Dinner recipes can be hard to come up with day after day, meal after meal.
Lots of people get into a menu rut, rotating between the same recipes over and over.
Families often find, when examining their food selection, that they constantly eat the same meals while ignoring some old favorites.
It's all haphazard and kind of random and there is no real system in place.
Now that more people are more focused on other things like work, it's not easy to plan and execute a healthy menu.
When coming up with that weekly menu, and the recipes to fill it, keep in mind that prior planning prevents loads of future problems.
That is, if you take some time to think about the menu in advance, you'll find that your recipe selection becomes a lot more varied and exciting.
Food isn't only about the taste and nutrition, it's about presentation, companionship and the whole experience.
Even the same basic foods can be prepared a variety of different ways to make up meals everyone will enjoy a lot more.
Take ground beef for example.
Add some flour, vegetables such as onions, tomatoes and lettuce.
That's a hamburger, right? Well, it's also a great taco.
Tacos and hamburgers have a lot of the same basic ingredients, but to most people they're very different foods.
One food can make many different recipes and thus meals.
Let's try another food example.
How about chicken and potatoes? Fried chicken and French fries aren't too healthy.
But roasted chicken and potatoes are.
Still want to use chicken and potatoes.
How about chicken salad and chips - they make a good lunch.
Chicken pot pie.
Chicken Teriyaki may not include potatoes, but it includes a starch in the white rice.
There it is, a lot of variety from only a few basic foods.
Mixing kinds of meats can be lots of fun too.
Cut up chicken and steak, potatoes and vegetables.
Put them on skewers or sticks and grill.
Those are delicious kebabs.
Steak and lobster can be very elegant for a parents only dinner date, or pretty basic to include the kids too at a family meal.
Some people even like to roast a turkey and serve fish and chips as an early appetizer.
It's all made in the same deep fryer.
What about sources for meal ideas? There are a lot of food shows on television, even an entire channel dedicated to food.
Those give great ideas, and most have web sites where more information, including recipes.
Speaking of on line, food ideas abound on web sites.
Try a Google or MSN search for dinner ideas.
You'll never have time to read all the resulting information.
There are more dinner recipes out there than the average person can ever eat in an entire lifetime.