A Dinner Time Strategy

When my husband and I were both working away from home full time and our kidlets were in elementary school, my good friend Kaye offered me the most wonderful little bit advice surrounding meal organization. Kaye insisted on a few rules for this as many of you trying it may want to as well. Rules such as everyone must try everyone else's meal and only positive comments are allowed. Our children have always eaten a variety of foods and enjoy trying new ones and so it was unnecessary for us to do this.

We live on a farm and grocery shopping can be challenging considering that we like to eat mostly homegrown or all natural foods. I do not like to stop by the store for this or that and prefer to have our groceries purchased monthly and so this worked beautifully for us. I’ll change the tense here because we continue to use this handy little strategy.

At the start of every month, the kids and Brent each choose 5 meals while I choose 10 and then I write them on the calendar for the next 25 days knowing that some days will be leftover days. With the exception of a few fresh items, all of the groceries are then purchased. Every morning, or the night before, the meat is taken out to thaw and prepping becomes a dream come true for the first person to arrive home who starts dinner.

Here is our family calendar for the month of September with the only items not included being salads and vegetables that accompany every meal. 
     ...Ellyn

Meals are highlighted in caramel.