Make a weekly menu to plan dinners.
Planning a weekly menu can make your life easier. A meal plan can eliminate opening the refrigerator or pantry every afternoon one hour before dinnertime, wondering what you should make. Once you organize yourself with a weekly menu, you can shop for the week and know that you won't need to plan or think about what you will serve for dinner. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Family Favorites
Think about the dinners that your family enjoys. Unfortunately, even if you plan a weekly menu out in detail, if you do not cook to your family's tastes, your cooking may go to waste. If your family likes basics like tuna casserole and hamburgers, put these items on the menu. If your family prefers fancier dishes like poached salmon and roasted eggplant, incorporate these foods in your menu. Do not stray far from the foods your family prefers to ensure that your weekly menu will be a hit.
Theme Nights
Choose a theme for different nights of the week. For example, try a meatless Monday, soup Tuesday, Italian Wednesday, sandwich Thursday, finger-foods Friday, breakfast for dinner Saturday and down-home Sunday. Your Monday meal may use beans or tofu instead of meat. Try a different soup or stew every Tuesday. Add spaghetti, lasagna or tortellini to the Wednesday fare. Serve hamburgers, barbecue or Reubens on Thursday. Make Friday evening a little laid back with appetizer-type hot dishes or even pizza. Breakfast for dinner on Saturday might be eggs, pancakes or waffles. A down-home Sunday meal might be pot roast or baked chicken with mashed potatoes.
Double and Freeze
As you prepare some entrees, consider doubling the ingredients and making two instead of one. This can be especially easy to do if you're making a casserole. When you finish preparing both casseroles, place one into the oven to bake it and wrap the other one up to freeze. You can stock your freezer with meals to serve on days when you do not have time to cook.
Cook From the Pantry
Create a budget-conscious meal plan by cooking from your pantry one or two nights each week. Instead of preparing a meal that you purchase ingredients for, make a meal out of ingredients you have in your pantry. Use a can of tuna, a can of cream soup, a bag of pasta and a can of mixed vegetables to make a cost-effective casserole using foods you already had on hand. Also, consider foods you may have in your refrigerator that you need to use as you plan an upcoming week's meals. Plan meals that will use these foods.
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