My "Go To" dinner list.

Every Saturday I sit down and plan out our menu for the upcoming week and then make my grocery list accordingly. Planning out our menu can sometimes be a difficult task. That might be surprising with my love for cooking. But my life is really busy and while it would be nice to spend every day experimenting with recipes, I don't have that luxury. Some weeks I just need to rely on good old family favorites that I know are quick, easy and familiar.

Some time ago I got really tired of sitting down to make out our menu and asking the question "What should we eat this week?", only to be met with the same old response by my husband..."I don't know, I don't care." Because the fact of the matter is, he does care. My husband would never admit this, but he is a picky eater. While I love pretty much anything and love to try new foods and flavor combinations, my husband would be perfectly happy if every weekly meal plan looked something like this;

Monday - pizza & brownies
Tuesday - hamburgers & brownies
Wednesday - tacos & brownies
Thursday - steak, potato & brownies
Friday - sloppy joes & brownies
Saturday - Wendy’s take out & a frosty :)
Sunday - pot roast or chicken cordon blue & brownies

What can I say...I married a good old meat and potatoes Kansas boy. Sense marrying me he has been introduced to a whole new world of veggies he'd never heard of, and a mass variety of foreign flavors. Some he likes and some he doesn't.

That’s why I've come up with the "Go To Dinner List". I have over 30 cookbooks and binders filled with recipes. I don't have time every week to thumb through them, looking for the recipes I enjoy cooking, and that have been previously approved by both me and my husband.

On my list are all the dinners that we like, as well as the name of the cookbook and page #. Each week I pull out my list and scan through to see what we haven’t had for awhile. This keeps our weekly meals fun a fresh. I hate eating the same things over and over. I have however, consented to Tuesday Taco night. It's his absolute favorite and marriage is about compromise...right?

When the occasional week comes that I have time to try new things or do some meal experimentation, we try it and either give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down. If it's a thumbs up...it gets added to the list.

I also keep this list in a document on my cell phone. Sometimes I’ll be at the grocery store and have to change my plan based on available ingredients or items I find on sale. If I need to come up with a quick replacement, I can scan the list on the go and come up with a replacement on the spot.