If I had to name the most consistent daily question asked in my house, it would be “What’s for dinner?”. Do you hear that question a lot in your household? If you don’t, what’s your secret because I hate this question! It never goes away and has to be figured out every single damn day. Ughhhh!! I just want some easy meal plan ideas.
We struggle with the decision of what to eat and if everyone is going to be happy and actually eat it. I wouldn’t consider my boys to be picky eaters. They are rather on the food snob side of being able to accommodate their food expectations. I blame TikTok and the cooking channel for giving my boys a false idea of what home dinners really are.
How to Choose What’s For Dinner? Easy Meal Plan Ideas
I get so sick of hearing “this is so boring”, or “this again”, or “can’t you make something else”, or, one of my faves, “I have never liked this”. I have responded more times than I can count that they can make their own dinner or find us a new recipe they would like to try. That usually gets me a strong eye roll, shake of the head, and loud sighs. It’s wonderful, really (not really at all…this would be my sarcasm coming through)! So, I found a solution. And if I am being honest, I wish I would’ve started doing this many years ago!
I LOVE Pinterest and I have spent more time than I would ever admit on there. I remember looking through it night when I couldn’t sleep (well, that would be every night since going to sleep is not an easy task these days) and seeing a post about picking meals for the week. The woman shared that she wrote a bunch of recipes on craft sticks and put them in a jar then picked the sticks blindly to decide what to make for dinner. Absolutely GENIUS!!!!!! I have no idea why I never thought to do this. So, I did it.
How To Make The Family Meal Plan Solution Sticks
I grabbed a pack of craft sticks (the wide ones are what I used so I could write clearly), a Sharpie, and my notebooks and folders with my recipes. I pulled all the recipes that I knew the boys and my husband liked. Then I jumped on Pinterest. Do you use Pinterest for finding new recipes? If you do, have you pinned a ton of delicious looking recipes onto boards to one day find again and make? Well, that is absolutely what I do. Don’t be embarrassed if you do too. It is totally ok to have multiple food boards. I am not afraid to admit that I have at least 7 boards with hundreds (no joke) of recipes saved.
I had to start organizing the recipes better if I had any hope of finding what I was looking for. As I went through each of those food boards, I wrote down recipes that I had made before and knew we liked and also ones that looked good. I also decided to make things easier on myself and print the recipes I had made and knew we liked. It takes time to jump on their and find them again and have to use my phone for the recipe while I am cooking!!!
Not only did I put dinner recipes on the sticks but I also included desserts. I then decided to write things like pick up dinner-Thai/Mexican, pizza night, new recipe night, breakfast for dinner, family dinner out, fast food, and snack off. Also, I asked my boys to tell me what things they would want to eat for dinner and made sure those were written down on the sticks. I then took the time to double check I had a printed/written recipe for all the ones I wrote down unless it was something I already knew how to make. I grabbed an old accordion folder I had stashed (past homeschool mom here) and filed my recipes in a system that worked and was organized for me.
How To Use Them to Come Up With Family Meal Plan Ideas
After doing all of this, I had one of my boys pick 7 sticks from the jar, without looking of course! When he asked me what he was picking the sticks for. I let him know he was deciding our dinner meals for the week. I told him there was a few desserts and even opportunities to grab dinner out.
He was pretty excited to see what he ended up with! I decided I would do my best to alternate each week with my boys so they would be choosing sticks every other time. I let them know if they were not around when I was ready to pick sticks, I would just do it and no matter what. Whatever was picked was what we would eat that week. They didn’t even argue. To say I was excited was an understatement.
Our family likes to alternate between our meats for dinner. We like to do chicken one night, beef the next night, etc. We also sprinkle some turkey and non meat nights here and there. The one problem I found was occasionally too many chicken or beef meals would be picked. When this happens, I usually just end up choosing another stick till it is a meat I need. There might be times when I just put a meal on the weekly list that I know we haven’t had in a long time or one someone has been asking for. This has completely taken the “what’s for dinner” question away!! And it has also eliminated all the complaints of what we are eating.
Once I have the sticks picked, I sit down and make my shopping list for what I will need for all the dinner meals and any desserts. If they even got picked; can’t get mad at the luck of the draw. I then write the meals down on a whiteboard that I have in our kitchen area so everyone can see what we are eating for the week. It has been so amazing not having to decide every day, have the dinner discussion, and make the decision on my own. Honestly, that has always been part of the problem for me. I hate deciding what we are going to eat every day. Doing this has eliminated my stress, anxiety, and irritation. It also has eliminated pretty much all dinner arguments with my boys. I wish I had started doing this when they were toddlers!
That’s It! A Simple Meal Solution
If you are sick of deciding what’s for dinner and need a pretty fool proof solution to make things easier, I hope you give this a try!! Go grab yourself a jar (or any container that the sticks will fit in), write your dinner meals down on some craft sticks, and pick from the jar to set your meal plan for the week. It makes things super easy and is very helpful in creating a consistent way to meal plan. And another bonus is how easy it is to create your shopping list for the week from your picked sticks!! Please let me know if you try it and how it works for your family! If you already have a solution in place, I would love to hear what is working for you too!!
I have included pictures of my sticks, meal whiteboard, and my accordion folder for my recipes. You can also head over to my Pinterest page! Browse my food boards for recipes if you need some new ones!
Talk to you soon!
Shopping List:
Craft Sticks – Dollar Tree, Walmart, Michaels, Amazon
Sharpie – can grab pretty much anywhere:)
Accordion Folder – mine is old but most likely picked up at Walmart or Target
Large Jar – mine was scored at a yard sale for a couple bucks!
Weekly Whiteboard – Michaels, Walmart, Amazon
Great idea !!!!! It works amazing