Dinner Time: The Worst Of Times Or The Best?

Is dinner time a complete disaster at your house? Is it the time of day when everyone feels tired, cranky, hungry, and just plain out-of-sorts?

If only a genie nanny could magically appear every day around 4:00 pm and prepare a well-balanced feast while you soak in a warm, bubble bath and your kids nap soundly in their rooms. Dream on!

But why, you may ask, is dinner so important anyway?

I promise you, this is not a trick question.

It’s an important meal because it’s the only time your busy family has to sit down together and actually talk to one another. Unfortunately, it’s also the time of day when working moms are just getting home and stay-at-home moms are recovering from the chaos of the day. Mom is exhausted and barely able to discuss dinner, let alone prepare it. If you are a busy mom or you know one, here are some menu planning tips to help make dinner meals easy and, dare I say…fun.

• Plan your meals one week in advance. This small step may be time-consuming at first, but once you get into the habit of doing it, you will end up saving time and money. It will also prevent you from stopping off for junky fast food on your way home. Before you go to the grocery store, write down your meals, day by day, and then prepare your shopping list from the ingredients you’ll be needing. Your list should contain items for the pre-planned meals, your staples (milk, eggs, cereal, bread, etc.), and any other products you’ve gone through that week.

• Look for bargains. Clip coupons and read advertising circulars to decide which grocery store has the best prices that week. If one ingredient is a common denominator in several meals, consider buying in bulk to save money. Some stores will have double or triple coupon days where you can save even more. Or, you can click here for printable coupons:
  Printable Grocery Coupons

• Look for recipes online. No one wants to eat the same old, same old Monday through Sunday. You should look forward to preparing new dishes as much as your family looks forward to eating them. Free yourself from boring family recipes and explore new foods or combinations of ingredients never before eaten. Be creative. Put a twist on old recipes for a new taste.

• Schedule a leftover night toward the end of the week. After preparing meals for five or six days, you are bound to have an assortment of foods left over. On this “special” night, let everyone mix and match for dinner. These creative meals not only save you time and money, but they provide your family with an array of options.

• Cook your meals in advance. After deciding on a menu plan for the week, go ahead and fix as many meals as you can. Choose a day when the entire family can help, like Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon. Each person can choose one meal and prepare it for the following week. Once everything has cooled, store in sealed containers or casserole dishes to be frozen until the night it is needed. Make sure you label the containers with the contents and the date.

• Not all your meals can be cooked at one time. Some foods just taste better freshly prepared. For those meals, enlist your kids to help chop (depending on their ages, of course) vegetables, dice cooked meat, and mix together dry ingredients. On the night of the meal, all you need to do is add the wet ingredients and bake.

Meal time doesn’t have to be a nightmarish chore. If the entire family plans and participates in the meal preparation, everyone has a stake in making the experience pleasant, joyful, and, yes I am going to say it…fun.

For additional tips on menu-planning, click on this link: www.dinewithoutwhine.com/bishop