Why You Need to Menu Plan {Part 1}

The catalyst occurred on a random weekday evening. Rushing home from a job in the city, trying to get to the suburbs in time to pick my children up from after-school care. I swung in to get my oldest son first and as we were heading back to the car our conversation went something like this:

Him: “Mom, where are we going for dinner?”

Me: “We don’t have anywhere to be tonight so we are going home for dinner.”

I didn’t give that exchange any thought. We made the rounds to the second school to pick up son #2 and his first question was: “Mom, where are we going for dinner tonight?”

Before I could respond, my oldest jumped in with excitement: “We don’t have anywhere to go tonight! We get to eat at home.”

We get to eat at home.

How had it happened that my boys were more accustomed to eating out (cheap and not healthy, I might add) and were thrilled with the opportunity to eat dinner at their own kitchen table?

I had gotten a little lazy and wasn’t planning to eat at home. And we know that failing to plan is planning to fail.

I found it wasn’t enough to make sure I went to the grocery store. We had food to eat. I just had no idea what that food was, or what to do with it. I’d start to pull something together only to find I didn’t have everything I needed. I’d forget to thaw something and didn’t have time to wait. Or it was just easier to hit the local Mexican restaurant.

There were a host of reasons why we had gotten out of the habit of eating at home. This exchange between my kids changed that and menus became a planning staple in our home.

That was 10 years ago. My kids are not at home any more and I am often only planning for one depending on my husband’s travel schedule. Yet, I still plan out our menus. It helps me save money, save time, and take care of myself by ensuring I have healthy food to eat.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be sharing:

• Reasons why you too want to make family dinners at home a priority.
• Tips for organizing for successful menu planning
• How to successfully plan and execute your menus
• How menu planning will save you time and money
• And … great recipes you can share with your family.

I hope you’ll stop by often. In the meantime, enjoy this Chicken Pasta Salad recipe. Easy and quick. Two words that are music to my ears when it comes to recipes.

A little note born from experience: If you forget to thaw the chicken, no worries. Just stick the frozen breasts in a pot of water, season the water with the lemon pepper and bring to a boil. It’ll take about 20 – 25 mins to fully cook the chicken. While that’s going on, get the other stuff ready and you are still to the table in about 30 mins! Not too shabby.

Have fun and share your recipes too! I’m always looking for new things to make!