Organize Dinnertime

This post is meant to be an organizational idea. A way to make that "What's for dinner?" question a little less painful. And an attempt to make grocery shopping slightly more tolerable.

To make my grocery shopping life a bit easier there are some things that I try to buy in bulk:
Chicken breasts
Canned tomato products - paste, diced, sauce
Spaghetti
Olive oil
Popcorn
I see these particular items as necessities that deserve the space they take up in my pantry/freezer.  Its nice to know I can always pop a bag of popcorn. Simple things like this are a comfort on a stressful day.
I also like to have a few "go to" meals, such as spaghetti with marinara or grilled chicken breasts. These items are also a base for many meals.
Basically watch what kinds of things you buy EVERY single week. Get them in bulk. Big cereal eater? Bulk it out. Epic coffee drinker? Go bulk! Buy smart, just be careful don't be wasteful.

One of the greatest allies in my dinnertime successes is my "Chow Planning" pad.

A few bucks at Target bought me weeks of organization. This is a night by night planner with enough room in each day to write the main dish and sides! Also at the bottom there is a place to write up a grocery list. Take the whole thing with you to the grocery and don't forget anything for any recipe ever again. Reducing those needless trips to the grocery store to pick up that one thing you forgot, where you come out with three bags of stuff you saw you might need. Ugh.
Maybe everyone is not as passionate about saving time and money as I am... wait who here doesn't want to save time and money? Really?

Every weekend I write on the back of the previous week's list ideas for the coming week's dinners. (Just to save a piece of paper. Or start a dry erase boards with ideas throughout the week.) I try to have a few cookbooks out and sit next to my computer for internet access with a couple of my favorite foodie websites on screen. (Also employ your grocery store's ads, this will give you ideas while save money.)
After coming up with 7 excellent ideas I will compare the difficulty of preparation (leave the easy stuff for a long day and time intensive meals for your day off) and freshness of ingredients (cook fresh fish early in the week) to my schedule. This gives me the most accurate reading on what night to cook what.

 Okay that might sound complicated. But trust me its a lot less work then trying to scrounge together miscellaneous ingredients for dinner every night.

Get the family involved in coming up with ideas and get suggestions on when they would like to eat those meals. If you try this method you will have a lot less waste and a lot less arguments about meal ideas.

There are still some nights that things don't work out and we end up going out to eat or ordering in. Then I end up shuffling the meal planner around. But in the end I know I have the food to make those meals later. It's very comforting.

You don't need some fancy pad of paper with the days of the week printed on it. That's just for funsies. Take 30 minutes or an hour of time, then have your grocery list done and a full week's worth of dinner ideas ready prepared for the week ahead!

And don't forget your reusable bags for the grocery store.