Theme nights

In creating my monthly menus, I found it tremendously helpful to have a theme for each night of the week. (i.e. Taco Tuesday) Then, when creating the menu I had only to decide which Mexican dish to serve, rather than; "which recipe out of the thousands I have up in the cupboard; should we have chicken-fish-vegetarian; what even sounds good, what will the kids complain the least about?"



For my family the weekly themes go like this:

Sunday - Nice big sit down after church dinner

Monday - Mexican

Tuesday - Tour of Italy

Wednesday - Wendy's night (I'll explain later.)

Thursday - Chinese/Vegetarian

Friday - Fish/Date night

Saturday - Soups/sandwiches



I don't think my family is even aware of the nightly themes. I don't advertise it, and it does have exceptions to the rule. For instance in May, Cinco de Mayo will be on a Tuesday. So we'll have Mexican on that night, and something else on Monday.

I've used variations on this formula for years. Not only does it make the meal decision easier, but we end up with a greater variety of food choices. My kids never complain about having, "spaghetti again", because they only get it once every other month or so. It also helps to avoid a fast-food default. You can't pick up soups and salads at Burger King!

Dinner time

All moms know that dinner time is THE hour of the day. As soon as lunch is finished, kids will start to ask, "What's for dinner?" Hubby comes home from work and wants to know, "What's for dinner." For a short time out of a busy day all eyes turn to the head chef and expect great things.



Of course this often leaves us panicking to come up with a menu, stressed to get food on the table in a timely manner, and debating the merits of ketchup as a vegetable.



Years ago I started making dinner menus days ahead so that I could shop for groceries more efficiently. That morphed into monthly menus in an effort to increase the amount of food we had on hand in case of an emergency. Now that I am working full time, those monthly menus have become an invaluable tool to keep the evenings running smoothly. Not only is the dinner decision made days/weeks ahead - when the kids ask what's for dinner, I simply refer them to the posted menu. When I'm running late, my oldest daughter will sometimes check the menu and start dinner for me. It evens helps the littlest one know what dishes to set the table with.



Is it perfect? No! Do we eat gourmet meals every night? Hardly! Can it help someone else make their dinner hour a little better? I hope so!