Well not dinner, actually. Just the planning, preparing and cooking. Typically it is because I have done very little planning that the preparing and cooking is difficult.
The Little Guy had swim lessons this summer which interfered with dinner. So there was no plan. And if I am being honest barely even a dinner. Sandwiches, take out, hot dogs, pizza...it was awful. When we got back from NJ, I told the hubby I was going to get back on track.
I started slowly. And according to him, I was doing it with lots of trial and error. I normally would have debated that point, but I did interchange garlic salt for powder in a recipe since I was out of garlic powder. The recipe called for 1/3 of a cup so it was a pretty big error. And we had to scrap the whole dinner for the night.
I am happy to report that I've made dinner 5 nights in a row. And it was good dinners...grilled chicken and veggies, pasta in a shrimp marina sauce, chicken stroganoff, chicken Marsala and hot dogs with macaroni and cheese. That last one wasn't great, but the Drama Queen requested it as her back to school dinner so I obliged.
As I was filling out my calendar for next week, it occurred to me how busy we are about to become. The Drama Queen has dance once a week and the Little Guy will have soccer twice a week and karate twice a week. So I decided Wednesdays for the school year are about to be crock pot nights. Check back on Thursday when I post what I made and how I did it. Thursdays are going to be leftover nights. The kids have two activities at different times on Thursday and I think it will be easier just to heat up leftovers than all of us sit down to a big(ger) dinner. Plus we are trying to get the kids to sleep by 7pm. Okay so the point of all this is I am thinking about monthly meal planning. Does anyone out there do this? Any tips for me? I know I will need all the help I can get.
Love the meal planning. I think I'm going to start doing it for more than one week at a time. As long as I can figure out J's schedule.
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