home from a long day and sit down with our family for a nice home-cooked meal. In today’s fast paced world, we need more bonding time with the family. One might say that in today’s day where people pile way too much on the plate of life, that it is impossible to have a family dinner everyday. I disagree. Wouldn’t you like to get back to the way it used to be?

One way to make family dinners easier to prepare is by planning ahead. Often times I find myself going to the grocery store every other day to pick up needed items, and this is how family time gets lost. Spend a little time planning out dinner ideas for the coming week. Pick meals that are quick and easy for your dinners during the week and save the more time consuming recipes for the weekend. Did you know that software has been developed that makes meal planning a breeze? With a click of the mouse you can organize your recipe collection into daily meal plans complete with nutrition facts and shopping lists. With the computer generated shopping list you won’t have to worry about forgetting a needed item when you go grocery shopping.

Another great way to ensure that your family eats together most nights of the week is to share the responsibility of preparing dinner. It can be difficult for one family member to be responsible for cooking everyday. Each member of the family can take turns cooking each night. This is also a good way to add some new flavors to your meals since each member may have a different cooking technique. For those family members who don’t cook often, this can prove to be a great learning experience. Review each family member’s weekly schedule and delegate the meal preparation tasks such as grocery shopping, cooking, and clean up. Working as a team is a great way to build strength as a family.

“Not meatloaf again!” I’m sure everyone has heard the complaints from that same meal being served week after week. Keep your family dinners exciting by trying different variations of your favorite recipes. An even better idea would be to test out some new recipes. Surprise your family with a delicious new dinner tonight and they will be sure to come back to the dinner table tomorrow.

Nothing is more important than your family. It’s worth the effort to make sure that your family eats together daily. Besides the needed nutrition, this time spent together will help open the lines of communication and make your family bond stronger.

I recently discovered an online service that saves time and money while providing you with new dinner ideas daily. Get access to powerful recipe management software, daily meal plans, money saving coupons and more at SendMeRecipes.

Meal Planning Made Tax Season Almost Bearable

Those of you who know me know that I am a tax professional who prepares taxes for individuals and small businesses.  This tax season was one of the longest, toughest tax seasons I’ve had in a long time…

But, this was the first year that I was doing meal planning on a regular basis, and oh my goodness, was it a huge help!

Getting dinner prepared was no big deal this tax season because I already knew what I was going to make and I had everything on hand to do it.  Hubby even helped by getting dinner ready a few times!

I have to say we cheated and ordered out a few times, but even that was planned ahead of time, so it was no big deal.

I knew meal planning was a life saver before, but this tax season has me convinced about the benefits of meal planning all over again.  Whew!

3 Planning Lists to Organize Your Meals

3 Planning Lists to Organize Your Meals
By O Quinn

With just three checklists you can bring your meal scrambling days to an end and serve your family nutritious delicious dinners.

1. Grocery Shopping List:

With a grocery shopping list you are less likely to stray and buy things that might catch your eye. Grocery shopping lists keep you on task and that saves you money.  You won’t buy what is not on your list. Your grocery list should sit in a prominent place all week. A place where all the members of your family can see it and access. As you notice things needing to be replaced add to the list. When you get to your menu planning ingredients add them to the list.

2. Pantry List:

With a pantry list you know what ingredients you have in the house. If you have guests drop by or need to make a last minute meal knowing what you have on hand saves a lot of time and trouble.  To use a pantry list have a chart of the food items you use on a regular basis in your home. Have a slot next to those items. In each slot mark how many of that item you have on hand. If none then you know you need to add that item to your grocery list.

3. Meal Planning List:

Meal planning saves time and money. With a meal planning list you don’t have to think about dinner, just do it. Your groceries have already been purchased from your time and money saving grocery list so you know what you’re eating for dinner. Just follow the recipe and you have a great home cooked meal your family will love.  To use a meal planning list get a piece of paper.  List your days of the week in a column and then make three more columns next to that.  The three columns are for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Use each column to write in what recipe you will serve on that day at that time.  Some people omit the breakfast and lunch because the dinner hour is the big worry. That’s okay too. On the day you will be serving your meal refer to the list and you will know if you need to thaw any meats or prepare any items in advance.

For complete checklists for home and life visit Household Notes and
for information on organizing your home visit Homemaking Organized.

The Advantages of Planning Your Meals Ahead

By O Quinn

Do you come home from the office tired and wishing you didn’t have to think about dinner? Are you home all day with little ones and the last thing you want to do when they go down for a nap is get busy in the kitchen? Do you open the fridge ready to come up with a good meal only to find you need to run to the grocery store because you’re out of an ingredient. or two?

There is a remedy for all of this. By planning your meals in advance you can eliminate the last minute rush, the stress of indecision, and free up more time for your family.

Plan your menu:  Plan your meals at least a week in advance.   Browse your local grocery store circular for what is on sale.  Poll your family members for a favorite dish they would like to have or subscribe to a meal planning menu mailer and have the recipes come to you.

Organize your Preparation:  Now just because you have the recipes and even the ingredients don’t think you can just sit back and all will be done.  To maximize this meal planning you should do a little reading ahead and maybe even a little before hand preparation.  Chop onions and freeze them.  See which meats need to be marinated. Maybe you can make a crust or bread dough on a slow day instead of waiting until the day you will serve the dish.

Keep track of favorites:  A great meal feels like a pat on the back.  Make sure you make note of which recipes are keepers.  Have a meal planning notebook that you write them into or type them into your recipe software.  This will help you with meal planning in the future.   After a while all you will have are winning meals!

O Quinn is a work at home mom likes to find ways to automate and simplify the homemaking process while still obtaining excellent results. Visit Meal Planning for more information on planning your dinners in advance.

Meal Planning for Busy Moms

A Simple Step-By-Step Guide To Meal Planning

If you’re ready make some big changes in the way you get dinner on the table, then you need to learn how to plan your meals.

My friend Cara of The Household Helper has created a new resource that gives you a step-by-step formula for meal planning.

Here’s What You’ll Learn:

* A simple method to save time and money
* How to plan according to your schedule
* Write a grocery list that works
* Learn how to navigate the grocery store
* How to organize your food once you get it home
* Discover how to make simple, quick meals
* Easy cure for leftovers: how to use them to make a whole new meal
* The no lose way to bulk cooking
* The correct way to store and reheat foods
* But that’s not all; this ebook also includes recipes

What are you waiting for? Start meal planning today, and start bringing your family to the table for a stress-free, enjoyable meal every day of the week!