Winning at Dinner

The Key 

to 

Winning 

at

 Dinner Time 

As working adults and parents we get asked so many hard questions. 

"How do you discipline your children?" 

"How do you plan on keeping the marketing budget low this month?" 

 "How long will it take you to have those papers on my desk?" 

"Mommy/daddy what do you want to be when you grow up?" (I have been asked this one personally) 

But that one question that stops us in our tracks, and makes us question our ability 

to think or even speak is..............

"What's for Dinner?"   

Say what ? Of course we have about ten meals that can be prepared for dinner just sitting in the cabinets.

We have even  gone through breakfast and lunch without a hiccup. 

But dinner is never easy....until now. 

So, here are my tips for Winning at Dinner:

 1. Gather your family favorites. 

Like baked chicken, Pork chops, Spaghetti. 

Write each one down on an index card. 

If you are visual like myself find some really pretty ones. 

Recipe cards will work. 

 Write down what you need to make the dish too. 

 

 2. Gather dishes that you may not have tried yet. 

Maybe you have 1 Million and 2 dishes 

pinned to your Pinterest boards that you have not tried yet. #NotJudging 

Crock pot meals should make it on a few of those cards too. 

Write those down.

Be sure to include the "how to" portion on your cards as you have not made these yet.

You will want to know how to put it together.

You can keep these at about 5 or 6 for the month. 

Also write down the site if you want to refer back to it.  

3. Now do a set of side dishes. 

Things like Carrots and Broccoli, Rice and Cilantro, 

Potatoes and (whatever you like to eat with potatoes). 

The idea would be to have at least 30 of these. For the month. 

30 Main Dishes (Family Loved mixed with New To Try)

30 Sides (easy as frozen veggies or more complex as something curried)

4. Now Find a pretty box to keep them in. 

You should divide the sides and main dish cards. With a divider of some sort. 

 

5. On Saturday (or what ever day you shop for food each week) pick 14 cards from the box.

Don't look, just grab them. The kids would love this too. 

  7 From the main dishes, 7 from the sides.

Now, make a list of the ingredients of each meal. 

Check off what you already have so you don't end up with three boxes of rice this week. 

Tricks  

*Use these 30 meals for a couple of months. You should end up with several dinner combinations.  

* Keep your receipts so you will know how much Chicken will cost (roughly), so you can budget better.   

 * Picky kids? Let them help cook. They will be more willing to eat if they know whats in it. No mystery meat over here !!!

*Prep your food the night before. Or several nights ahead. Prep the chicken, or the pork chops. So they can go from frig to pan or oven when you get home from work. Marinate or season, chop veggies and so on.

*Utilize your crock pot. If you don't have one, you need one in your life.   

*I'm a bean person. so Dried beans could sub for meats sometime. 

Plus A cup of beans can feed a village. They just multiply. 

AND 

Remember you can always have Breakfast for dinner !!! 

I hope this was helpful. 

If so, let me know in the comments. 

Thanks for stopping by !!!  

 All Pictures are links. Clink them to see where they take you.

Hippocrates — 'Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food