The hectic Supper Hour!

Supper is always a hectic time in any one's house, Ours included!  Supper time always comes at the worse time of day... It tends to sneak up on us and then all of a sudden we have a cranky child, cranky parents, hungry animals and no home cooked meal on the table!

Although there still is those day's where we "finger cook" (thanks Boston Pizza and Pizza Delight!) Our house has found a way to help decrease the supper time stress, with meal planning! 

Introduced to this concept shortly after we were married thanks to a WONDERFUL cook book we got as a wedding gift called Life's on Fire-Cooking for the Rushed by Sandi Richard (http://www.http//www.cookingfortherushed.com/books/life.htm)  This cook book has collections of 5 recipes with a corresponding grocery list for 12 weeks.  The recipes are easy, quick and diverse, which makes meals more interesting! 

Any way after using this cook book for a couple years we found that meal plans worked really well for us.  Then once we found out that William had so many different Allergies our 'fall back meals' no longer worked.  I made a resolution last New Year's to only cook meals that the WHOLE family could eat, (a goal that has not always been easy and has taught us allot about food!)  So we have started our own meal plan book using the countless other cook books we have laying around in an effort to only cook meals friendly for the WHOLE FAMILY!
(This is my reason I make Meal Plans!)
 
What we do is each time we go grocery shopping (about every 1.5 weeks) we plan a 5 recipe meal plan using one cookbook and make the grocery list up for that week.  We use to take a collection from several different cookbooks for each plan but I found it was confusing and disorganized, so now i just use one cookbook and keep it set out on the counter for that week.  We keep our meal plans written in a notebook so that we can have access to a meal plan quickly when we need too.  Ive started to add a special extra recipe (like muffins or cookies) to each meal plan so we have a yummy treat each week if we want to make it! 

Today I made up a new meal plan titled " THINNER Meals" from my LOW FAT COOKING Company's Coming book. (SIDE NOTE- I enjoy making up creative titles for each meal plan, helps me feel cool!! he he) 

Lyndsay's TIPS for developing your own weekly Meal Plans:

1-Write the plan in a note book to keep them all together and handy for future reference.
2- Use one cook book to decrease confusion and make sure you write the recipe PAGE number down.
3- Only plan 4 or 5 recipes for each meal plan.  I find that life usually gets in the way and some times you have to improvise on a meal one or two day's.  Plus it puts less pressure on you to cook every night!
4-Make sure you plan a variety of different meals, including length of prep and cooking times and different ingredients needed.  This will allow for those really busy nights and for those family members that have more "limited" cooking skills!
5- INCLUDE your family (especially those Hubby's) in your meal plan.  Cooking duties can be shared, and using a meal plan will allow everyone to have access to cook a nice meal for the family!

William "coloring" while I make up the meal plan for this week.

Thanks for Reading!  Let me know what you do in your House to plan homemade suppers! Leave a comment in the comment section!