What's for dinner????

I was going to do this for the next Works for me Wednesday but I decided that most of you probably know about it already, but just in case some of you don't I wanted to share my love for this. The cookbook that I started out with is here.

Now I have to be honest and say:

1. I don't do this once a month, but rather every 2 months because things come up that dictate dinner elsewhere and we deviate from our planned dinners.


2. I also don't cook for 2 days straight in a row as I don't have time for it and I don't like to be tied up with any one project for that long.

What I do:

1. I plan my meals for the month one night.


2. I grocery shop the next day.


3. I cook the 3rd day.

The above is a best case scenario and sometimes I just don't have 3 days to devote to cooking so I will put a day in between each to do item. On cooking day I must say that the kids are presented with a "mom approved" video from the library and then if they would like they can each take turns helping me put together a recipe. (My 9 yo DD loves to put together the calzone recipe!) It is fun for the kids to help me fill the freezer for our month of meals. I place a label on each food item and then place it in the freezer. Then every Monday I go to the grocery store for our weeks worth of needed items (like vegetables for sides or salad fixings). This way of cooking has saved us many evenings when running home from Tae Kwon Do or when we are trying to get to Wednesday night bible class on time. I encourage anyone to give it a try and if cooking for a whole month is a little bit much for you to take on then try it for 2 weeks at a time and you will be amazed at the ease of dinner. Oh and on the big cooking day, PLAN to go out for dinner that evening, it will be a wonderful feeling to go out for a planned dinner rather than a hectic where-do-we-want-to-go-because-we-have-nothing-at-home! Now just to let you know we still have Taco Bell runs at our house, but they are just MUCH less frequent than before.