What these different systems all boil down to is planning. Some of you just LOVE planning. And some of you DON'T. I'm in the LOVE planning group... and I'm not sure that makes me more sane than the anyone else.... after all you can go a little nuts with planning (and planning can make you a little nuts). But planning does make it SO much easier to sit down to eat together as a family. Here are a few ideas from laid back to intense. Remember, many recipes can be made in a crockpot for those crazy busy days. If you don't have a crockpot, and you are short on time, GET ONE. Also, it took me 3 years to finally figure out how to set the timer on my oven to turn on and cook while I'm away, but it was so worth it.
30 DAY PLAN (or for starters, even one week is good)
While listening to a "make 30 meals in one day for the freezer" demonstration, I realized pretty quickly that wasn't going to fly for me. Making 30 meals in ONE day to put in the freezer so you can have a ready meal is great.... unless you are home schooling 7 kids, one of whom needs your attention or help every minute. Great idea for someone, but not me.
The first part got my attention though. Before you can make 30 meals in one day, you have to PLAN 30 meals. I found that just doing that made things run 100% smoother (maybe more). I pull out a couple of cookbooks (I'm a cookbook junkie... is there a 12 step program?), ask the kids for any favorite requests, and start making a list.
Once your list is done, look at your family's month. Which nights would be easier with a really quick, simple meal? Which nights will you have more time, and can choose something the kids can help with or that takes more time? Start plugging in particular menus to particular days. It's totally ok if you end up swapping. I do this a LOT. The important thing is to have the plan, then you can shop accordingly for the right ingredients, and be reasonable prepared.
MEAL THEMES
I've heard how way back when, it's was pretty common to have set menus for certain nights; spaghetti on Monday, meatloaf on Tuesday, etc. Yeeeaaahhhh.... no. Let's put a modern twist on that. If my family ate the same 7 meals over and over again, there'd be some fierce complaining (ok... I might do most of the complaining... I enjoy a wide variety of food as anyone who has seen me can attest). There are books where they give you the categories and some recipes to go with them if you have a hard time thinking of 30 things to make. The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner is an excellent resource.
Themes give you a structure to make the process faster. I find (rebel that I am) that even that's a bit restrictive if the categories don't work well for my family. The way it works best is to tailor it to your family's style.
I'll throw out some possible categories. Pick the seven that work for you. Then you choose different recipes each week that fit.
Pizza Pasta Vegetarian Soup/Stew
Casserole Fish/Seafood Roasts Comfort Foods
Ethnic Mexican Italian BBQ night
Burger night Tofu? (ok, it's a stretch, but someone might do it)
Clean out the Fridge night (we used to do this, once upon a time.... before 5 teenagers made the idea of leftovers a faint memory). You can collect all the leftovers from the week, everyone picks their favorite, then heat 'em up!
These links will take you to a two week menu planner you can print and use (if I figured out how to do this right). One is blank, and you can use it for whatever themes you want, or no themes, and the other has some basic themes already done.
blank meal planner
theme meal planner
30 FROZEN MEALS
Great idea... just SO didn't work for me. But, if you think it might be the answer for you, here's a link for 30 Day Gourmet www.30daygourmet.com. You plan the menus, buy the ingredients, and spend a good portion of one day cooking the main part of the meals and preparing them for freezing. Then, you just pull out your "convenience food" and heat it up. I know some people who swear by it, and it saved their sanity.
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