What's For Dinner - Basic Menu Planning For the Not So Organized

When I was working outside of my home, I found myself a little more organized when it came to what to prepare for dinner. Granted, I had fewer children but I had no time to be scrambling around looking for something to fix when I came home from work. You'd think that I'd be just as organized in that area now that I'm employed at home; however, it's something that seems to just creep up on me sometimes.

Maybe it's because I am home during my days that I've just let the whole "what's for dinner" thing slip through the cracks. I'd attribute it to being home thinking, "Oh, I'll just take something out later." Then I get on to something else and get so busy with my day that I just lose track of time and forget to get something out for dinner. I'm already organizationally challenged so I need to be one step ahead of myself, and over the weekend, I came up with an easy idea to keep me on track.

I don't use prepared foods when I cook so it's a bit more challenging when I have to pull something together. My biggest challenge has been what main dish to prepare so I decided to pull together a basic menu with whatever meats I want to make for the week, then I make that into a day. For example:

Monday - Beef
Tuesday - Fish
Wednesday - Beans
Thursday - Chicken
Friday - Pizza
Saturday - Ground Meat
Sunday - Poultry

If I repeat this and add a little variety, I'm making good headway. All I have to do is keep this up and add a little variety in the meals I make. I can have beef strips, roast, stroganoff, or whatever on Monday. Tuesday I can do the same, add a little variety in either the type of fish or the dish or both. Fridays are our family night and we do pizza that day, and Sunday, we have our family meal and oftentimes host fellowship so chicken or turkey always work well for that day.

So now that the basics are done. I'm working on the rest of this month's meals and their particulars. I have my grocery list all prepared because I know what I'm making, and if I need to switch up a day, I'm prepared because I have everything I need until my next shopping trip. Today, I decided to switch up the beef and chicken days because my daughter made beef strips and orange sauce last night for dinner. So I threw a chicken in the crock with some diced potatoes and I'm making curry chicken and rice tonight. This is so much easier than sitting in front of the fridge with a blank look on my face.