What’s for dinner?  We all have a handful of recipes that we go to when making that decision.  Great recipes, but with this New Year let’s broaden our recipe collection and even more importantly REMEMBER and REUSE the those healthier ones the kids seem to like!

Here a solution to the resolution to help you keep the dinner planning less stressful and healthier this year:

Create a What’s for Dinner? board.  This board displays the dinner menu for the week. It is placed in an obvious place in your kitchen area where everyone, especially you, sees it.  The menu board holds an array of menu items, tucked into a pocket.  These menu items are the tried and true meals that you know your kids will eat. It also has blank ones for new menu items to be added when you successfully get them to try something new!

The Planning

Each Sunday, together with the family (or secretly on your own if you wish ;-) you look at the meals options and decide what will be eaten when.  You could start by sharing what proteins you have available or will be on sale.  Even consider what’s going on with the schedules, such as practices, games and other activities. Try make a rule that a new meal must enjoyed on Wednesdays and its Daddy’s Choice on Saturday.  Whatever you do, try your best to make it a family decision.

Making It

I made the board using basic materials, nearly all purchased at Target.

I used:

  • 1 magnet board that was in the $1 section
  • Scrapbook paper to print out the days of the week and title, and to decorate the board (Download the days of the week and title.)
  • Round magnets, also in the $1 section, for the days of the week
  • White index cards for the strips
  • Glue
  • A shopping list pad with a magnet strip.
  • cute veggie magnets that I never ended up using but my daughter loved them and got her in the mood to be part of the dinner planning!  She has them in “her kitchen” now!

The concept is to organize your week by making the decision of what’s for dinner before the week starts. You don’t want to deal with the aggravations throughout the week as you’re fiddling through your fridge trying to see what you can throw together.

Beyond the organization, this chart is useful in reminding kids and adults recipes that are tried and true.  We tend to go to same 3 or 4 recipes with kids.  If we want their appetites to extend beyond hotdogs, pasta and pizza we need to regularly incorporate new dishes and use them again.

Share!

Make it or something like it!

  • Take a photo or two of your board and write a quick blog post about how you did SmartMamaLUTION #4: What’s for Dinner? Don’t Make It, That Again!  You are invited to include a link to your post using the LINKY below.
  • If you do not maintain a blog, I welcome you to share a comment below or at http://www.TheBlogFrog.com/SmartMamaLUTION about your board!
  • Return tomorrow for SmartMamaLUTION #5: Fresh Start to the Playroom, Guest Post by Joanne Palumbo of Homestyli

Inspired by Pinterest, detailed by me!