It’s the age-old question: What’s for dinner? I asked it thousands of times growing up, usually the instant I came through the door after school. My favorite answers included meatloaf, tacos, potato casserole (often called “really good potatoes”), and spaghetti (home made sauce, of course).
I wasn’t so thrilled when I heard stir fry or barbecue. Yeah, yeah, I’m a bit weird on the barbecue thing. Consider it one of my charming eccentricities. :=) As for stir fry, I liked it better when I grew up and only put it on the menu once a month rather than twice a week. (I swear there was a phase in the late 80’s or early 90’s when everyone had stir fry for dinner. Most of my college friends recalled going through the same thing.)
Noe I’m an adult with a family and it’s my turn to answer the question. For some reason, though, it was stumping me for the longest time. In part, I have a lot to live up to. My mom can cook. Even after an 8-hour shift at work, she managed to have a good dinner on the table every night. (When my dad switched to an earlier shift, she made him cook but she always did the meal planning.)
My other problem is that I don’t really like planning menus. I could spend hours pouring through cookbooks to find a single recipe — and then I’d still have to think up a side dish. Side dishes, by the way, are harder to come by than main dishes. I started using Lipton Sides but they don’t really taste very good and they get boring.
I like to try new things, but I don’t like to look up recipes. I like fancy meals, but I don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen with a toddler underfoot.
What’s the solution, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. A little over a month ago I came across a web site that offers meal planning. It costs $5 a month (you pay three months at a time) and for that you get a menu every week with seven dinners, including sides. You can select the number of people you are feeding (round up, some of the serving sizes are kind of small) and choose whether or not to include beef, seafood, poultry, pork, or vegetarian meals. They provide a menu with recipes and an organized grocery list. They guarantee that every meal can be made in under an hour (except for a few slow cooker recipes that sit all day while you’re at work). Many of their recipes can be made in under half an hour.
The place is www.dinnerselect.com.
It’s been a lot of fun trying a new recipe every night. I’m not getting bored, that’s for sure! They aren’t all wonderful. There are a few I definitely don’t need to try again, but over the last five weeks I have added 20 recipes to “my favorites” on the web site. You can add your own recipes as well and substitute your favorites for any of their suggestions.
This week I had:
Pork chops with corn salsa (good)
Chinese beef and green bean stir fry (very good — use fresh green beans)
Stuffed peppers (good)
Linguine with tuna and capers (didn’t work for me)
Grilled rosemary shrimp (very good)
What’s for dinner tonight? Chicken pot pie! We’ll see if it’s good.
They have a free sample to try without registering. The stir fry I liked is on it.
P.S. I got next week’s menu today (they come on Fridays) and I have to register one teensy little complaint that I can correct in my own home. Two of next week’s recipes call for bacon, the first time that ingredient has come up, and the recipes say to microwave it! YUCK! You don’t microwave bacon. It doesn’t take any longer to fry it in a skillet and it just tastes so much better to do it right. Some short cuts aren’t work taking. :=)