How I Plan Our Meals

Dinner planning can be daunting sometimes. I know deep down that if I don't plan our food ahead of time nothing goes well. Scott is a great cook! He can 'wing it' by stopping at the grocery store, picking up a few things, and come home to make a fabulous, flavorful dinner. I can't do that. Never have been able to. I need a plan, a recipe right in front of me.

There are several ways I've planned in the past. When I was home full time I had more opportunities to go to the store so I didn't need to worry as much. But now that I'm teaching again and life is full with these growing daughters of mine I plan out all of the dinners for the week: Monday through Friday. (usually on the weekend we have a bit of a different plan going on)

Keep in mind that all of our dinners need to be allergy safe for Abigail, so we eat DAIRY free, SOY free, PEANUT free, TREE NUT free, FISH free, SHELLFISH free in our home.

Most of the recipes in any cookbook or online aren't tailored to meet our allergy needs so when I read recipe I 'keep it':

• if I think it can be altered (if it calls for milk, I use Hemp milk) 
• if I can make it for us and then make a substitute for Abigail (I don't like to cook with her allergy safe 'cheese' so sometimes if a recipe is heavy on cheese I'll make it for us and make a separate mini one for Abigail with her 'cheese'

Having allergy safe dinners might seem overwhelming (it did to me 10 years ago) but now I automatically read a recipe and see if I can adjust it so we can all eat the same thing or if I should make it and then make a whole separate one safe for her. And a lot of recipes just 'don't work' for us because of allergies so I ditch those and move on. I'm so used to it now that it's simple as can be! 

So back to how I plan dinners! This is not rocket science. It's a simple plan that works for me. Here's what I do to make sure we have dinner in our home:

1. I read cookbooks for fun. I love all kinds. I used the internet too but I like a cookbook in my hand most of all. I like to read cookbooks when I'm not planning meals. I just like skimming through them. It's not a task, it's just one kind of book I like to read. My favorite ones are seasonal (gooseberry patch, susan branch, etc) 
2. I put a little sticky flag on a recipe that might work for us as I go along
3. I stack these up in a little pile on the dining room table right next to where I keep my planner ready to go
4. Now it's dinner planning/gotta grocery shop time - and all of the 'work' is already done!  I simple open up a few of the cookbooks (or printed online recipes) I have right there and plan them in my planner, write out the ingredients, and done! 

Some home/family 'chores' are just no fun at all. I find that when I take time to make something pretty, and do a bit of the 'work' ahead of time, it makes making that list and planning those meals so much easier and more enjoyable.

If you don't like planning out all of your meals one of the biggest tips I can give you is to 'read' cookbooks (or if you're an online recipe person, search online and bookmark or print out) ahead of time. Ahead of when you actually need to be planning. Trust me, it is so much more enjoyable that way! And it can actually be fun and exciting to finally cook those meals you read about!