There are days when I used to spend thirty minutes in the afternoon browsing cookbooks, food magazines, and bookmarked recipes to put together a weekly menu. There were also days when I didn’t step on Legos, or when I could spend my Sunday morning with a newspaper and a pot of tea.
Then I had kids.
Making the weekly menu needed to be quick and easy – no more lazy browsing and pondering. So, I developed a loose framework for our weekly menu that helped me:
Marie’s Weekly Dinner Plan
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Soup
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Stew OR Chili
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Stir-fry or tofu-veggies with sauce
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Pasta dish
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Pizza OR Polenta OR Patty (such as falafel or black bean burgers)
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New recipe (or quick and easy dinner)
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Leftovers
This framework narrows the decisions I have to make AND reminds me to focus on easy-to-make-ahead meals. You could have a totally different framework (such as one that includes burrito night, salad night, etc.). Any framework makes meal planning much faster and much easier – which means feasible for parents!
