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But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.
1 Corinthians 14:40
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| A Star Wars inspired meal: Tie Fighter ties, yoda soda and more. |
Dinnertime at our house is often horrible! HORRIBLE! We've endured a long day and we're tired. Everyone's hungry. Tired PLUS hungry often EQUALS grumpy! Sometimes, thos pre-dinner bad attitudes spill over to dinnertime. Grumpy is NOT a pleasing appetizer!
Supper should be our opportunity to "be" a family, all together. It grieves me when this time is spoiled by grumbling! To combat the grumpies, Rob and I are committing to being more organized. Some of you are pros at this: you plan your menus for the week or the month. You prepare in advance. We are not good at that....So we're taking baby steps. If you find dinner prep and planning stressful, maybe these tips can help you too.
- Sunday afternoon we take "orders" from the kids (they share their cravings and meal requests) and then sit down for about 20 minutes to plan the week's meals.
- I record the meals on our calendar (mine's on my computer -- and I attach the URL to any online recipes we plan to use).
- Rob records the "shopping list" for the week as I read off the recipe.
- We head out to the grocery store -- often it's Rob and Ellie for some daddy-daughter time!
- Sunday evening, we prep the food for Monday.
That's it. Just a few simple organized steps offers us a week free of meal-planning stress. Not only that, we are eating healthier and meals get to the table more quickly. Most importantly, grumpy is no longer offered as an appetizer. :)
If you decide to try our "plan," please let me know if it works for you by leaving a comment below. If you have some quick meal-planning tips that we could benefit from, share those too.
God didn't intend for us to live in chaos! Let's reclaim family dinner -- and the joy that goes with it!
Love,
10 comments:
Such a creative Star Wars meal! So fun! I struggle with planning ahead, too. When I'm more organized, we definitely reap the benefits, but it's hard to stay that way!
Planning ahead is so great. A standard idea is to cook double of some things you make, especially soup, sloppy joe, chili, even a lasagana and put the extra in the freezer for a busy day. And if you're cooking chicken or beef for a dish, cook extra and freeze it in a zip-loc bag for a future recipe. I found these REALLY save time on crazy weeks. Also might be helpful to take a meal to someone at the last minute.
Barb, great ideas from my seasoned mentor!!! :)
And being prepared to take a meal to others -- so thoughtful!
Thanks!
Er ... spellcheck ... lasagna!!
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Hi Karen! Love your site-- thanks so much for becoming a follower of mine as well (www.countingmykisses.com)!
I love your meal planning tips-- we incorporate a few of them already (the Hubs & I making the list together, he & Little O doing the actual shopping together for some daddy-daughter bonding time}. I really like the idea about putting each meal down on the calendar-- so many days I stare at the fridge at 6:00 and wonder, now what was I supposed to make today? Thanks for the great suggestions! :) Looking forward to stopping by here often! :)
Amy,
My husband does most of our shopping with our daughter while the big guys and I are at youth group. She's Chinese, but looks Mexican. He said he used to get lots of stares from the Mexican families shopping!
Tee hee
I really liked the article, and the very cool blog
Karen,
Great post. Dinner time is stressful for almost everyone, I think! My boys are 2 & 4, so we don't take requests yet. :) But, I do plan out our menu for 2 weeks at a time & plan nights for my husband to grill (to give me a break for a night in the kitchen). I hate to say, but I have grown to hate cooking. I use to enjoy it. Then I had kids & it was no longer fun because it was a 3 times a day obligation. I also plan out my shopping list. Since I can't buy all of the fresh veggies at a time (they will spoil by the 2nd week), I know I'll have to make another run to the grocery at the beginning of week 2, but for the most part, I can get almost everything for the next 2 weeks. This is also when I plan my Costco trip. It does make it easier, because in my opinion there are few things I dislike hearing more than, "What's for dinner?" when I have nothing planned. :)
We are having leftovers tonight!!!! :)
Time to clean out the fridge. And that means NO COOKING!!!! Good plan, because the hurricane's coming in -- we're inland, but the bad weather's already headed our way.
I'm adding breakfast items to our dinner menu. Tomorrow night -- assuming we have power -- will be blueberry french toast (the oven kind) with fresh fruit salad. YUMMY -- well, if it is yummy, I'll post a link on the blog :D
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