Meal planning is currently my nemesis. I feel as though I spend the whole day in the kitchen <galley>.. whatever. If I’m not preparing meals I’m cleaning up after them. The last thing I want to do is spend time outside the kitchen deciding how I’m going to spend time in it. The guy who skips meals because he’s to indecisive should not be in charge of them.. But I am.. So I guess it’s back to making a list of the meals we usually eat and trying to make a plan from there.

I tried assigning a meal category to different days of the week (like fish on Monday and pasta on Tuesday, etc.) While predictable and easy it was quickly pooh-poohed by the family for being too repetitive. Changing to a two-week pattern didn’t work for us either. <Scurvy dogs don’t know what’s good for ’em.>

Not planning results in frequent runs to the store, and while it’s nice to get out, there are better ways to get quality time with the kids. Nobody is at there best at the grocery store, <Aye! that be true.> and I have yet to come up with a game that keeps the crew preoccupied while I shop so that they don’t:

• Touch everything in the store.
• Dart in front of or into other patrons.
• Nag me for snacks.
• Pout and dawdle.
• Run the cart into things/people.
• Ride the cart like awkwardly shaped figureheads.

Generally the kids are very well behaved, but the cumulative effect of the times that they aren’t has worn me out. I suppose if I actually had a grocery list from a meal plan I could send them off on missions to find items. Everyone likes a mission. Especially if it’s a secret mission. Hmm.. That requires some additional thought.

Back to meal planning.. My current plan is to make a list of the meals we usually eat and try to drop them into a calendar each month along with a few new dishes I’d like to try out. We’ll see how it goes.

What do you do to make meal planning easier?