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!
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