The question most often asked by family members is “What’s for dinner?” What I discovered was that I rarely knew myself. Their question would force a rapid mind search for what was in the fridge, the pantry, and that I could cook quickly. I hated the stress!

I decided to do something about it.

A family meeting was called to order. With a paper and pen I asked everyone in the house what food items they liked to have. I made a list of everything they said. I wanted to try to accommodate everyone so even Bryan’s request for Peanut, Butter, and Jelly Sandwiches was written on the list.

After creating the list, I then sat down to make my menus. I thought about things like, if I make roast beef in the crockpot on Monday, then on Wednesday we can have French Dip Sandwiches. I tried to make at least one item each week that would then carry over into another day. Also, I would make up a lot of our meats ahead of time. I might have a post on that, or it’s in my book, I’m Going to be the Greatest Mom Ever…Even if it Kills Me! (You can buy it on Amazon for 125.00!)

After creating the menus I printed them out and put them in page protectors in a 3-ring binder. In the space that says “shopping list” I would create a list and slide it into the binder sleeve.

I usually shopped for the non-perishables for 3 weeks at a time. This made going to the store not such a chore. The perishable items ONLY (whispers —- and the items I managed to forget on mega shopping day) were picked up during the week. Our family would go through about 10 gallons of milk a week, so we did have to stop at the store frequently. We made our own freshly ground whole wheat bread. (Insert some kind of ooh….ahhh)

The following are the actual menus that I used for years! As the kids got older they would be in charge of meals. That meant they would tell me ahead of time what they wanted to prepare and give me the shopping list for those items. I left some blank days to cover srevotfel (repurposing leftovers), an occasional pizza night, or just to give a little flexibility. It was easy to simply swap a menu item for another night too.

Gosh my wheels are spinning about a way to create this with a magnetic board…. but that’s for another time.

If you have any questions or want an explanation, simply leave a comment.

6 Week Menu –

If you can’t see the menus above, simply click on the link 6 Week Menu

Think about what takes the most time when preparing dinner. Usually it is the meat you’re having.
Figure out how much meat you will need for the month ie. ground beef, chicken, roast, whatever meats you use. Choose one day to prepare all of your meats. I would make 15 – 20 pounds of gr. beef in my giant roaster. Four chickens in a large stock pot or two, and two roasts in my big crock pot. Most of these just cooked on their own. Of course I would have to season and stir some things. But generally I could let it go for several hours.

I rinsed the ground beef under cold water to get most of the fat off of it. I packaged the ground beef in freezer bags in quantities that worked for our family.

I would debone the chicken, and package the meat in freezer bags too.

I would also take the roast and shred it so I would have meat for things requiring shredded beef such as chimichangas, shepard pie, etc.

Any meal that had meat, usually took less than 20 minutes to prepare.

Another way to make meal time fast and easy is to already have a plan.
Sit down with the family and make a list of everything you want or like to have for meals. Be sure to include breakfast and lunch.

Take all of those items and put them into weekly menus. I like having six weeks of menus available. That way we can easily rotate and don’t get bored with the same thing day after day. Create a book of recipes to go along with each item. Be sure to include the ingredients for the week. Which makes it very easy to plan your monthly shopping trip.

I would go shopping once a month for my staple items, then once a week for the perishables.

When you have older kids like I do, you can assign them certain days to plan the menu and prepare the meals. I don’t do any of this myself anymore. When it’s my day to cook – I buy pizza!

Some of my favorite resources:
Dinner’s In the Freezer – Jill Bond
Mega Cooking – Jill Bond
Base Cooking – Donna Zito This was a recipe book of meat recipes that used the meats I had already prepared.
Hearth and Home – Karey Swan