With a family this size, and still growing, I look for any way possible to save me time and energy on a daily basis. One way I do this is by sitting down over the weekend and creating a menu for the week.  I like to include the kids in this because maybe that way they will actually eat what I cook! Sometimes this works, sometimes this doesn’t. The key to it being successful is by compromise and not grinding your teeth after your child declares your food “sucks” for the fifth time that day.

One of the many reasons I choose to create a menu is that it saves me money. I can take a look around our pantry and refrigerator to see exactly what ingredients we have and go from there. I will only have to go to the grocery store if I absolutely have to have something to finish the meal. When I started doing this, it saved me loads of money that I’d normally blow at the store on items I didn’t need that would end up going bad in the back of the fridge. This way, I bought only what I needed for that week.

Another beautiful plus from creating weekly menus is I was running around at 5:00pm desperately looking for something to thaw or something quick to whip up before the husband came home. I could begin my dinner preparations at breakfast since I already knew exactly what we were going to be eating. Also everyone was in agreement for what I was cooking since they had a chance to vote and veto items off the menu when it was created.

All in all creating a weekly menu has really changed my dinner time game. My kids enjoy the responsibility of being able to choose what we eat for dinner, and they also get to help prepare dinner with me. It helps me keep my peace and that allows my mind to focus on other more important topics that need to be attended to. Like separating the fighting kids or saving the cat from being flushed down the toilet by my daring two year old. Oh the joys of parenthood!

Thanks for reading this! I hope you enjoyed it and that you found something useful from it! God Bless!