Less Stress at Dinnertime!

I've learned I can't always have my days go as planned. Things always happen to put a wrench in my plans. But the stress of what I'm making for dinner doesn't happen anymore.

I used to make a list of possible dinners that I would put up on the fridge, and then cross them off as we had them. This list was so I made sure I had all the ingredients bought and ready. But we still had to decide on what we were going to eat each night from the possibilities, and when we moved here, I quickly realized I couldn't buy produce too far in advance to using it. (They arrive at the store ALREADY ripe...so you have to use them quick!)

Then I made this a few months ago.

A way to know what we were eating every night.

I wrote all the dinner choices (main dishes...the sides are just kept on hand) on small square pieces of paper and taped them to a "sheet protected" paper. There are some "Eat Out" options to take the place of holidays, like birthdays or this month, Thanksgiving. There's also some "Leftovers" squares after several bigger meals. This helps me to look at the menu right before making a trip to the store (I usually go every 3-4 days for milk anyway.) and make sure I have all the necessary ingredients for the next 4-5 meals. I also know if I need to take something out of the freezer before 30 minutes until it's time to eat! And I can arrange it any way I'd like it each 4 weeks without having to rewrite everything. Just move around the squares.

I also make sure that if I have a meal that could be a hit or miss with the kids, the following day is a definite hit. And I have some recipes that use leftovers from previous dinners, so I can plan accordingly to make enough to use in the next day's meal.

 And the clincher? 

It's so easy, I can hand it over to my husband at the end of the month and have him arrange the menu for the next month!