I hate the call each night as I am coming home from work, “hey, what do you feel like for dinner?” or “What’s around to eat?” I feel like the hubby and I spend a lot on food, but with no rhyme or reason. And that we end up making the same dinners over and over. I wanted to change that this year. I think with a little bit more planning our dinners can be better for us, more thought out, and less stressful. Even Sundays, the day we do our grocery run, are stressful and we buy the same food over and over. I can’t help it. It’s easy. I know how to make my standards and I don’t have to think about it much. I also know about how long each takes – so I know about when dinner will be served. No guesswork, no stress. But I get SO tired of eating the same dinners each day.

But making a change is hard work. So I am starting off slow.

Today I wrote a list of the dinners we make – whether I make them often or every few months, I included it on the list. This helped me feel better about my “standards.” Even if I feel like I am making the same things – shockingly I am not. I have about 25 different dinners I tend to make. (Who knew??)

Now that I have a list, I’ll make that my “Master List” and I’ll use it to help me plan 6 or 7 meals to make each week. This way, I can lesson the repeats and I hope find some new favorites. I’ll write my plan on the board each week so the husband can see his choices. (I tend to run them by him on Sunday while I formulate my shopping list and plan for the week, so he’s aware).

I only do 6 or 7 because we need to have leeway in dinners – leftovers, working late, stuck in traffic, tired, not feeling well, sick child, all reasons why we might have to go off plan.

To also help with this, we also downloaded the Groceries App for my iphone. This way, I can limit my wanderings around the grocery store. Not re-buy items we don’t need and hopefully spend better and wiser.

Future plans of mine include trying to add in new recipes for dinner. I would love to make more casseroles or crock-pot dinners. But I don’t know how or any good recipes (so send ‘em my way if you have them) and improve my cooking skills.

I plan to keep you updated through the year if we stick with it or decide we hate pre-planning and decided to rent a chef! (Ha!)

And you? What do you do with this question?