Reply to How do you figure out what to eat for dinner every night?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Plan, plan, plan.  I hate doing it, but i spend about 45 minutes on friday or saturday planning out 5-6 meals for the week, and doing a shopping list.  I do it with a glass of wine and my cookbooks, after the anklebiters are asleep.  I have a repertoire of probably 20 easy recipes, many that have some prep i can do the night before.  Sometimes i include something i can make on the weekend that keeps for a weeknight, like a stew or pulled pork in the crockpot, or something that takes some weekend prep like meatloaf that can be put in the oven the second i walk in the door.  I go to the supermarket once a week.  If i had to figure out what aas for dinner when i got home every night, even with a fridge full of food, we'd eat way more takeout - i just cant face it after a full day of work and 2 kids dying to see me.[/quote]

I have the same routine. I also use a little Moleskine notebook for planning. I use two pages for each week--one has a slot for each day and what we're eating that day and the other is for my grocery list, menu ideas, etc. I try to have some flexibility so that when DH announces on Tuesday night that he'll be out of town Wednesday night, I can switch meals around. I like keeping a notebook because I can flip back through and get meal ideas. I will write "KEEPER" on a day that we've made something everyone likes (I also write the source for the recipe--i.e., the blog address or "CL 9/12" for Cooking Light Sept 2012 issue). I also have a page at the very back of the notebook where I write down the best things we've eaten, so at the end of the year, I have a bunch of "go-to" meals.

I shop on Sunday mornings, so we usually have fish on Sunday nights, generally pan-fried with steamed green beans and roasted potatoes. We do some sort of roasted chicken each week--roasted thighs or a whole bird--with a salad or roasted veggies (easy to roast a bird in a v-shaped roaster then, halfway through the cooking, dump potatoes, sweet pots, carrots, etc in the bottom of the pan to roast with the chicken). I do a lot of meatballs, because I have young kids and they will always eat them. They also freeze well, so if DH is out of town, I can pop them back in the freezer. I make them in a mini-muffin pan. Google Alton Brown for the technique and then use whatever meatball recipe you like.

I really like Dinner a Love Story (www.dinneralovestory.com) for meal ideas. Her kids are much better eaters than mine are, but I still get some good ideas for dinner from her blog.[/quote]

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