When you are seriously tired of being asked (and having to figure out) "what's for dinner?" every night you can see the wisdom in new ideas and suggestions.
One idea you might consider is to put your weekly dinner menus on overdrive; meaning plan once and know what you're eating for a very, very long time.
Sound good? Here's how the idea works.
-- Use the Revolving Method The Revolving Method of menu planning goes like this: gather about 30 recipes that your family loves.
These can be longtime favorites as well as any new meals your family enjoys.
Get out your weekly dinner menus and start putting these meals into the daily slots.
The truth behind this easy idea is that most families have between 20 and 30 meals that they eat over and over again.
So take advantage of this fact.
Instead of wandering around the kitchen for 30 minutes and finally deciding to have hamburgers - again - just put hamburgers on the meal plan once a month.
-- Pizza night Many families have some sort of a family night where they have a favorite food.
Pizza, wings, tacos and more are often on this list.
My family has been having pizza night once a week for almost 30 years! This is a great meal to combine with a family movie or a fun board game; whatever your family enjoys doing together.
And your family's favorite food gets a spot reserved for it on your weekly dinner menu.
Another meal taken care of.
-- Add take-out We all have evenings that just don't allow for a sit-down dinner or spending an hour cooking in the kitchen.
So instead of having those nights sneak up on you and then feeling guilty about them, why not look at your calendar and plan your take-out nights? Staying in control of them allows you to limit them according to your budget and schedule them when they'll do you the most good.
By this time you should have a month's worth of weekly dinner menus planned and filled out.
Draw up a grocery shopping list from these menus.
Also write out a produce list for each week.
Now you're ready to go shopping once for the main shop and only once a week for perishables.
And no more wandering in your kitchen!